“What would it take for humans to hibernate? And what would be the social consequences?”
In a joined effort between Philips Healthcare the Technical University Eindhoven and Design Academy, me and others worked on future probes for Philips. What does the future of healthcare look like? What future paradigms do we end up in and how do they effect the way we see, people, life and therefore healthcare?
Thinking about the challenge of dealing with natural hardships we ended up appropriating a common natural process: Hibernation.
Our challange became to confront people with a hibernating society (Hiber Nation) through the creation of several design probes. Design probes are created by fully embedding ourselves in the hypethetical future world and then bringing back some items/products from that world in order to provoke a discussion. Would we even want to live in such a world? What technical advances does it take?
We created three probes: First an anti-conception schedule that would ensure people to not be pregnant during hibernation season. The result is that most people will be born in a tighter timeframe, resulting in birt-hours instead of days. Second, a fully illustrated child’s book or fable, which tells the story of hibernation as a cultural phenomen. This included a bed-time song. And third, a hibernation suit, which shows what it would take practically and technologically for humans to hibernate. This includes temperature control, skin health and muscle athrophy prevention.
The work was shown in the Embassy of Health on the Dutch Design Week 2019.
In a joined effort between Philips Healthcare the Technical University Eindhoven and Design Academy, me and others worked on future probes for Philips. What does the future of healthcare look like? What future paradigms do we end up in and how do they effect the way we see, people, life and therefore healthcare?
Thinking about the challenge of dealing with natural hardships we ended up appropriating a common natural process: Hibernation.
Our challange became to confront people with a hibernating society (Hiber Nation) through the creation of several design probes. Design probes are created by fully embedding ourselves in the hypethetical future world and then bringing back some items/products from that world in order to provoke a discussion. Would we even want to live in such a world? What technical advances does it take?
We created three probes: First an anti-conception schedule that would ensure people to not be pregnant during hibernation season. The result is that most people will be born in a tighter timeframe, resulting in birt-hours instead of days. Second, a fully illustrated child’s book or fable, which tells the story of hibernation as a cultural phenomen. This included a bed-time song. And third, a hibernation suit, which shows what it would take practically and technologically for humans to hibernate. This includes temperature control, skin health and muscle athrophy prevention.
The work was shown in the Embassy of Health on the Dutch Design Week 2019.
