Our core idea was to create human whiskers – it was a sensory device most mammals have, except humans. According to studies, whiskers act like fingers for animals hence we developed from there.

Sketches

Our process was based on brainstorming sketches. We initially wanted to fix these whiskers on a person’s face, while they could control it using their fingers.

 

Fixing our device

However, this was rather tricky installing. Therefore we ended up with extended fingers on our hands itself.

It took us about 3 hours piecing ice-cream sticks together. The time consuming part was to double layer the sticks. The challenge was to secure the parts at an angle, which acted like joints.

 

The Try Guys – Letting others test it

We crashed a bunch of programmers’ meeting at SMU to let them have a try at arts. Actually, we didn’t explicitly ask them to try but they were curious on the stuff we were fixing.

 

Observations: How it changed one’s perception of space

Perceived distance of objects becomes smaller – being able to reach a person at the end of the room/table without moving.

Conscious of having extended fingers giving ourselves extra space – We do not sit as closely to things we usually do with the extension – eg. sitting further away from the laptop

More conscious of the space around you – poking or touching someone all the time just by moving slightly eg. on the mrt

Small spaces feel more confined: Siewhua in the toilet

Behaviour: tendency to touch people or things more

Leaving thoughts

What if everyone in that room had the apparatus?

Can you imagine a society where everyone had an extension? (fingers/toes). Eg. Physical distance may also be maintained to separate individuals who belong to different social groups

If we could do it differently

Construct one side to be distinctively heavier or getting them to even out the weight (understand how balance plays a part in our perception of space)

 

— Thank You! —