LIMB-O
Having unlimited access to the internet through our smartphones has normalized the motion of being glued to the screen of our devices. How can we really be present in the moment and experience life in connection with each other?
Marlot Meyer, who is part of the Self-Design Academy, created an interesting art installation that tries to answer this question and raises awareness for the crisis of touch we are experiencing right now.
LIMB-O is an interactive art installation that allows the user to engage both on- and offline.
Through suggestive colors and shapes, the design by artist Marlot Meyer challenges you to interact with the tubes and electrodes which animate the structure of the installation. There are multiple possibilities for interaction: at the Self Design Academy it is possible to enter the room and physically feel how the power touch can trigger changes. As you touch one of the electrodes, air travels though transparent tubes to fill up balloons, bringing LIMB–O to life. Alternatively, you can take part in the experience by joining the online platform where you can send information to the installation which makes it move in real life. The main goal of LIMB-O is to remind us that we live in a synergetic, connected world, where communication can occur in various forms. With this design, miss Meyer wants to remind us that human behaviour is not uniquely a response to the surrounding environment:
”the distinction between what we do, and what happens to us, is obliterated. We stop thinking about human behaviour as something that responds to the compulsion of an environment and see the behaviour of the environment as an essential aspect of ourselves.”
We are often disconnected from one another and find easy escape routes into the World Wide Web to ignore the imbalance between our body, our mind and the separation that we experience. We crave touch, we crave connection, yet we shy away from it. In our trend book, we describe a trend called Crisis of Touch. Crisis of Touch represents the shift necessary to overcome the gap separating us, using technology as a tool to intensify and compensate for our detachment. It is about inventing new ways to experience connection and physical touch. LIMB-O allows multiple users interact with each other through technology which explores connection in a new way. Exploring innovation through art can sketch out future scenarios and raise awareness on the problems we experience collectively. LIMB-O is a good example of showing creative solutions to improve the way we perceive community and touch therefore it is a perfect manifestation of Crisis of Touch.
Do you want to know more about LIMB-O, click here.
Do you want to know more about the trend Crisis of Touch? Then read our trend book for the Dutch Design Week 2020 here.
