Hypnapod

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Background: Hypnapod is an ongoing interdisciplinary art and design experiment by the Unconscious Collective. The project was conceived in 2015 by David Patman and Michelle Boyde (the Unconscious Collective) and has evolved from initial prototyping through to lab testing and live events. Hypnapod aims to investigate somatic connections between people and how living beings synchronise behaviour through non-verbal biological processes.

Contribution: A range of soft hanging cardiophonic knitted pods were designed to encourage relaxation and increase awareness of bodily processes and interconnections between people, exploring practices of ‘crowd snoozing’ and cybernetics. I was invited to collaborate with Unconscious Collective to design and develop a series of 3d knitted pods. The pods were seamlessly knitted providing a soft and flexible space balancing the need for strength, contour and comfort. The prototyping involved exploring materials, 3d shaping techniques, stitch structures, and concealed pockets to integrate the electronic components. This work informs my ongoing research into advanced digital fabrication processes associated with seamless 3d knitted form building for non-standard applications. It extends previous work developed from the Glow project (2012-4) and Dermoid III (2012-3).

Significance: The project has been assisted through the Australia Council, Arts Tasmania, Menzies Institute for Medical Research, the Detached Cultural Organisation and MPavilion through the Naomi Milgrim Foundation. It was presented MPavilion (February 2017) as part of the cultural program of events and was reviewed in the Guardian, Australia edition; MONA FOMA (January 2018) at QVMAG, Launceston and Brooke Street Pier, Hobart; and Monash MPavilion (September 2019).