Communication is explored through felt relations as well as signs.
Speculative wearable prototypes · 2017
ProtoSenses
A speculative family of wearable prototypes that explores new combinations of signs, symbols and senses for human–machine communication.
Read the project ↓2017ProtoSensesArchive documentation under review
Project typeResearch · Tool / prototype · Method / framework · Fashiontech
ThemesEmbodied & haptic interaction · Wearables & e-textiles · Speculative & critical design
FormWearable research prototypes
Year2017
FocusSynaesthesia and communication
ApproachSpeculative embodied interaction
01 · Proposition
Communication can begin before language is fixed
ProtoSenses investigates how bodies and machines might exchange meaning through unfamiliar combinations of sensation, gesture and symbol.
The project develops a family of wearable propositions rather than a single finished device. Each prototype rearranges familiar sensory relations to test how an emerging human–machine vocabulary could be felt, interpreted and negotiated.
Synaesthesia operates here as a design strategy: signals can cross between visual, tactile and bodily registers, allowing communication to remain exploratory rather than immediately reduced to commands or efficiency.
02 · Experience
Combine, embody, interpret
- 01
Recombine
Signs, symbols and sensory channels are brought together in unfamiliar configurations.
- 02
Wear
The propositions move communication onto and through the body.
- 03
Interpret
Meaning emerges through encounter rather than from a predetermined universal code.
03 · Reflection
A proto-grammar remains open
The prototypes ask what communication might become when sensation is treated as structure rather than decoration.
ProtoSenses uses speculative wearables to keep human–machine communication plural and embodied. Instead of assuming that technical systems should become invisible, the work gives their signals a material presence that can be noticed, learned and questioned.
The body becomes both the location and the medium of interpretation.
Multiple prototypes hold open more than one possible future vocabulary.
Credits & archive
Project record
- Concept and development
- Ricardo O’Nascimento
References
ProtoSenses — Forecast Platform ↗
