hello my name is anna stohl and i'm from
research institutes of sweden
i will present the pictorial and
annotate the design process of the
pelvic chair
this is work to get done together with
madeline balem mai felicia ziolfi
and irini caclopolos all from royal
institute of technology in sweden
in this pictorial an annotated soma
design process of the pelvic cherries
presented the pelvic chair aims at
increased awareness around the pelvis
and pelvic floor area
the detailed process shows how the
pelvic floor itself is used to make
somatic design judgments the
contribution here is twofold first it
illustrates somatic design judgments
made in soma design for designing touch
experiences second the pictorial
articulates a rarely explored design
space in human computer interaction the
intimate area of the pelvic floor the
pelvic floor is a group of muscles that
hold up our inner organs when not
functioning it can cause incontinence
involuntary flatulence and sexual
dysfunction and a secondary effect of
this is depression and anxiety the
pelvic chair consists of seven latex
pockets in different sizes
which
are inflated and deflated and create an
awareness of different parts of the
pelvis and the pelvic floor
it uses soft robotics that
will interact directly with the pelvic
floor
through dynamic movements that create a
careful subtle interaction
i will now read a usage scenario of the
pelvic floor where you can imagine you
sit down on the pelvic chair
you take some deep breaths
and you're ready to start the session
the area behind your bottom starts
touching you gently
at the beginning you are not sure if
there is a movement but after a while it
gets clearer
the foam pad
embraces you it pushes you to tilt your
pelvis forward so you rest on your
pelvic floor
your spine follows the movement and your
posture gets more upright
the touch embracing your bottom stays
there as a support the two front shapes
start to fill with air
which draw your attention to a touch on
the inner side of your thighs
the movement in the shapes gently make
you open up your legs a little bit if
you push back the shapes follow a
playful negotiation
to decide the angle between legs and
pelvis
it stops and there is stillness
next a subtle slow and indirect movement
start touching the area underneath your
pelvic floor and your sitting bones
at first it is gentle but it increases
in strength and lifts your whole pelvic
floor
you can feel the tension as if
it was your pelvic floor that was
tensing up
just about to become uncomfortable the
air gets released and your pelvic floor
sinks with the movement
a strong sense of relaxation comes in
the exercise now splits into finer
details
until the area behind you starts
releasing its embracement of your pelvis
and that is the end of the session
afterwards you find yourself wondering
was it only the chair touching me or was
i actually moving with it
a strong awareness of the pelvic floor
lingers and you notice how much you
actually take support from this body
part in your daily life
the pelvic chair was designed with the
soma designed approach which is a way of
designing with new digital materials
that can then shape interactions that
engage with users aesthetic experiences
and ways of being in the world
in here we show how a combination of
somatic and material explorations drive
the design process of the pelvic chair
forward
it shows how the process departs from
somatic experiences centered on the
pelvic area
which opens the design space through the
construction of experiential qualities
exploring material affordances
here the pelvic floor itself is used to
make somatic design judgments in an
iterative process until the experience
that can carry the guiding qualities are
found
so how did we go about the design team
invited a physiotherapist
specialized in feldenkrais exercises for
the pelvis and pelvic floor she
facilitated four exercises that were one
hour each and a lecture on the anatomy
of the pelvic area
this became the grounding experience to
design for the pelvis
these exercises revolved around how
breathing is connected to the pelvic
floor the different parts of the pelvic
floor
the sitting bones and how the pelvic
floor connects to the rest of the body
to articulate our experiences we used
body maps that were completed before and
after each feldenkrais exercise the body
maps were used for reflection
documentation discussion and idea
generation purposes
when we moved on to the construction of
experiential qualities
in
discussions the team sorted the
experience into themes it was not only
the most common experiences by many that
were seen as interesting
also those only experienced by a few but
that were particularly remarkable or
strong where others could see the
potential interest for in a design were
constructed into experiential qualities
these qualities became the foundation
for which experience the pelvic child
should hold and they were
differentiation of the pelvic floor
the experience of unitedness
connectedness
and
relaxational power
to get to a point where experiential
qualities are attained in the
interaction with the prototype
attention must be paid to underlying
requirements the design team considered
a shape that would allow for the
creation of an interaction where the
pelvic floor
could be touched and where the person
being touched could be relaxed
comfortable and feel safe fast and dirty
mock-ups or wearables
stress to sit on and boards on the floor
led
into the direction of a stool
and to make most
contact with the pelvic floor a
hybrid of a saddle-like stool
was developed
and then became the pelvic chair
we moved on
to starting to explore how to touch the
pelvic floor modalities that drew
attention to the pelvic floor were
explored through somatic design
judgments
with a focus on their potential to bring
the desired experiential qualities
forward
the flexible character of latex was
found promising
as well as how air embraces the organic
surfaces of the body
this led to iterative fabrication
processes of bespoke latex shapes
this fabrication process of these
bespoke air pockets in latex was
iterated with the aim of supporting the
experiential qualities
every new iteration was guided by these
qualities and judged somatically by the
design team using their pelvic floors
you can zoom in and read about all these
in the paper but here we will take a
closer look at one of the examples
so for the experiential quality of
relaxational power we iterated through
several shapes to make the latex pocket
follow the organic shape of the body
to make the experience feel like tension
and relaxation of the whole pelvic floor
area and not pointing to any specific
part we played with layers of foam to
make it into an experience that
indirectly touched the whole area of the
pelvic floor
the current solution
inspired by hydraulics uses syringes
controlled by linear actuators to push
air around in a closed system
the temporality of inflation and
deflation is crucial to obtain a nuanced
touch touches must be orchestrated into
full experiences of different length and
intensity
evoking the desired experiential
qualities and scaffolding the
interaction that lead to awareness
so
the dynamic touch of relaxation and
power as you see here in the slide
looks completely different from the one
of connectedness the one who connected
with this is a more sustained
pressure or movement towards the pelvic
floor
so towards the sign of a touch we bring
forward knowledge on how the layers of
materials the areas of the chair
touching the body the shapes of the air
pockets their volume and how they
inflate or deflate over time all affect
the experience touch of the pelvic floor
area
working with somatic design judgments
can be difficult because it may require
engaging with parts of our somas which
we do not often use for judgments such
as the pelvic floor
like any skill it needs practice
this somatic approach to design
judgments creates challenges for the
design community
and here we have the opportunity
to create novel ways of sharing formats
as well as new curriculum for our
students