German designer Stefan Ulrich has designed a conceptual shape-changing object to relieve loneliness, using artificial muscle technology.
For his thesis project Ulrich conducted research into plastics that change shape when an electric current is applied, called electroactive polymers.
Ulrich suggests that in the future these materials could allow objects to change shape and surface texture.
He envisions that people will turn to robots for the illusion of a living presence to satisfy their emotional needs.
Ulrich undertook two months of research with Festo – a German supplier of pneumatic and electrical automation technology – and Swiss material sciences and technology institution EMPA, exploring the potential impact of new materials on future products.
Watch a movie illustrating the Funktionide concept gently changing shape as if breathing here.
Watch a movie demonstrating the technology here.
Here’s more from Stefan:
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Funktionide – New Promises
Based on an intensive two month research (in cooperation with FESTO Germany and the EMPA Switzerland) concerning artificial muscles (electroactive polymers) my work reflects upon how new technologies will change future products (and society), and the way we interact with them.
One day active materials such as electroactive polymers will drastically change the way we perceive products. Products will gain new dimensions ranging from changing tactile surfaces over active membranes to morphing shapes. Products of the future will be “alive” in a way. The results of that research actually led to create a vision of how the future of product design might evolve under the given premises.
One of those future products is the so called “Funktionide“. It is an amorph object whose intention is to provide the owner with an atmosphere of presence thus counteracting the feeling of loneliness. In the visions future people are lonely and with all the new dimensions products offer, humans will eventually turn to “robots” for emotional satisfaction.
This gives rise to a number of questions: What happens if products that were proposed as a relief against social isolation begin to become the solution?
How will it affect human interactions if people become more and more focused on their products? What will these products look like, or more important how will they behave? Etc.
In this way the works intention is to create a provocative picture for discussion, which enables us to question how much we want technological products to satisfy our emotional needs. To ask these questions will become part of the responsibility of future product design.
The ambiguity of this scenario is, that it could be understood as a solution to a wide range of different kinds of loneliness. But it might as well be understood as a scenario which should be avoided by all means possible.
October 5th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
bavarian weisswurst anyone?
October 5th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Alder, geh’ mehr unter Leute! Wie traurig ist das denn…
October 5th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
If you buy one of these you will definitely need it to relieve lonliness!
October 5th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Thanks but no thanks. I’d rather have a cat.
October 5th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
this project paints a bleak picture of the human condition
October 5th, 2009 at 6:27 pm
oh my God!…
October 5th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
frankly – brilliant!
October 5th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
i prefer a woman :)
October 5th, 2009 at 10:22 pm
I’m afraid, that people woud feel even lonelyer with such objeck… Atleast me for sure.. Although, beautiful idea…
October 5th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
Wow.. it looks like a giant douche bag
October 6th, 2009 at 12:39 am
a cry for help
October 6th, 2009 at 12:44 am
read this whilst listening to the first track….. http://www.myspace.com/damfunk
October 6th, 2009 at 3:38 am
ingenious – but frightening.
October 6th, 2009 at 9:04 am
Interesting technologie; But I believe that a real “human being” as no similitude with this. (smell, warm, heartMovement…)
October 6th, 2009 at 9:05 am
You seem to be lonely…
October 6th, 2009 at 9:59 am
OMG that fat sausage is now your fiancée ?
October 6th, 2009 at 10:33 am
Scary, lot of electrical stuff underneath!
October 6th, 2009 at 11:01 am
can it wash dishes?
October 6th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
This artistic statement works like a punch in the stomach, just seeing that object makes me feel lonely and cold.
October 6th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
It’s the end of human interaction.i prefer a friend or an animal…
October 6th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Whoa. Cuh-reepy.
October 6th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
Firstly I love the research and the technology behind it… Personally products to combat loneliness are always utterly strange to me, surely when loneliness occurs you realise a need for social interaction and thus find a social interaction be it a jaunt to the pub/bar. When this is not possible (4am in the workshop) i find the radio provides the required human touch to keep me going. For people who find they cannot find a social interaction be it physical or virtual are therefore probably a little bit travis bickle.
Great technology!!!
October 6th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
Money would be better spent on visiting a shrink.
October 6th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Maybe its more for short term use rather than to relieve a lifetime of loneliness. Do you think this will stop my boyfriend cheating on me when I go away for 6 months? If so I’m happy to have it take my place.
October 6th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
I prefer facebook
October 6th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
What happens if it breaks down and you have to get it to a repair shop?
Or worse yet, what do you do if your blob gets lonely?
October 6th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
I am with most of the other people here and think the whole loneliness thing is droll at best. From a design point of view the concept of materials such as electroactive polymers blows my mind but if that causes everything to look like big white blobs I am going to be upset and then truly depressed with the world around me.
October 6th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
Bear … write I prefer woman too … )))
October 6th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
Hmmm , i think it’s kinda scary, cause it reminds me of
caterpillars and sea cucumbers. or any living things that
looks like a moving piece of muscle.
if it had a different form it might look cuter and more inviting
to hug or touch.
October 6th, 2009 at 10:36 pm
Wonderful and ingenious — the counterpart to the child’s stuffed bear or doll taken to bed for comfort, I think this concept obliterates or at least ameliorates the stoicism adulthood is expected to endure and adopt in social or interpersonal situations in many cultures. Yes, it is artificial, but I do not think that is the point. Bravo to Ulrich!
October 7th, 2009 at 2:07 am
They should make a hole in it
October 7th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
I feel sad just reading about it and worry that owning it would only cause me to sink deeper…
October 7th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
he invented a pillow?
October 8th, 2009 at 10:04 am
Great job: good research, nice concept (not really about the “relieving of loneliness”, but about all the other possibilities and evolutions.)
October 9th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Think Svutlana this be every heterosex male dream come true: huge breast that seem for come for life. Can pat breast. Can put breast on lap. Can sleep on top breast. If breast come with beer refrigerator, it be good for go.
October 15th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
Think of the potential market in japan, that is all.
October 15th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
… When a man loves a larva…
October 27th, 2009 at 9:08 am
I think it’s more conceptual art than actual product! I don’t expect to see it on late night TV any time soon.
February 14th, 2010 at 12:02 pm
see more and listen to the designer here:
http://detektor.fm/kultur/es-schmiegt-sich-an-atmet-kuschelt-und-lebt-doch-nicht/