Vision

Today, I find myself in a world where travel is not a simple act of exploration but a complex web of bureaucratic hurdles. A legacy of colonialism has left citizens of 'undesirable' places like me, restricted from freely experiencing the world. I was forced to navigate a maze of personal and financial documents just to secure a brief visit to the EU for six days – a process that was not only time-consuming but also deeply frustrating. Why should my right to see the world be any less than anyone else's? Are we not all human, deserving of the same opportunities to explore and learn?

On the other hand, there are those from the imperial core, who often have the rights and means to travel but choose not to – does exploration not appeal to them? My (Dutch) girlfriend's grandparents were such people – their fear of 'strange foreigners' was deeply ingrained. Meeting me shattered many of their preconceived notions and sparked a shift in their beliefs on 'brown' foreigners. This personal encounter with diversity humanised me in their eyes, and I believe it has the power to do the same for others. If people expose themselves to more of the world, they will begin to understand and appreciate its diversity, leading to a more inclusive and empathetic society.

These cases exemplify why access to mobility is of immense importance to me. Not wanting to change the world is a statement of the privileged – I must create change. But how do you make people want to move and move well (Project 2 – Natural Wayfinding)?  Mobility has trended towards two extremes in the last decades: blind efficiency – lower costs; more exclusivity – higher costs [7]. Adults trade meaningful experiences for cost; for a child, the journey is everything [1]– I believe the experience matters (Internship).

Simultaneously, we are seeing a rise in the ubiquity of embedded systems, and screens are the most common interface [5] – ocular-centric information will become overwhelming. As computers become a part of our environment, we must interact more seamlessly with them. As early as the 90s, designers proposed a vision for such interaction design [3]. Practices of good urban design proposed by Jan Gehl [2] say cities must be designed prioritising the multisensory embodied experience. A street must not just let traffic flow but also consider a pedestrian's tactile, kinaesthetic, and auditory experience.

My understanding of working with large-urban-scale design, alongside Tangible and Shape-Change user interface design [4], is how I want to design for mobility. Taking interactive and shape-changing materials out of labs and contextualising them demonstrates that an 'impossible' tangible multisensory future is achievable.