TITLE: LUC
CONTEXT: PROJECT 2
ROLE: DESIGNER STORYTELLER
EXPERTISE AREAS:
USER & SOCIETY
CREATIVITY & AESTHETICS
TECHNOLOGY & REALIZATION
MATERIALS:
SENSORS
PLASTIC
LIGHTS
A SENSE OF COMPANIONSHIP
L.U.C. (Lifestyle Utility Companion) is a modular interactive object designed to support emotional engagement and reduce digital dependency through subtle, tangible interaction. The project emerged from a process of iterative making, material experimentation, and world-building tactics driven by a central question: What makes an object a companion?
Initially developed through speculative sketches and a magic machine workshop with soft materials such as yarn and tights, the concept evolved via experience prototyping into a magnetically modular cube system. L.U.C. responds emotionally to different modules: it gets bored when left alone, excited when connected, or upset if unbalanced. This behavior system was grounded in affective design theory, drawing from bouba/kiki effect studies and emotional response patterns to form associations between form, motion, and personality.
The project was an exercise in combining absurdity and logic, leveraging the idea of anthropomorphized interaction to build emotional resonance without complex AI. Each module provided a focused interaction, echoing Ulrich’s theory of modularity as a method for clear function separation. The soft visual identity of round corners, pastel color coding, and consistent geometric shapes aimed to communicate friendliness and calmness.
Beyond aesthetic form, the project challenged us to build behavioral logic and emotion into low-fidelity systems. I contributed particularly to form development, narrative cohesion, and aligning emotional expressivity with technical feasibility. The subtle reactions of L.U.C. were designed to suggest feeling, not emulate it a reflection of my ongoing interest in creating presence rather than function.