About Our Work
Our wearable appliance is like a circle surrounding a person, and it’s on one’s waist, like a belt.
It’s probably made of cardboard.
We name it “DON’T BOTHER ME”
The gesture we are thinking is like when a person is focused on him or her cellphone and walking on the street, he or she doesn’t want to bump into somewhere or someone.
So we design this equipment for not bumping into people while using phones on the street, and it creates a comfort zone. When people are wearing it, their social connection is just in the circle, they don’t want anyone to bother them.
While you are on your phone, you DON’T have to care about others! You can be super sassy, taking selfies, enjoy yourself on you phone while walking on the street.
We decided to paint the cardboard red for it’s a color of caution, to warn people of not bothering. Also, many poisonous creatures in the nature have red color on them, for not letting others close to them and avoiding them.
Video
Acted by me (Claire Zhou) & Edited by Fee Brandt
Photos
While you are focusing on your phone, don’t care about others!
You are your QUEEN on your phone.
You are in your own world.
Yoo are in your own social circle.
Your phone is the only thing you can see.
It’s useful as well as nice-looking.
Photos of Working Process
Making and fixing our belt…..
The bird’s-eye view of the board.
Our Story
When Fee came up with the idea of making a CIRCLE around a person’s body, I don’t know how it would work. But we confirmed this idea because we thought it would be super fun and interesting. I came up with the idea of writing “DON’T BOTHER ME’ on this circle, it was like a warning to other people, and the thought while people are focusing on their phone.
We went on seeking for materials on Thursday afternoon, we originally wanted to find a kind of laser fabric that can reflect light and has a sense of future, but we couldn’t find our ideal one, so we moved on to cardboard, which is easy to find and proper for our ideas.
Then we discussed the color of the cardboard and the texts, and I came up with the idea of the color of some circle board in circuses, which were red, black, and white. We found out it was a really good idea because red is a warning color, and black and white color were so striking on red. However, the white color became transparent after it was dry.
We cut and painted the cardboard together, and we made a mistake while cut it. We miscalculated the size of a human’s waist, so we cut a much larger circle. The time was limited so we didn’t have time to make a new one, We solved the problem by add a real belt to it-we used treads to tied on the belt with the cardboard, it came out that this idea was really great. It’s was so good-looking and interesting. It add new things to our “belt”.
I decided to wear this belt and act on the street, because I really want to try on this by myself. I picked a black mesh fabric bodysuit and a short top with white and black plaids on it. The whole outfit was like a girl that was hot, fashionable and bitchy, like taking selfies and post them on Ins and Snapchat. The reason I picked this kind of top was that I was trying to create a girl that is so obsessed with her cellphone.
Wearing this belt and walking on the street was really an impressive experience. We tried to find some places that were full of people. At first, things didn’t go well. We went to Union Square, but there weren’t so many people there. We asked two women if they wanted to help us acting in the video, and they were so willing to do this and did so well.
Then we searched on Snapchat to find crowded places, we found a street that had people standing on sides, busy on their phones. I walked through them, acting really sassy and busy taking selfies on my phone. They all stop looking at their phones and looked at me with a “WHAT THE FUCK?!” look, which was really funny. And then things go really well, we found a lot of children standing by the streets and sitting in the park, I just went straitly to them, and their reaction was just what we wanted. We also found lots of people walking on the street then. I tried to act like I didn’t care at the passengers at all and just focusing on my phone, my “belt” would protect me. I pumped into people with my “belt”, and some of them became really mad. Most of the passengers left me a really large space due to my “DON’T BOTHER ME””belt”, which proved our design was really successful.
I thought I really enjoyed myself acting like this. Maybe I had a talent in acting.
Fee did the editing, and she did a great job. She combined the music with the video so well, and I love our video sooo much.
Other Peers’ Works
1. Belt with ID
It’s a belt with our student ID on the whole belt. It has three gestures while wearing and using it. One is using one’s hip to touch the scanner, one is to jump by the scanner, one is using one’s waist to move by the scanner.
The belt is useful and good-looking. The idea is very smart, making the belt is simple and useful.
2. “Controlled by Game” Glove
It’s like a screen with a game on it, and the threads connect the screen with the cloves. It has two gestures, one is a normal gesture while playing video games, one is kind of mad with playing games.
The idea of this piece is really deep and kind of scary. They are trying to remind us and warn us about not to put too much energy playing video games. It looks like you are controlling the game, actually, the game is controlling you.
3. Scarf with a Flower
It is like a soft scarf with a big and light flower on it. When wearing it, it’s like people are really pressed by the flower. The flower symbols the pressure one receives while focusing on the phone.
This piece is also like a warning, warning us the health problem caused by using a phone.
4. Thick Wire
It’s like a long and thick wire, but made by balloons in stockings. While wearing it, you cannot escape from the wire, it wraps you tightly, and connects you to the charger.
It expresses the idea of we cannot leave from the charger or charging station, always need to be near the charger due to our phone and laptop. We are actually controlled by our technology.
