sensiLab a hit at Melbourne Knowledge Week
From life-hacking to wearables and personal monitoring, our lives are being measured and modified like never before. In order to explore these ideas further, Monash University’s sensiLab set up a...
From life-hacking to wearables and personal monitoring, our lives are being measured and modified like never before. In order to explore these ideas further, Monash University’s sensiLab set up a fascinating exhibition and panel discussion during Melbourne Knowledge Week, called The Quantified Self – life hacking in the Internet Age.
The event was highly attended, with visitors able to engage in a number of intriguing activities.
The Hive Mind was set up like a small gaming centre, connecting multiple users via virtual reality. The virtual landscape that they inhabited was programmed to react to their stress levels and mood - heights of the mountains would grow, water levels would rise, trees would shake and the earth would move, as the group became more stressed.
At the Thoughtforms station, visitors could wear an EEG brain sensor, which measured tiny electrical changes in their brainwaves and converted this data into an abstract three dimensional shape. With a 3D printer, sensiLab were able to bring those thoughtforms into the physical world, producing small 3D printed thoughts, which could then be taken home as a keepsake.
For those who were curious about wearables, the Stress Pendant map was a brilliant demonstration of their potential. sensiLab’s specially created Stress Pendants were worn by a group of 40 volunteers for the week leading up to the event. The volunteers were asked to squeeze the pendant whenever they felt stressed. Data about the location and the time of day was collected from each squeeze, allowing a map of Melbourne’s stress zones to be developed.
The panel discussion, titled Tested on Humans, was no less exciting, with local and international speakers including Rachel Kalmar, Pia van Gelder, Suneel Jethani and Professor Jon McCormack. Emceed by RRR's Warren Davies, the discussion dissected the quantified self movement – how this has driven changes in the way we view and deliver art and design, anthropological and sociological frameworks, physical optimisation, and technological advancement as a whole.
The Quantified Self was one of 60 events held during Melbourne Knowledge Week in 2016. The festival’s theme was, ‘connecting minds, creating change’, and offered the general public a chance to connect with the knowledge sector’s most innovative ideas and thinkers.
