I am really enjoying my internship at Awareness Lab. Even if I only speak Danielle regularly, and other team members from time to time, I get the impression that I can mean something to the whole. I like to hear how Danielle is reflecting on her own person every morning I visit her. And I enjoy contributing my part to the paper as well as to the representation of the Silence Suit on Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven, as you can read in the following.
Reflecting on the multidisciplinary collaboration
As I told you last time we are working hard on our paper about the multidisciplinary collaboration and Danielles’ role as a multidisciplinary person. We want to define her role as an artist and differentiate her from a designer. We want to answer questions as: What makes her an artist, even if her mentality sometimes seems more a designer’s mentality? Does every multidisciplinary project needs at least one multidisciplinary person to make it efficient?
We are doing research by reading academic articles about the designer’s approach, an artists mentality and multidisciplinary teams. We also want to speak out of our own experiences. I am preparing a questionnaire for all team members. I want to know how they see the collaboration. I want them to reflect on their own role as well as on Danielle’s role and their communication. I am excited about the outcome of the questionnaire and how we can integrate the other’s point of view in our paper.
Dutch Design Week
We got the possibility to present the Silence Suit in the exhibition Do (not) feed the makers which is part of Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven. Danielle asked the question what we could present so that we can use this presentation as a research method. The idea is that you can get some input and some feedback by presenting your ideas to the visitors of Dutch Design Week. But what shall we present? The suit itself and the data server are not ready yet. We got to think: We do have the questionnaire and the costumer journeys. We could share the procedure of a logged meditation and actuated session virtually on screen. In this way, we can ask visitors for feedback on the procedure and outcomes.
We went further on that idea by thinking of the setting. We want the visitors to get an impression of how a Meditation Lab session could feel. So we think of a simple setting that still breaths a Zen feel: meditation mats, incense, tea and oriental snacks. A room divider could create a safe space where you dare to get into the vision of the Meditation Lab Experimenter Kit. The prototype of the Silence Suit will be presented on a mannequin. By projecting the questionnaire and some icons describing the procedure, the visitor will get an idea of a logged meditation session.
We want to know if they can imagine using the Meditation Lab Experimenter Kit. Maybe they have some ideas about how they would like to prepare before meditating. What do they expect from the outcome? I am curious if the Meditation Lab Experimenter Kit can change the way they think about meditating.
So if you want to participate on our visual demonstration of the Meditation Lab Experimenter Kit, come visit us the 28th of October on Dutch Design Week – Do (not) feed the makers in Eindhoven. I hope to see you there! 🙂