Author: Chen Xiong

 
This project is called Interactive Zen, it is comprised of 8 light objects in total: 4 cube shape lanterns, and 4 globe shape lanterns, and 4 mats. As for the cube shape lanterns, there’re 3 strips of LED inside each of them. As for the globe shape lanterns, there’s single LED light inside each of them. Besides, the light of the lanterns is controlled by pressure sensors. There’s a pressure sensor under each mat. And each pressure sensor is in control of one lantern’s light. The mechanism is such that when the participant set on the mat, the pressure sensor is triggered. And the pressure sensor sends the signal to the LED strips. There’re 5 compositions of the LED strips in total: One composition that shows when there’s nobody on any of the mats, one composition shows when there’s one person on any of the mats, one composition shows when there’re two persons on any of the two mats, one composition shows when there’re three persons on any of the three mats, and one composition show when there’re four persons on all of the mats. With every composition, I code the lights to change in around 2-3 minutes. I did user test previously, and people spend mostly 1-2 minutes starting at the light objects. Therefore, I decide to compose the light in around 2-3 minutes, to make sure that the composition lasts long enough that people would not be able to see it repeating.
The core idea of this project is to create a space where people could feel relaxed and have some Zen moment. In our current time, where the city runs in a super high-speed, people rarely have time to meditate. The real meditation takes quite some time, and most of the people would not have the time to do so on a daily base. Therefore, this project aims to maximize the utility of lights to help people meditate within a short period of time. Besides, no everyone is familiar with meditation. The lights are code in a way that helps to facilitate people to meditate. The light would go from dim to bright gradually, and the saturation of the light also increases and decreases over time. People who are not familiar with meditation could also feel relax with their eyes fixed on the lights.
As has been said, the light would change differently with more mats being seated by people. The idea with this part is such that I want people to not just focus on themselves(although meditations mostly do). I want to create a space where people could feel relaxed, and also intimacy. I want people to feel comfortable with intimacy. As I noticed in our time, people focus too much on social media, and the internet world, that we sometimes ignore people around us. Therefore, this project encourages people to be aware of the people around them, by the change of lights. The changes would not be quite obvious at the very beginning, but with the increasing number of people, and the time passed by, the changes would more obvious.