romano babolin studio

digital detox room

a solution for being offline using technology

There is not only the deserted island as a refuge for detoxification, at least partially, by technology stress, but spaces can be created, also of small dimensions, which allow a group of people to experience "detox" sensory experiences.
A shared environment, to avoid the personal experience, which reproduces, with the appropriate tools, outdoor spaces of great effect, sophisticated sound, and a series of sensors and actuators that, with discretion, help to immerse themselves in a moment of meditation and detachment from the digital frenzy that pervades these times.
This research is based on the concept that using technology can be detoxified from it.

front view

top view

The "Digital Detox Room" is inspired by the Japanese rooms at the end of "Transport" Zen spirituality in this context. The interior layout is minimalist and built with natural materials. The traditional perimeter of natural wood s the element of the room badge. The floor itself consists of two different types of wood and a series of cushions are the seats for the participants. Other furnishing accessories such as stones, vases with bamboo and other objects they help to make the setting "meditative".

madera sonora

the sound of things

The "sound of things" is a project of great breath and complexity, expression of that culture and practice of design capable of making crafts, industrial, local and international vision dialogue; primitive world and modernity, united by the ancestral experience of sound.
Musical instruments, the final result of the work, are in themselves extraordinary project opportunities.
From the design point of view they propose the perfect metaphor of the need to design around to the human being. In fact, a musical instrument remains silent if there is no one playing it.

This instrument can be considered of the family of idiophones being the sound produced from the body itself or from parts of it.
It is composed of a basic wooden structure in which the steel "leaves" are crafted in harmonic steel.
The 11 "leaves" placed on the sides and centrally are the elements that, moved with various deeds, they produce sounds.
These have distinct shapes and sizes e they are inserted in the base that binds them and the keeps forced in their positions.
The wood is partially excavated for increasing the harmonic effect of the sounds produced by the "leaves".
The different dimensions of the "leaves" produce sounds both heavy and acute.
Further sounds are produced by beating directly on the wooden base. Inspired by the work of the "bittle" Catalan and to the different forms of leaves that meet in the natural habitat of Catalonia.

Using the open-source software "P5.js" I recorded the sounds produced by Madera Sonora and, following the parameters of the developed frequencies, colored geometric designs are displayed that change shape as the intensity of the frequencies changes.