Abstract
Privacy is perceived situationally by individuals, cultures, and communities. Design practices and outcomes generally respond well to these assumptions of privacy, yet simultaneously limit potential experiential improvements of the norm. This paper explores the reality of privacy in terms of public restrooms and their accompanying artifacts, customs, and spaces. A brief analysis of privacy, perception, and public spaces was conducted as part of the project, which ultimately connected both bathrooms and religious spaces as sacred and communal. Additionally, experiences of privacy and the senses were quickly linked. Ideations on potential designs for challenging this social space through religious and sensorial inspiration were then developed and tested. A final design was demonstrated in the form of a video that was shared with the public for review. The video shares an alternative bathroom experience where designed garments and artifacts (ear plugs, nose plugs, etc.) facilitate new ways of sharing privacy through the senses in a common and communal space. The entire project is currently being exhibited publicly, where opinions are being recorded. The study as a whole validates the conditional properties of privacy as well as the varied and valuable interest of the public in addressing these practices. It also solidifies the notion of design as not only a response to user needs and contexts, but as a catalyst for conversation and inquiry for topics as prevalent and sensitive as privacy. Lastly, the project relies heavily on multidimensional guidance in its development, cementing the importance of pluriversality in improving design practice.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Pluriversal Design, Design Futrues, Privacy, Speculative Design, Industrial Design, Bathrooms
