we're very fortunate to be living in a time where how we connect, interact and
communicate with the world around us is constantly changing and I was really
eager to explore how we currently understand our digital realities and how
might we speculate a future digital experience. at the beginning of the
project we articulated together what it feels like to be digital. we then got the
students to analyze those insights and identify trends to creatively respond to
working alongside industry practitioners who come from a background in innovation,
digital design, digital interaction and together speculate this future digital
scenario. digital space can mean a number of things and I think it's anything that
involves a level of technology so it doesn't necessarily mean that it has to
be fully virtual, it could be something that's just some more augmented. I use it
in my work as a way to enhance reality. we create immersive digital experiences
of fashion and luxury brands. sometimes we call it like interactive storytelling. the
website we make they don't look like usual websites and the interactions we
are involving and not just like scrolling through something and reading content
it's more about engaging the user with the content.
what fascination or interest me most was looking at how they currently engage
with digital technology and how they experience it. I'm of a certain
generation that has naturally had areas to the use of digital technologies and
platforms it was kind of surprising to hear how integrated those technologies
are and people's lives of the generation of students.
as a group we all felt like there was a sense of this loss of community kind of
feeling isolated when you interact with people online we are creating this
futuristic well-being experience with this speculative ring that use skin put
technology which tracks your daily steps or heart rate but at the same time it
helps you to reconnect with people around you. people who are living in the
cities are very stressed. there are very small spaces so its very hard to escape and
think the physical things that offered to escape aren't really accessible for
everyone because everyone has time all the money to go to spas and things like
that but one thing that is really popular, theology digital age is gaming
and being able to escape this digital world and like have like another life.
aya Studios is basically a software that allows the consumer
to work within a virtual space so without selling you something that was
completely physical, we want to give you the option to extend your space and
improve the way that you work. We made everything more fantastical and said
that they have wonder and exploration but the things that you can access in it
are specific to you so your aya Celia would not be the same as someone else's
because you're the one who's choosing. It I was looking into the idea
that there's an alter-ego online through our data this representation of
ourselves online. our final outcome with a high-powered app called mind. mind
would import all your data from all the companies you subscribe to so that you
could see all your data and the mind would visualize it and then you can
manage your data and it would help you with things like if your friend's
wedding was coming up, you need it to book flights and find an outfit to this
wedding. the app would show you options for flights based on your schedule and
your budget. it would show you an economy version or business if you want to
splurge because it's a friend's wedding. it would give you options for outfits
you could select one and then you could purchase it in app as well. I think
people right now are very concerned about data and
the information they're giving out but if they knew more about their own data
and the data that they generate, companies would feel obliged to make
their services better then they would have to add a pay us for our data, we
could earn money from that or and they would work harder to personalize an
experience for us. going into a research informed unit like this we don't know
what we're going to uncover but it's so fascinating to use the knowledge that
the students currently hold and extended through working with the industry
practitioners to see the students then present back with such confidence in
articulation at the very end of the project just highlighted how successful
this knowledge exchange was between industry and the student experience.
sense worldwide was really keen to get involved with LCF because there's a lot
of fresh talent that's coming through and those raw ideas and I think it was
really testament to the tools and techniques that we're developing as a
business that they can be valuable for everybody. Our whole mission is to
democratize innovation. the industry people that came in they were like out
there they're all doing such great things and they're like the innovative
people that people write it about and stuff so I think is really great for us
to also kind of see them and see how they work and feel like you know what
like if they can do it like it's inspiring. it's been really interesting
to hear from students who are in the thick of it right now kind of getting
access to those opinions that I wouldn't necessarily have any other way and kind
of seeing what their responses are to their insights. even though we can put
our phones down, we're always online because we have profiles and people can
still text us message us there's not really an easy way to disconnect from
this. it's not having to fear anymore we need to now figure out how to work
within it and find the opportunities that we can either improve it or remove
from it but just don't fear it. I think through this
project I feel more open to it and I think reading more about it and like
being surrounded by it and all my other like peers and stuff talking about ideas
and how useful it can be rather than how gimmicky or how it can control you like
you know like it's like anti black mirror because black mirror turns you off
and this kind of this turned you on to like technology in the future