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Overall

Nowadays, the inventions of household appliances and consumer electronics are all pursuing efficiency and accessibility. I wonder what if these products can offer other services.

Introduction and Design Concepts

After reading Maslow's hierarchy of needs & some theories about the order of consumer needs, I tried to change the function of the appliance to serve our emotions. Inspired by the scroll painting in the Japanese meditate room, this project poetically illustrates the relationship between time and memory. By connecting time, wind speed data, and the action of leaves falling, The Wind from the Past illustrates a silent view of the wind flow. The audience can feel the wind from the dancing of the leaves. At the same time, let their thoughts linger in the memories. I wish different household appliances could be a vital stimulus in people's thinking.

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How it functions

Users can choose the time and location, and it will show the corresponding expression of wind speed and direction through the weather data. In addition, I create these scenes without topographic features to supply more space for imaging and avoid distractions from feeling the delicate sentiment.

1. Domestic spaces in post-mao china:on electronic household appliances

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For the purpose of knowing more historical and background knowledge, the publication of China researcher Wang Minan《 On Electronic Household Appliances》inspired me a lot.

This article takes household appliances as the subject of a biography and discusses the spatial power structure of washing machines, refrigerators, mobile phones, televisions, and other appliances in daily life. These objects chosen in the works show our desires, needs and the changes of our life. The action of washing clothes becomes the actuation of the start switch, and the action of writing becomes percussion. These changes mean that inventions and technology form people’s life posture.

Domestic spaces in post-mao china:on electronic household appliances by Wang Minan(2015):  / photograph: Liu Yiwei

2. Maslow's hierarchy of needs  &  Hierarchy of consumer needs

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Maslow's hierarchy of needs is used to study how humans intrinsically partake in behavioral motivation. Maslow used the terms "physiological", "safety", "belonging and love", "social needs" or "esteem", and "self-actualization" to describe the pattern through which human motivations generally move. This means that in order for motivation to arise at the next stage, each stage must be satisfied within the individual themselves. Additionally, this hierarchy is a main base in knowing how effort and motivation are correlated when discussing human behavior. Each of these individual levels contains a certain amount of internal sensation that must be met in order for an individual to complete their hierarchy. The goal in Maslow's hierarchy is to attain the fifth level or stage: self-actualization.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs image from:
https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html)


A hierarchy of consumer needs by P. Jordan (image from:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369702103012239)