HUG
Speculative Design
Independent Project, 2020
Tools: Blender, Keyshot, Adobe Premiere, After Effects
During the days in quarantine this year 2020, people do not see each other very often. People have to follow the rule of 6-feet social distance. They are obliged to not shake hands, hug, or kiss in public.
To encourage people to rethink this new social relationship situation and some new rules in daily communication, I decide to create this speculative design project.
BACKGROUND
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a spreading worldwide disease. It mainly spreads through small droplets in the air when people stay together for a long time. COVID has caused a huge amount of death around the world so far.
WHAT WILL HUG BE IN 2220?
SHELLS
“Shells” are designed to protect people from hazardous weather and all the uncertainties in the air. Ever since then, there is no exposure to the air, there is no“real touch”. People wear shells to keep a 6-feet moral bottom distance from others. They live in their own shells from birth to death for a little more than 3 generations.
WORLD IN 2220
Entering 2220, after another century of sea-level rise, drought, excessive urbanization, mass migration, nuclear leaks, and pandemic, human beings finally lose their trust in the governments and the air.
OPPORTUNITY
Till the year 2220, a company introduced a new idea— “hug”, to the general public. The hug is a very old way of greeting and emotional expressing that people do not have any collective memory of, and no longer use. But HUG is magical. It enlivens joyfulness and heals broken hearts.
This company is the only one that brings this idea into a product, called HUG— a product that tempts people to come out of shells and be hugged.
REPRODUCE HUG
During this, customers would experience tension, softness, and the whole experience of being HUGged.
A wearable coat, filled with soft fluffy fur and air-inflation ball(or so-called balloon). In the progress, balloons start to wrap around users' body, offer the experience of being HUGged.
In this individual space, the user would lie on the fluffy surface. A huge balloon would expand and squeeze users' body to monitor HUG.
FINAL SOLUTION
Walk in
Customer walk into HUG.
Inflation
After the user lies down, the balloon will start to inflate air.
Squeeze
Balloons then would squeeze users’ body.
