DistanSense
DistanSense tackles the problem of personal space being invaded in one’s surroundings.
A semester project by Marie Hinrichs
6th semester 2024
Supervisors: Max Studanski, Andreas Schindler and Prof. Tsunemitsu Tanaka
Acceleration
It all began with a train journey to work. Two things struck me: an enormous amount is happening around us in a very short space of time, and people are barely aware of their physical surroundings anymore. I found a connection between these two things – acceleration. There is more to it than simply pressing the accelerator. It’s about a mindset that has become ingrained in our thinking over millennia and is still reflected in our actions today: growth means achieving more and more in ever shorter periods of time.
It sounds logical at first; for start-ups, it may well be the key to success, but what about our relationships with one another? What suffers as a result is the conscious moment. That conscious moment of listening to someone, looking at someone, feeling, and truly noticing someone. When every single person is racing ahead on their own to grow, the ‘WE’ shrinks.
A close race
Back at the station. With so many people rushing about, from the outside it looks like a marathon in which every single person is trying to win. The prize is a seat on the train, those extra ten minutes on the sofa on the way home, or a satisfied boss because you managed to get to the meeting on time after all. It’s a close race, not just metaphorically, but physically too. In a marathon, you’re often overtaken by a hair’s breadth – and frequently jostled in the process. It doesn’t feel good when your personal space is invaded. But nobody can see that, can they?
Making the invisible visible in a space
DistanSense tackles the problem of personal space being invaded and a lack of awareness of one’s surroundings in crowded public areas such as railway stations. Projections make each person’s personal space visible on the station floor in the form of a circle. This personal space shrinks the closer people get to one another. This not only allows them to recognise how much space they actually have available at any given moment, but also enables them to recognise when they themselves or someone else is encroaching on their space.
Considerate behaviour
DistanSense is designed to encourage people to keep their distance and be considerate by reflecting their own movements and those of others. This helps users develop a sense of how much distance is enough and when they are getting too close. This fosters an awareness of one’s own behaviour and improves social perception. After all, a railway station is a public space that we share. And if we want to share it fairly, we must be mindful not only of ourselves but also of one another.