Empathy Speaker
This project was completed for a bachelors-level elective; design for emotion and experience. The brief was to select an emotion and design a speaker which aimed to invoke said emotion.
em·pa·thy
“the ability to understand and share the feelings of another; or; the capacity to anticipate and reciprocate emotion”
The More the Merrier.
Empathy is a social emotion, and so using the speaker must also be social. By merging the emotion of empathy with the experience (by stacking speakers) the user is rewarded with an increase in volume.
Combinations for Days.
Audio Technics.
1 x Woofer:
Behind the main circular face
Bass reflex enclosure
Built in class-D amplifier
3 x Tweeters:
Surround the woofer (2 x each side, 1 x in back)
Stereo sound from one unit
Enhanced stereo with more than two units
Form Exploration and Iteration
Form exploration came in the way of starting with the most basic shapes, gradually including characteristics from the two selected art movements. This allowed for shapes to evolve with continuous iteration. Below is one of many exploration phases starting with a circle that produced the final concept’s form.
With Movements in Mind…
Mid-Century Modernism
Popular from the 1940-70’s, this design movement has strong influences from Scandinavia and North America. Furniture was influenced by the movement heavily, and it focuses mainly on the use of natural curves.
21st Century Technology
Prominent in the majority of todays technology and automotive design; this movement makes strong use of angular, geometric, and sharp forms. 21st century design makes use of contrasting colour to emphasise such forms.