Designing with the auditory perception in mind, our manufactured body extension deals with the ability to literally grasp and grab sound from the surrounding environment. Sound helps a person gauge his spatial surroundings. But our hearing can sometimes fail us and in some scenarios, missing certain sounds/beats/ noises can affect the succeeding course of action. In a sense, amplifying our sense of hearing accelerates our reaction time, in most cases.
Consider the following scenario - a person walking down a quiet street at night doesn’t hear the footsteps of a stalker - in comes our auditory body extension that can help the person better perceive the space around them and the people in that space. Structurally inspired by origami fashion and the space suits of sci-fi movies, this collapsable auditory extension will enhance a person’s ROM by increasing his ability to grasp the space around him and to understand and react to the stimulus.
__________
I see — the world
I hear — the world
(I hear — through the auditory artefact)— the world
“Hello, from the other side...”; this line perfectly describes our auditory extension and relates it to Ihde’s “A Phenomenology of Technics: A. Technics Embodied”. This intervention to the human body affects the way we listen to the world around us and the manner in which we react to auditory stimulus. It is a film between (I) and (World) and is embodied by the wearer, depending on the degree of perfection of the technology. Comparable to the wearing of glasses as a corrective technology, this manufactured body extension is capable of amplifying the sound from the surrounding environment.