Hermod, my thesis project was part of my Master in interaction design at Domus Academy\NABA in Milan ( I have graduated in Dec 2020)
Concept, research & design by me
Project Leader: Michele Aquila
3D model & 3D animation: Arik Ninio
Project Leader: Michele Aquila
3D model & 3D animation: Arik Ninio
Post-Pandemic Cities workshop in
Collaboration with Sclak
TL;DRCollaboration with Sclak
"Hermode” is a privacy assistant -a wearable piece that detects sensors and other tracking devices in public spaces and according to your preferences, the device itself will help to disrupt those sensors, according to the law and wouldn't allow you to get off-grid. IT has different modes and it is operated by gestures, you can wear it throughout the day and use the different modes in various public spaces
An Overview
As we think of post-pandemic cities it seems that the main concern is how to create cities that will provide solutions to the increasing need for public open spaces, that will be multi-functional and safe.The aspect that is less spoken about is the amount of data that is been collected and used by citizens in those spaces.Even before the pandemic cities have become more wired in an exponential way. CCTVs, microphones, GPS, and public WI-FI are only some examples of data collecting measures.ֿ
Those sensors and devices are the building block of what is known as a“Smart-City”, in those cities, data usually is used to improve the operations across the city. This includes data collected from citizens, devices, buildings, and assets that are then processed and analyzed to monitor and manage traffic and transportation systems, power plants, utilities, water supply networks, waste, crime detection, information systems, schools, libraries, hospitals, and other community services. But the main cost of those improvements is the loss of privacy of the citizens.
Many of us are not aware of the extent and the implications of this data collection. As an example during the COVID-19 crisis sensors and other tracking devices help law enforcement to track citizens and by that manifesting the extent of power that they behold and lack of privacy of an individual in the public sphere.
As part of my research for this workshop, I came across projects that aimed for designing digital transparency in the public realm, some of them created a set of icons and posters that are mapping and categorizing public spaces in terms of tracking and other IoT devicesThis for me was the starting point of the ideation process.
As much as transparency and credible information are needed and make people much more aware and knowledgeable I felt that a shift in the balance of power is needed. The main objective of this project was to create a public space the will allow people to choose the extent of privacy they wish for.At first, I thought about creating an interactive space in which citizens will have the opportunity to choose whether or not they want to share their data, but the main problem I came across was that the user will need to define in every new space his\her privacy setting, therefore I decided to create an object that will be at the daily disposal of the user
