Pause + Effect ~
Cultivating Gratitude through Human Effort
CLIENT
Digital Futures + RISE PROJECT
Work for Digital Futures & RISE + CHI 22 Design CompetitionTEAM
Alice Borg Thorhildur AsgeirsdottirDATE + DURATION
2021 / 2022, 10 weeksTOOLS
Videography via Final Cut, Figma, Miro, Design Fiction, Physical Prototyping, Human Powered Interactions, Graphical Design 
ABOUT
Pause + Effect resulted from the desire to develop and transform the HumanScatter project made this summer as a Research Engineer at KTH together with RISE, into a competition entry where the work could be shared with a larger audience.
Together with my colleague Thorhildur, we decided to apply for the CHI 22 Student Design Competition, where we reoriented our work to reflect the designated design brief, which this year was centered around gratitude. The previous HumanScatter project focused on human-powered and meaningful interactions with a strong emphasis on sustainability and saving energy, and we thus figured that our submission could reflect gratitude for energy resources and the physical body. We further ensured to meet the remaining requirements of creating a five minute video showcasing the design in action, a scientific poster outlining the main design outcomes, and an eight page paper detailing the design process.
PROCESS
The thorough research and design work made this summer, which covered a lot of body storming and somatic explorations to identify meaningful interactions connected to values of sustainability, technical autonomy, privacy, mindfulness, and playfulness, supported us with a stable foundation to start from. However, the submission requirements forced us to reorient and tighten our work, as well as making it even more accessible to a diverse audience.
We had to transform our previous five videos, that covered an intro to the project, and then one video per each identified concept; Intro, Time + Pause, On + Off, Public + Play, and Access + Effort, into one, way shorter version. This motivated us to really go through each frame, and decide which ones were truly necessary to communicate the essence of our concept. We also invited a lot of people from outside the project, both friends, family, and professionals in the field, to give us feedback early and often throughout the process. We realized that having fresh eyes on the design work was crucial to refine and better the work, and supported us to reach the goal of conveying the vision in a more compressed way. Ultimately, we managed to edit down the five videos into one that was below five minutes, which was the maximum length.
Storyboard
〰️
Mood Board
〰️
Photo Safari
〰️
Movement Inventory
〰️
Storyboard 〰️ Mood Board 〰️ Photo Safari 〰️ Movement Inventory 〰️
REFLECTIONS
The process of coming up with design speculations that complicate and deepen our relationship to energy creation and consumption, was challenging yet very insightful. Designing around energy systems, in turn making them more tangible, brings increased clarity and gratitude to our relationship to energy. We’re facing circumstances of climate change that have demoralizing effects. As researchers, designers and citizens there is a need to stay open and present, finding resilience to sit with the uncertainty and complexity of the challenges we face.
The climate crisis will not have an easily designed solution but infusing our interactions with more meaning and fulfillment offers an antidote. The speculations we propose are imbued with a quality of staying attentive to oneself, to resources used, and the relationship there in between. Our design ethos is engaged in the here and now of energy usage, which supports meaning making that can transcend the local interaction.