October 2018 – Page 5 – Wearable Studios

October 14, 2018November 11, 2018

Share Your World – Yukie, Johan, Hazzry

Storyworld

There is extreme economic inequality in the nation, small industries are dying out at an extremely fast pace due to the nation’s push for the technology, machine learning, artificial intelligence, etc. Art is increasingly being overlooked and shunned, and practitioners such as clay jewellers are doing their best to survive such that they have to work 24/7, even when they are on-the-go.

Chilli has also become a staple in modern day Singapore and is found in every food item in Singapore. Being fully aware of this fact and the potential that it can bring, clay jewellers has decided harness the power of chilli even after its consumption – to use it as an indirect heat source.

What they did was to create a workstation that they could carry on their backs, deployable when they carry it on their front, allowing them to work on-the-go and even baking their clay jewellery through harnessing the heat source coming from their tummies – a result of their chilli-centric diet.

Cover art

Microfiction #1 – Yukie Miyazaki

Staring intently at the piece of clay in my hands, I feel contentment rise up within me.

The coloured specks sit on the clay perfectly and look amazing.

I blink a few times, trying to ease my eyes from the strain of being too focused. I look up and the bright lights hit me a bit too suddenly. My eyes begin to water as they tried to adjust, and slowly, I’m aware of the chatter and the life of the environment around me.

Ah, life. Something I haven’t had the chance to enjoy in such a long time.

Opposite me stands an older lady, busy knitting away. The yarn is dangling off her arm and almost touches the floor. She sighs, her eyes fixated still.

*Ding dong* “Next stop, One North.”

One more stop to go. My tummy begins to grumble. It took me awhile to get used to all that spicy food, but it’s worth it. I’m finally adjusting, and I quite enjoy it actually. The tummy aches occur less frequently now. I may even be able to try outdoing myself this time.

I start packing up to get ready to alight. I look around once more and catch a glimpse of the lucky few, those that can afford to simply do nothing. They don’t realise how good they have it. But who do I have to blame? No one but myself. I should count my blessings while I still can.

Microfiction #2 – Johan Ng

“Hey mom, can we please have something else for dinner?”

“Honey, you know that this is all we have, now be a good boy and eat your dinner.”

“But it is too spicy and my stomach hurts….”

“That’s the point, you will have to get used to it eventually. Now, come over here, ill get that fixed up for you.”

Mom places a thin patch onto Thomas’s stomach. The colour of the patch turns rapidly from brown to bright red. Thomas heave a sigh of relief and mom gave a huge smile.

“Seems like today the output is good as usual.” Mom removes the patch and attaches it to the worn-out television.

Bzzt* Bzzt* ….. Bzzt* Bzzt* …. Static noises comes out from the television and colour slowly returns to the screen. The broadcast seems to be the ever so famous cooking show called C Padi’s kitchen, featuring all sorts of cuisine that could be made with the wonder spice of chili.

Microfiction #3 – Muhammad Hazzry

Life is good. Business is booming, money is flowing, food is always on the table, family is healthy and living without any stress. In fact, life is grea- *BAM*, someone walks into me at full speed. DARN IT, just when I was about to feel good about life in general, something had to dampen my spirits.

“Oh? Jewellery made of clay? Wow I can’t remember the last time I saw these, or any form of art, for that matter”, I thought to myself as I observed the lady hastily picking up her work; some of which did not survive the fall. I decided to set my anger aside and help her instead.

“Thank you, you’re very kind.”

“Hey don’t mention it, just watch where you’re going next time yeah? It’s a good thing neither of us got hurt.”.

“O-oh… okay, sorry. I should go. Thanks again.”, as she rushes off, continuing on her craft, or at least what’s left of it. After what just happened, you would think she would just focus on the commute no? No, she STILL decides to work on-the-go, as she fades into the distant crowd. Unbelievable.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, life. Life is great. I continue to stroll towards my workplace, just a two minutes’ walk away from the MRT station. Thank god for the fully air-conditioned pathway as well; I don’t know how I could survive in the modern heat, especially after that hotter-than-usual pancakes this morning. But it’s fine, that is how life is now, and it’s great.

October 14, 2018November 10, 2018

Share your world – Charmaine Goh & Stephanie

Cover Art

Storyworld

Fast forward to Year 2500. To meet the demands of the competitive economy, humans work an average of 20 hours each day. With only 4 hours left remaining in each and every day, having a social life became impossible. Recreational buildings were all shut down since there was no need for them. The world was driven by numbers, results, and superficial relationships forged to enhance individual statuses. People’s daily routine have become ever more predictable – home to work and work back to home.

With so little time and so much wealth, humans started being obsessed with elevating their standard of living as much as they can during the precious 4 hours that they have each day. With less time being allocated to traveling, services were now all portable and provided in the comfort of the patient’s home.

Just like robots, humans need some maintenance too.

Microfiction #1 – Stephanie

The skyscrapers were stacked one after another, and the roads that we know today has ceased to exist. Humans zipped around in glass elevators from one place to another in a fraction of a second – there was no moment to lose.

With such little time left in a day each day, humans gradually stopped spending time on ‘frivolous’ and unimportant things like maintaining social relationships. Rather, they sought after more superficial things that they deemed would elevate their status in the eyes of society and those around them.

They had beauty and health appointments scheduled everyday. Visits to the clinics, spas and beauty treatments as we knew it have ceased to exist. With the rapid increase in demand for skyscrapers for work and housing, these spaces were gradually phased out. Instead, they had daily visits from the various beauticians so as to ensure that they are constantly in the best form possible.

As Sasha opened her front door, a ‘ding’ went off from the elevator. “Mmm.. right on time” she murmured under her breath.

The TCM practitioner, Stacy, was decked out in white and her look was complete with a lab coat.

“Hi Miss Sasha, please place your thumb here so that we can scan your heart rate, blood pressure and stress levels.”

“Have you had any discomforts since the last I saw you 48 hours ago,” Stacy continued.

Sasha sighed and lamented: “Well.. Yes. My lower back has been hurting, can you do something about that please?”

“Yes, of course! We’ll look to that right away!”

Stacy’s mobile phone beeped as the health report came back.

The aroma diffuser went off and soft slow music started to play from the speakers. Sasha sighed and lay down on her chest – it was time for rejuvenation and healing.

Microfiction #2 – Charmaine Goh

She could only arrange for a maximum of two clients a day with each appointment lasting an hour long. Catching only 2 hours of sleep on days when her appointments were fully booked. Any delay in the first appointment or mistakes made would cost Stacy her customer in this highly competitive part-time service industry.

She can’t risk that. Not with all the debts her father left her.

In the day, Stacy works as a app developer in the information and technology industry but the pay is insufficient to sustain her living so she had little choice but to work as a part-time Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioner from the 20th to the 22nd hour of the day. As a result, on days without clients, Stacy spent her time developing the most efficient medical tool box that is capable of providing her customer with an unique, quality, and therapeutic TCM experience to secure them.

Time was ticking.

“BP – 110, HR – 80, Estimated Stress Level – High, Recommended Aromatherapy – No.032”

The screen on her mobile lighted up, reflecting the patients’ details as the patient placed her finger on a small black box with red light emitting out of it. Background music started playing on auto and the aroma diffuser went off.

Stacy then detached a inflatable mattress from the bag and threw it into the air lightly. The mattress unfolded into a fully pumped cushion for the patient to lie on.

“We will be proceeding with our second electrolysis acupuncture session for your backache. Please feel free to take a rest during the process,” Stacy commented.

After administering the needles, Stacy pulls out the electrolysis machine powered by the portable energy stored in her bag. She then proceeds on to connect the wires to the needles.

Stacy’s eyes gradually became heavier as the aroma of No.032 slowly diffused throughout the house. Developed by Stacy, the diffuser scent is customised to each and every patient’s’ condition, which can help patients to de-stress while regulating their heart rate to the most optimal level for treatment.

Right when the alarm signifying the end of treatment rings off, Stacy’s eyes sprung open. Relieved that her patient did not find out that she dozed off, Stacy quickly started packing up whilst letting her patient know, “The prescription will be delivered to you as per usual, do follow the same instructions and within two weeks and your backache should fully recover fully!”

“Thanks Dr. Stacy. It was the best and most efficient TCM experience I’ve ever had! Will definitely refer you to my friends and family members,” replied the patient.

Stacy smiled and walks off with a heavy feet to her next appointment…

October 14, 2018November 15, 2018

Share Your World – Clare Chang, Brenda Tan, Chia Li Hui

Finalised Microfiction

In the year 2500, global warming is now almost fully eradicated. In order to stop the accumulation of heat, governments worked together to eliminate not just carbon dioxide emissions, but all greenhouse gases. Deforestation and other harmful land uses have been successfully reversed. As a result, the Earth is experiencing drastic climate change and now has an average temperature of -18°C. The Earth’s daylight savings time is out of whack and sunlight is sporadic. In attempt to revamp a cleaner way to generate energy, other energy generating ways have failed and things now run on only music-powered energy. In this world, music has become a drug of choice and people are becoming more anti-social. They have high reliance on their earpieces and are not able to leave their house without them. Train stations provide free earpieces as all public transports announcements are made through them.

Ceramic art is now at risk of banality. The chemical reactions between the mineral contents in the clay bodies during the throwing process is not controllable by the human hand. As the climate on Earth started experiencing drastic changes, clay can no longer withstand the low temperatures and started to harden very quickly during the throwing process.

Our protagonist, Emma, is a passionate street ceramic artist whose biggest dream is to bring ceramic art back to life and she is unwilling to send it down the lane of banality. Emma carries a one-of-a-kind ceramic art music backpack around with her to conduct her ceramic art on the streets.

Current Technology

Electric Pottery wheel
Music sensors

New Technology

The backpack contains a portable pottery wheel, a portable stool, a speaker and two slots to insert earpieces. There will be two layers in the backpack as follows:

For the first layer, the top compartment will hold the portable stool which she can unfold easily. Under the first layer lies a compartment that has optimal moisture and an atmosphere that keeps the clay at optimal room temperature to prevent it from drying up.

For the second layer, it will be a pottery wheel board that functions using music powered energy. There will be a sound sensor at the bottom of the board that detects music and the pottery wheel will turn based on the tempo of the music. In a scenario where there is no music playing in the background, it also allows Emma to insert her earpieces and play her choice of music through the speakers embedded at the bottom of the board. There will be lights that line the circumference of the pottery wheel to assist the user when there is no sunlight.

Cover Art

October 14, 2018November 10, 2018

Share Your World – Ang Xin Yee & Rachel Teo

OHWAX’s Story World

The human race has reached the epitome of laziness
Nobody leaves the house anymore and everything is online
Physical stores are obsolete
The world is increasingly superficial because of social media
Thus, people still want to look beautiful

Rachel’s Microfiction – Beauty in Space

In the year 2×92, we now live on an orbiting space shuttle that’s approximately 180,000 miles away from Earth. A glance out of my window and I can see the beautiful planet that we once inhabited. Though I heard it used to be even more beautiful. I learnt that Earth was once a place filled with so much nature and life. After that catastrophic event in history, Earth was left uninhabitable, and everyone pretty much escaped into space.

My guess is that the governments then pretty much predicted it coming, there’s no way that they managed to create such a large scale, fully functional, liveable, space stations in a short amount of time. We were never educated about what happened. The older ones never spoke a word about it, it was against the rules to do so. There are eyes and ears everywhere.

Today is just like every other day, I am fully packed with appointments, and I can only hope I have spare time in the middle of the day to grab a bite, unlike yesterday. Don’t get me wrong, I love my job, waxing is something I enjoy doing, but travelling is such a chore. I heard that in the past, businesses operate via stationary shops. But due to the lack of space, businesses and professions became mobile. We bring the products and services to customers instead of them having to come with us. I’m lucky though, brow waxing does not require much equipment, everything fits into my handy little bag-pack. I don’t always visit homes, I sometimes do brows-on-the-go too, on trains when anyone needs a quick-fix when they are on the way to an important event.

Xin Yee’s Microfiction – Beauty on the plane

It is 2035 and Amy, labelled the future Heidi Klum, is travelling around the world for the World Fashion Month. Since the only time for rest during their hectic schedule and when they are traveling, only during then can beauty treatments be done. Thus, there is a specific plane for all models to take: Beauty Airlines. In this company’s planes, models can receive facial treatments, body massages, beauty services and have all their other needs met by services on the plane. Every seat will have a control section for the all services they need and more than one service can be used at any time by just pressing the buttons.

Amy requires a waxing treatment on her flight today. As soon as the plane takes off, Amy presses the ‘waxing’ button on the control section. The attendant for the waxing service makes her way down the aisle to Amy. The attendant is equipped with just a small backpack of equipment so as to not block the aisle.

The backpack includes all equipment such as a wax heater, applicators, cloth waxing strips, pre-waxing and post-waxing beauty products, tweezers and make up brushes, and cotton pads. The wax is heated up through a mesh conductor in the wax heater, using the heat energy from Amy’s body as she places feet on the conducting point, within a minute. The entire procedure is done in 5 minutes. Amy decides she should get a full-body massage since walking on the runway all day has caused body aches.

October 14, 2018November 11, 2018

Share Your World – Allison & Vashon

Practitioner: Food Rescuers

Current Trends:

By 2050 humanity’s ranks will likely have grown to nearly 10 billion people. In a scenario with moderate economic growth, this population increase will push up global demand for agricultural products by 50 percent over present levels projects The Future of Food and Agriculture, intensifying pressures on already-strained natural resources. (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2017).

Key Takeaway

Scarcity of food may become a reality in an extrapolated timeline towards the future.

Storyworld:

The world has officially run out of actual Food.
Former agriculture and food industries have turned towards manufacturing a processed substance called Blobs that have become the staple diet (only for sustenance) for the everyman. This is provided for free, but contains little nutrients and tastes very bad.
To make these blobs taste good with flavors and to add essential nutrients, people purchase and add Additives (Adds) to the Blobs after which they can be called Food.
Therefore, these Adds also contain special properties that replicate essential nutrients such as Vitamin C, etc. and due to their compostable nature, they also expire over time if they are unused.
Adds vary in price, so some poorer members of the population cannot afford them all.

Issues:

Ecological Problem
Social Problem

Revised Story

The Rescuers entered the marketplace, and Jaime their leader, started to give her orders.

“All right everyone, thank you for coming today. Before we begin, let’s check our equipment,” said Jaime, as she took out a random Add vial from inside her coat and scanned it with her CON-VIAL device.

Some beeping noises, and then the data appeared on her device’s screen.

[Results]

Edibility – O.K.

Magnesium — 20%

Zinc — 40%

Iron — 40%

Perfect, mine’s working, she thought to herself. She walked around and ensured that everyone else’s machine worked too.

“Alright, everyone has their inventory?” she asked. They nodded and gave a thumbs-up to her, waving their list of necessary nutrients the team was to collect that day.

“Perfect, let’s spread out and cover as much ground as possible!”

And off they went, with each Rescuer going towards a store of their own.

Jaime approached a storekeeper whose signboard read, “MUSHROOMS & OYSTERS”.

“Hi there, do you have any vials that will be expiring soon?” she asked politely.

The Storekeeper looked at her and grunted. “A Rescuer, eh?”

“Yes,” smiled Jaime. “One of the nutrients we need today is Zinc, so your store sign kinda screams that.”

“Yeah, yeah,” grumbled the Storekeeper. He walked around the back and came back a few seconds later with a few Add vials.

“These are the ones I couldn’t sell because mushroom flavours went out of vogue recently with the higher echelons,” he shrugged.

Jaime began to scan the Add vials one by one with the CON-VIAL to ensure they contained the nutrient they needed, and to check if the contents within the vial itself were already rotten.

After proceeding carefully, she concluded that the entire box was safe.

“Thank you sir, we will be putting these to good use,” beamed Jaime.

“Be sure to say hi to them for me,” said the Storekeeper as he sat down and went back to reading his paper.

***

“Jaime!” exclaimed a little boy dressed in ragged clothing.

“Hey Andy!” replied Jaime as the little boy rammed himself into her. Not one to waste time, Jaime began to test the boy with her SKINSENICAL device by tapping it on the boy’s skin.

The device read: ZINC DEFICIENCY.

“What did you bring us today?” asked Andy, excitedly.

“Mushrooms!” Jaime responded, as she prepared the Add vials she collected with her team earlier that day. “Give me your blob, Andy.”

Andy handed Jaime an odorless, grayish matter. She took it gently, then swung her machine bag around and placed the blog into her TRANSMUTATOR. A whirring noise occured and then a resounding ‘ding’.

“It’s ready Andy!” said Jaime as she took out the blob again, this time with a different color; it was a brownish-red. She handed it over to Andy.

Andy immediately chomped down on it and remarked, “MUSHROOMS ARE AMAZING.”

October 14, 2018November 6, 2018

Share Your World – Vashon Tnee

Microfiction 1 (Giving Day)

“It appears your family has a zinc deficiency ma’am,” said the rescuer as he raises his test device from the woman’s skin. He glances over at her child.

“It could mean growth retardation for her as well,” he continued.

“Yes, it has been difficult to purchase that particular Add recently ever since prices for it went up because of the recent demand in the upper echelons for mushroom flavoured items,” said the woman.

The rescuer nodded understandably.

The rich has often, in their own possibly unknowing way, influenced the overall market with their purchasing power to determine the demand and supply of the types of Adds that become available in the market. That is why it is up to him and his crew to take leftovers from stores where older Adds have gone out of vogue and give them to the needy who require Adds more for its nutrients rather than its flavour.

The rescuer smiles at the woman.

“Not to worry ma’am, my friends and I have collected some older versions of Adds, which contain the Zinc you need.”

“What flavour is it?” asked the child. The woman hushes her.

“It’s all right,” waved the Rescuer. “Today, you guys shall have oysters!”

With a press of a button, the machine on his chest starts to whir.

Microfiction 2 (Collection Day)

“Here take these,” said the storekeeper, handing over a couple of Add vials.

“Watch and learn, Rookie,” said the larger one with the Rescuer machine strapped to her.

“First, we test it for any anomalies, this is important. We need to make sure that it is still edible for our recipients.” She pulls out a device which scans the Add for any anomalies. A beeping sound occurs.

“Hey Storekeeper, I am afraid we can’t take this one,” she calls out. “Our machine reads that the compounds in it have begun to rot.”

“But it’s before the expiry date,” said the storekeeper.

“Yes, but unfortunately, we have to be extra careful with the items we give to our recipients.”

The storekeeper grumbles. “Fine, hand it over I’ll see if I have any others out back.”

The Rookie looks up at her senior with admiration. “Do you think that machine will be able to fix spoiled food?” she asked earnestly.

The senior looks at her with a thoughtful look upon her face. “You know what, I think you just gave me an idea.”

Microfiction 3 (Dumpster Day)

“This is gross,” called out one of them.

“But necessary,” chimed in the other.

Two silhouettes are rummaging in the dark through an open dumpster from a small alley.

“You know, as the Dumpster team, we really have it way harder than the Collection team,” said the first.

The second shook her head. “It’s not that difficult. All we have to do is find vials and scan them for edibility.”

The first just shrugs. “Hey I found one!” she calls out, raising a purple vial in her hand.

“Let’s scan it,” said the second.

The machine strapped to their backs comes with a scanner which looks like an artifact from the past where they used it for barcodes. Scanning the vial, the machine crunches itself with some noises.

“Alright, this one has Zinc, Calcium and Magnesium,” said the second proudly. She scratches off the items from their inventory.

“Perfect, now we have collected enough nutrients to start giving!”

NOTES

I came up with these three micro-fictions, but decided to take parts of them to create the revised story together with Allison’s selected pieces as well. We will be posting our revised story that comes with the full research on our storyworld and the accompanying graphic together in the next post.

October 14, 2018November 11, 2018

Share Your World; MicroFictions – Allison Kapps

Story 1 (My edited selection)

From my tiny and mostly bare apartment, I can see the hoards of them.

Lining up along the street waiting for their turn to get what they need from the Shapeless Shack.

I fiddle with a tiny vial, the ruby red liquid shines against the sunlight coming through my window. My jacket feels heavy, lined with dozens of other multi-coloured vials. I adjust the long trenchcoat again and sigh.

The reminder system in my apartment lets out two quick beeps. 15 minutes left until the Shapeless Shack closes and there will be hundreds of hungry, unsatisfied souls left walking the streets.

A large electronic billboard flickers to the right, overlooking an overpopulated square. “An add a day keeps the doctor away,” reads the sign in bright, crisp yellow letters. An apple sits proudly in the center.

I feel a spark of frustration. In tiny, black letters the ad reads $100. Expensive, I think.

I turn from the window and go to the door, where I put on my shoes. Then I pick up my converter, a large oven shaped device that I hang on my neck. The weight of the vials and the converter make my back ache, but I have no choice. I walk to the elevator and it makes a quick sound as it arrives.

Outside, a sour smell permeates the air. I make my way over to the Shapeless Shack, and as I do Anderson recognizes me.

“Jaime!” He exclaims, running towards me “Finally!”

Anderson’s tiny frame hits my leg. For an 8-year-old, he’s light as a feather. “What do you have for us today?” He asks.

“Let’s take a look, what are you in the mood for?” I ask in return, with a smile on my face. I open my jacket just a bit and show him all the vials inside.

“Wow.” He breathes, eyes bright with wonder. “So colorful!”

“Yep!” I tell him, “Do you want to see what you need?” I ask.

“Test me!” “Test me!” He chants. So I pull out my SkinSenical from my pocker and touch his skin with the cool metal tip of the long hand held device. ‘Citrus’, the monitor reads. “Some oranges, then?” I say.

“Hurray!” Anderson exclaims, excited to eat oranges for the second day in a row. He holds out his share of the glob. “Better than plain Glob,” he says in a half-whisper.

“Agreed,” I laugh, and take out a vial with bright orange liquid inside. I take his glob, and place it inside the large rectangular metal converter that hangs around my neck. Time to make some oranges, I think.

“Delicious,” I say, as I pour the bright orange liquid all over the glob, and it slowly transforms into an orange.

“Enjoy, Andy,” I say with a smile as I hand the orange to him.

Story 2

My shoes make loud, clacking sounds as I walk the pristine white aisles of AddCentral. Not a speck of dirt in sight, or a vial out of place.

I think about Anderson, and how thin he looked the other day. I make a mental note to get more Citrus Add since I know its what he needs the most.

“Ouch!” I hear someone exclaim from below me, followed by the sound of a wailing child. It’s a boy, perhaps aged 8 or 9, sitting on the floor of the store. I take note of his chubby cheeks and his clean blue overalls. “Mommyyyyy!” The child yells, disrupting the silence of the large store.

I hear the fast, relentless click-clack of heels approaching. “What happened, baby?” A lady asks, worried.

“He stepped on my hand!” The child exclaims.

The woman whips her body toward me, her beautiful white leather purse swinging around to follow. “Excuse me, but you should really watch where you’re walking,” She exclaims with a scowl.

“Right, sorry,” I say, distracted by the vials in her hand. I’m familiar with them, they’re some of the most expensive anyone can buy in the store. They’re each valued at $2000 dollars a vial.

It’s no wonder her son looks far from hungry, I think to myself.

Story 3

I observe the shopkeeper from afar, contemplating my approach. He’s talking to a client, having a conversation about the contents of a vial.

I hope he’s in a good mood, I think to myself.

The lady purchases the vials, and the shopkeeper smiles at her. He’s approachable, I decide.

I walk over from shelves nearby and approach him. “Excuse me,” I say, to get his attention.

He whips his head up from his computer and focuses on me. “Can I help you?” He asks, expectantly.

“Yes, actually. I’m from an organization called Add-Me-Too, and we collect expiring or unsellable vials. Do you have any that you don’t plan on selling?” I ask, hopefully.

“Hmm…I think I might in the back. You’re here at a good time, we haven’t done a dumpster run for the day.” He replies

Great! I think. Hopefully, this batch has some good content.

The shopkeeper returns with a big cardboard box. “Here’s all we got, be careful they’re delicate.”

“Amazing!” I exclaim. “Thank you so much for your help!”

I look inside the box and see 10 vials. Not too bad for one store, but no Citrus for Anderson. I make a mental note to visit Henry at Add supply after packing up these vials.

October 13, 2018November 6, 2018

Share your world – Chia Li Hui

In this world, everyone wears a wireless earpiece and listens to the same music. Music becomes a drug of choice and no one will be walking anywhere without the earpiece. The music depends on what is played in the location, e.g. in coffee shops or in the library (silent disco concept). As long as there is music playing in the location, the earpiece will be connected automatically and will play them.

It functions similarly to a solar panel (but instead of sun, it will work when there is the presence of music). People can choose to disconnect from the location’s music and engage in a conversation with another party by connecting to a virtual chat room. Parties can hear one another through the earpiece. When TVs or radios are detected, users can also choose to connect to them. It can also store music in this earpiece.

Whenever someone loses or damages their earpiece, he or she can easily collect another one in any nearby train stations for free.

Addresses accessibility and the reliance on this earpiece in this world.
Addresses social class issues → Something that everyone has, regardless of social class

Summary of the functions:

Plays any music that is playing at the location
Will function whenever any music is detected
Disconnect to background music
Connect to a virtual chat room to engage in a conversation (face to face)
If it detects any TVs or radios, users can choose to connect to them
Store music
Sets music of the location
Do not need to charge (like solar panel)

The story will focus on a male who is passionate about pottery and would like to perform street pottery to promote this underrated art. He uses a pottery wheel that works functions based on the music playing at the location. Whenever he reaches a location where there is no background music played, he will plug in his earpiece to the pottery wheel and sets the music of the location. This way, people who walk pass will be able to hear the tune he is creating his pottery to. As music consist of different tempos, there will be a stand to help control the stability of his hands which will help him to draw and carve the pottery in straight lines.

Sketch:

October 13, 2018November 14, 2018

Share Your World – Brenda Tan

Practice
Ceramic Art

Microfiction Story
In the year 2500, global warming is now almost fully eradicated. In order to stop the accumulation of heat, governments worked together to eliminate not just carbon dioxide emissions, but all greenhouse gases, such as methane and nitrous oxide. Deforestation and other harmful land uses that affect the Earth’s energy balance have been successfully reversed. As a result of this, the Earth is experiencing drastic climate change and now has an average temperature of -18°C. The weather in countries all around the world is now colder and drier than ever. Flowers are at the brink of extinction, and the Earth no longer looks as vibrant as compared to decades ago.

Our protagonist, Eleanor, has always been very passionate about ceramic art and she is now one of the very few ceramic artists left. Her family used to own a ceramic art cafe where people can either attend ceramic art workshops or just enjoy the ceramic art gallery while sipping their coffees. However, as the climate on Earth started experiencing drastic changes, the clay that they used could no longer withstand the low temperatures and started to harden very quickly during the throwing process. The chemical reactions between the mineral contents in the clay bodies during the throwing process is not controllable by the human hand. Thus, Eleanor’s family cafe was forced to shut down.

Eleanor’s biggest dream is to bring ceramic art back to life and she is unwilling to send it down the lane of banality. Therefore, she has been on a journey to educate others about ceramic art with her trusty one-of-a-kind convertible ceramic on-the-go backpack.

New technology
Eleanor’s convertible backpack includes the following functions:

Removable top compartment that converts into a ceramic art apron that holds all the tools she need
Heating element at the bottom that keeps the clay at optimal room temperature
Portable potter’s wheel box attached to the top of the backpack with atmosphere that mimics room temperature to facilitate the throwing process. Attached to the top of this box is a:
Retractable tablet that stores all the photos of the past that inspired her ideation process: the tablet can be connected to the potter’s hands through his veins, which enables the potter to shape or design the clay based on the photo selected through electronic signals that are sent to the bloodstream

Sketches