My thesis examines how people navigate their environment, particularly when utilizing digital and physical cues. The project incorporated extensive research, writing, experimentation, and prototyping of designs to explore an individual's sense of self, environment, and time while navigating. 

 

For the final project directly related to my thesis, I wanted to address questions of open and closed systems, transparency in design, and a user's self-reflection. To do so, I created The Armillary Sphere, an experience in which participants could navigate a space as informed by how they saw themselves in it, with respect to the changing environment around them.

 

The physical form for the design derives from the planetary armillary sphere, which served as a a physical manifestation of the concept map that underlies my thesis research.

 

A big thank you to Matt Martin for acting as the developer for this project!

A participant would enter the design and see overlaid video feed of both herself and her larger environment as reflected off of the physical Armillary Sphere. Due to the spherical and reflective nature of the design, the video that the participant saw was abstracted so as to prompt individual interpretation of the design. 

As she navigated the space, the participant would step on sensors that took pictures, not of her physical self as we often do when photographing our journey; but instead of the abstracted digital feed herself and her environment, overlaid by her physical shadow. She could print a souvenir a photograph of this abstract journey, thus turning physical experience with a digital design into a unique and nonprescriptive momento.