“Presence bespoke postural service” addresses the concerns society has with bodily perfection, ideals of beauty and health through the concept of posture.

Initial research:

Shifting concepts and standards of beauty have given rise to extraordinary fashions that constrict, pad, minimize, or exaggerate various zones of the body. Throughout history and through a cross-section of cultures people have transformed their appearance to confirm to a beauty ideal. Society has always been fascinated with physical appearance in evaluating the human body. These evaluations have shifted through a myriad of different tastes and judgments in regard to what we think as of ugly or beautiful, perfect or imperfect.
From african neck binding or plate wearing, foot binding, corsets, medical braces, prosthetics, orthotists – teeth, dowagers hump, plastic surgery, tatto’s, status shoes, skin modification- lumps, tongue splitting.

In modern society, where many occupations require people to work in a forward leaning position at workstations for most of the working day, a forward positioning of the head may become a postural feature. Neck and shoulder pain symptoms have been reported in large numbers of occupations.

As an interaction design my designs are typically informed by user research, with an emphasis on behaviour as well as form and are usually evaluated by emotional factors. Within my design practice the actual experience of design is an essential part to my process, it is not always about a product process or service but the human experience based on the considerations of the individual needs. With presence I collaborated with the general public to find out what concerns they had about posture. How work may affect their general appearance and health. When were they most conscience of their posture, what where specific instances when they wanted to be seen as having good posture. How they believed posture and the way that they carried themselves effected the impressions they may make on others. How posture influenced their attitude and self-image.

It was a shared creation as the more I learnt about the needs, insecurities, bad habits of the people I interviewed the more their answers highlighted that we have complicated natures and that our thoughts are more often contradictory, fragile and imperfect. Their needs provided me with a guidance framework for designing the behavioural and emotional interactions of the posture enhancer devices. I blurred reality and fantasy to create 3 characters that would then represent my research while expressing my own thoughts and ideas of the value and importance we place on bodily perfection.

I bounded my body and tested quick and dirty prototypes to see how my posture was or improve or affected.( Much to the amusement to all in the studio. From these experiements I then went on to make more aesthetically pleasing prototypes.