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The Space Between Us

CSM Graduate Award Winner 2023

The Space Between Us is a crafted meditational aid and planetarium gifted to loved ones experiencing traumatic relationship changes.

As a poetic visual language, the product illustrates family, friends, and lovers as celestial bodies orbiting a star.

Designed to guide quiet reflection around the relationships in our lives, the meditational interface plays while moving each planetary knob around its orbit, creating a sense of soothing physicality that focuses the mind. 

The Space Between Us was acquired by and is now part of the CSM Museum & Study Collection
Category:
Product Design
Physical Computing
Experience Design
Design Art


Tools:
Arduino
Laser Cutting & Engraving
Adobe Illustrator
Blender
Woodworking
Photography






‘Surely the whole point of luxury brands (...) is the creation of value?
Instead, they rely on things (...) as well as signs and symbols – that already have value.’
Dezeen

Quote by Sam Jacob, Director of architecture practice FAT, professor of architecture at University of Illinois Chicago


Further Reading:

"There's no fun, no risk and no imagination in luxury design"

A Luxury Product With Purpose

Does luxury design today truly create value? 

As an alternative to the common practice of inventing added worth through branding The Space Between Us proposes the opposite: a product focused on both craft and functionality.


A Planeterium



Orrery — University of St Andrews Libraries and Museums


Product Design

The structural design pays homage to orreries, miniature planetariums  commisioned as luxurious crafted gifts by wealthy medieval individuals.

However, as a product it goes beyond a beautiful keepsake by functioning as a physical meditational interface.

When users move each planetary knob along its orbit, the disk spins and begins playing the audio of a meditational interface. It references the repetitive motions of using Tibetan singing bowls in an effort to reintroduce physicality into the act of meditation.


The Planets



Planetary Knobs

The planet bodies serve as knobs to help move the disks of the planetarium. They were modelled in Blender and 3D-printed in clear resin.

Each body represents a different type of relationship and controls a different meditational track.


Mechanical Structure


From Motion to Sound

As a user holds and moves the knob, the planetary disc in question spins.

The rod connected to the knob moves the outer gear, in turn shifting the smaller gear in the opposite direction. This drives the motion of a rotary encoder connected to an Arduino microcontroller which reads the movement and begins playing the meditational interface from the speaker.