We are living in a complex world, and many of us face increasing demands in our daily lives. The ever-increasing workload neglects indivudal emotional well-being and mental care. Thus, keeping track of our mental load is more important than ever, especially for those faced with the challenge of additional responsibilities, such as taking care of family members or loved ones.
Our project, :Balance, aims to support those facing these burdens by offering a moment of calmness. Balance incentivizes a daily and delightful ritual that allows people to reflect on their mental load.
Over the day, a wearable and a questionnaire measure the pulse and subjective stress levels. The collected data is then used as a baseline and transferred to the artefact. The metaphor of :Balance is translated into the artefact's shape, which is inspired by a spinning top to materialize the withstanding of gravity, representing mental state of flow. The illumination reflected by the spinning top on, for example, a room ceiling, ranges from specific shades of light, reinterpreting the circadian clock, i.e., the rhythm of the sun. For example, when a person is stressed over the day, the illumination starts from ma bright white light and slowly turns dark blue.
If the stress level over the day was low, the initial color is on the blue side of the spectrum. When the light goes down, and the spinning ends, the meditator can decide whether they want to continue to meditate or whether they want to end the ritual. They can feel in control of time without a stressful alarm signal interrupting their thoughts. Our vision is to allow people to take a break from distressing and demanding life cicumstances, helping them anticipate a daily ritual to support emotional well-being. A future endeavor could be an infrastructure that can be leveraged to communicate individual stress levels to others within a safe environment.
Github:
https://github.com/zohrehasadi00/CodingIxD (Original)
Github:
https://github.com/DavidLanglamet/ixdMine (Current for token purposes)