ABLUTIONS
Spiritual cleansing of the mind and body.
Project Name
Ablutions
Duration
January - May 2018
The Brief
Using a design approach that concerns itself less with the problem solving approach but from the emotional capacities of a human, develop a project that augments the mind-body relationship. In doing so, question how design can serve clearer values by using phenomena led insights to develop more meaningful experiences.
Tackling the Brief
Historically, Greek and Romans communal baths had the dual purpose of nourishing both the mind and body. But this is not the case of current showers. Post-modernism made bathing more pragmatic and showers these days became a daily routine to upkeep physical hygiene and also about minimising water usage.
In this project, I want to reintegrate the values of baths back into the shower. To make a daily routine into a sacred ritual, physical hygiene into mindful cleansing, and bathing with a spiritual purpose. With these values, my form would follow rituals, routine and habits.
These words are qualities I used to frame my project. The overall vibe of my phenomena board is flow and fluidity because I want to slow down the state of mind.
Tiling, lighting, shelving, soap, sound, steam, the shower head and the tap. Through engrossing these various types I ultimately decided on the shower head as it is the centrepiece of the shower experience.
Using a form board, I went back to explore forms, water flow, speed. And lastly injecting peculiarities. Through creating an element of randomness, I can shift away from novelty by making the effect less predictable and hence allow a degree of variability in the experience.
This experience value map visualizes the feelings and observations of the user. Upon entering the shower, the user feels curiosity the strongest as they first encounter the object. When they are bathing, the sound, touch and sight of the water creates a zen, calm feeling. When they turn off the shower to soap themselves, shadows of leftover water streaks on the walls, flowing their thoughts together with the water and when they look up onto the shower, they will notice gleaming suspended water droplets, illuminating their vision. Never the same because the water shifts the effect each time you turn on the shower. And finally when they leave the shower, their spirit will feel cleansed and rejuvenated.
