Feeling the feelings of others

In the process of refining and deciding on the final version of the tree, we had multiple discussions on the different senses we can leverage. We didn't want to stick to only one sense (sight) as we do not want to isolate any individuals such as those who can't see or those who can't see all of the different colours. In addition, we kept on reminding each other that we are designing a smart city solution. Therefore, we want our solution to be accessed by all walks of lives. As mentioned in previous blog posts, we explored how we can leverage different senses such as smelling, hearing and touching. We then took an analytical approach to assess our ideas and then we identified challenges.

In terms of smell, we discussed how closely linked smell is to memory. Different scents can create very different effects across individuals. The smell of burnt wood might make an individual remember something positive and make another one remember something negative. In order to avoid invoking different responses, we decided to not include scents in the mood tree.

Then, we identified the challenges of using sound. If the mood tree used poetry and read poetry out loud, this could potentially prevent people who don't like listening to poetry from visiting the tree. On the other hand, the tree could somehow translate different feelings/colours into different noises. How could we come up with kind of a guide on particular feelings corresponding to particular sounds that was universal to people. For example, the feeling of anger represented in red, which then produced the sound of burning wood. Would this particular sound be able to capture the full extent of the feeling? Would it also make sense to different individuals?

These challenges made us evaluate the sense of touch in the context of the mood tree. In our earlier discussions, Daniel had suggested incorporating pin art in the trunk of the tree. The trunk could be encircled by words of a poem and when individual words are touched, they dissolve and feed into the themes of the next poem. We then thought if there is a way we can make individuals really feel how other city dwellers are feeling with a quick touch. This made us come up with using temperature in the trunk of the tree. Different feelings would correspond to different temperatures (ranging from hot to cold). Individuals with this functionality can immediately feel how their borough or city is feeling.

The different colours on the tree show people how the city is feeling. Feeling the different temperatures not only intensifies the effect created by sight but also helps individuals connect with each other at another level. This combined effect should hopefully motivate individuals to not just be aware of their surrounding but also go out and help.

touch to feel how others are feeling