A collection of inflatable and hairy objects that demonstrate alternative properties of embodied care. 

Interactive presentation during the Powers of Love: Enchantment to Disaffection conference hosted by Parse research journal at HDK and Gothenburg University. 

In todays material driven society, we have more things than we can care for emotionally. The objects that make up our everyday are simply not designed for caring through embodiment or affection. However, humans are predisposed to project human emotions and beliefs onto any-thing to rationalise and process from the external to the internal. Objects that exude empathy (care) can affect our emotional being and can define the way humans and non-human objects interact with each other and sustain a more lasting relationship between the two.

Humans are social creatures and react strongly to emotional cues. Facial expressions and body language are natural when evaluating a persons mood or emotional state but can also be used to assess anything “vaguely lifelike”. These lifelike characteristics have been explored through various activities and active agents (tools) to test the boundaries of emotional care and to problematise care within a new embodied relationship between body and object.

Materials have properties and characteristics that can inform an objects care function and instruct their needed care. Simple actions such as combing a hairy material object can be viewed as a fundamental and trivial act of caring between product and consumer. To keep the objects hair in order, it needs to be combed, maintained, and cared for. Failure to do so will result in tangled hair, or what can be universally understood as visual representation of carelessness.

Care is a fundamental human behaviour that can define the way humans and non-human objects interact witheach other. The objects presented in this interactive presentation demand care by design and have the potential of aiding in a more meaningful interaction with our material surroundings. These alternative objects demand our attention, and, in some cases, they demand our affection. This is highlighted within the objects materiality and function by design of artefacts that are referred to as emotionally intelligent objects.