Trust Your Gut !
Duration
2.5 weeks (December 2021)
Team
Juhi Dhanesha
Tom Scherlis
Sam Zeloof
Eli Wirth-Apley
Skills
Presentation Curation
Prototyping
Storytelling
Tools Used
Figma
Misc Objects, Fabrics
Storytelling Video
This project explores the relationship between our gut microbiome and our mood in a playful way, a college style Magic School Bus if you will. Our gut can affect and be effected by many factors of our lives, such as environmental changes, or even drinking milk when you are lactose-intolerant.
By exploring the experience of a microbe, we have a chance to bring more attention to the acute sensitivity and response of our gut, and hopefully encouraging the lactose intolerant among us to "trust their gut" and maybe say no to that midnight pint of ice cream.
Performance Wearable
The wearable was inspired by the idea of revealing our gut, and used materials like cotton and a garden hose to simulate the messy and sinuous environment of our gut. This device helps the wearer “see” their microbes reacting to their choices, leading to a relationship that is more direct and visual.
Microbiome Projector
Follow Your Gut Device
Protects Your Gut
The Opportunity
“Animal Super Powers,” 2007,
Chris Woebken & Kenichi Okada
"The human body is masterful at sensing. As gateways to comprehending and navigating the world, our bodies tirelessly exploit sensing to decipher the complexities around us.
But humans can sense the world in only so many ways. Birds that react to geomagnetic fields in order to safely migrate, or electronic objects that interpret electromagnetic soundscapes exemplify the untapped potential of non-human sensing.
Studying sensing outside of the confines of the human body might therefore allow us to collaborate with and reap the benefits of other forms of life. As Madeline Schwartzmann writes in her book, See Yourself Sensing, this disembodied form of inquiry could allow us to empathize with other people and living entities, and might very well be the “ultimate survival mechanism” to reverse the anthropogenic contexts we find ourselves in.
So how might understanding how other organisms and machines perceive the world enhance the human experience? And how might this form of bio-interfacing yield a more cooperative form of future living?"
(Goral, 2021)
Process
