Designing and Orchestrating Technologies for Future Home  or Objects for Arithmomaniacs*

Five electronic objects
Five anecdotic stories
One fictional failed research

This design project presents an experimental tangible narrative accompanied with five electronic design objects, aka ‘scientific probes’. Ordinary products – a chair, a pair of shoes, a pair of boxing gloves, a doormat and a chestbelt – are supplemented with electronic counters that count peculiar interactions with their users. For example, the chair counts its swings, whilst the boxing gloves count the number of the punches they have made. This simple counting function is perhaps the simplest digital intervention possible.
The products become interactive props that serve both as a sarcastic tangible rhetoric and avant-garde products.

The project'd ambiguous nature is amplified even more by dressing and contrasting the tangible and functioning objects with a series of anecdotal stories of fictitious research. In this storyline the ‘probes’ are allegedly used to collect the statistical data of the domestic psychological, social and physical dynamics and interactions for designing a better domestic space. Research fails, alas! Though, happily, stimulating results are produced that prompt to rename the research “Objects for Arithmomaniacs”, crowning the comedy of the poetic failure. Beside the poetic aims, the fictional story offers some creative ideas or scientific ‘comments’ rarely applied in conventional design.

Nonetheless, the objects are open for even wider interpretation or use since they may function as utilitarian objects with their own memory (of usage), as toys of design comedy, as occult instruments (e.g. for numerologists), or even placebos for arithmomaniacs, who are entirely neglected by designers (much like other minorities).

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* Arithmomania is a mental disorder that may be seen as an expression of obsessive-compulsive illness. Sufferers from this disorder have a strong need to count their actions or objects in their surroundings.

Probe #1 (of Vestibular Recreation)
The first probe is a rocking chair with the embedded electronic counter of the swing cycles, designed to investigate the dweller’s recreational relationship with furniture. The volunteer was told to use the rocking chair as it was an ordinary chair.

Results
The subject produced a critically small number. The elderly volunteer reported she cherished and “preserved” the chair because it appeared having a some sort of ‘memory’. [Scientific comment #1: digital intervention as memory ‘prosthesis’]
After the second try the subject created surprisingly large number which presumably should have been produced non-stop throughout all the research term. The volunteer claimed that only herself and her husband used the chair. But with reference to the fact that the number of their grandchildren’s visits had increased since the appearance of the chair, it is safe to presume that the results of the research had been affected by unintended external factors, that is to say, by the abuse of the grandchildren. [Scientific comment #2: digital intervention as interactive frolic and prank]

Probe #2 (of Marching)
The second probe is a pair of shoes with embedded pedometers which count each step the wearer makes. The instrument was used for investigating the patterns of the dweller’s movements within the domestic space. The volunteer was instructed to wear the shoes only at home.

Results
The subject was observed walking with the shoes outside the specified research space, i.e., not within the domestic space. The probe’s user excused his failure obeying the rules by saying the marching gauge roused implacable desire to raffle, to be more specific, counting steps while walking to a lottery kiosk, and using the numbers for filling lottery tickets. [Scientific comment #3: digital intervention as occultic ‘dress’ or post-numerology]

Probe #3 (of Aggressive Social Interactions)
The third gauge is a pair of plush gloves with the embedded electronic counters of strong punches. It was used for probing the domestic psychosocial ‘negativeness’ or aggressiveness. The volunteer was told to wear the gloves in the case of aggressive interaction or the conflict with his flatmates.

Results
The counter could not pass the term of the investigation, because it was completely broken. [Scientific comment #4 The human tendency to speak through things is perfectly exemplified here. Digital intervention as means of ventriloquists]

Probe #4 (Bioclock)
The fourth probe is a chest strap with the electronic counter of the heartbeats, which was used to investigate biorhythms and pseudo-emotional patterns of domestic space. The volunteer was explained to take no notice of the probe, and try to get used to it.

Results
The Bioclock’s user did not return the probe since it became, as he describes, “a part of [his] body”. He started to feel inexpressible power of the body and hitherto not experienced carnal control. [Scientific comment #5: digital intervention as an invasive and persuasive perceptual enhancement]

Probe #5 (Boundary Ritual Probe)
The fifth probe consists of two wirelessly connected instruments: a doormat with the embedded electronic counter of step-on presses, and a box with the numerical display of the counter. This instrument was employed to research the dwellers’ or guests’ circulation occurring over the boundary between the domestic and public spaces. Therefore the boundary ritual probe was placed at the front of the flat’s entrance door.

Results
As the test subject came out lately to be an arithmomaniac, the disorder definitely adversely affected the results of the investigation. The volunteer reported that he could not resist the temptation of counting other ‘happenings’, for instance, the times his visitors approached suspended family photographs. Worse enough, later he started counting the ways or the opportunities of this kind of counting itself. [Scientific comment #6 Presumably the boundary ritual probe worked sooner like a placebo rather than a scientific gauge: the digital intervention as an electronic placebo]