CONCEPT

The earth works on a fragile balance between what is being consumed and what it can naturally produce. With the current pace of consumption, the stability of this balance is threatened, making humans vulnerable and highly dependent on the little resources we have left. As we progress into the future, we will only consume more and more of the earth’s resources, creating more instability in our daily lives. In order to move towards a more sustainable future, we need to consume less of what we have little of and develop more environmentally friendly habits. If we become more self-sufficient and conservative with consumption, we improve both our lives and the lives of others around us, creating stability and bringing balance back into our lives.

With MOMO, our goal is to design a sculpture that will help get rid of the needless consumption that inhabits our daily lives. MOMO will not only help develop and encourage the growth of environmentally friendly habits within the users’ lives, but will also act as a living statement of durability and sustainability. The modularity and flexibility of MOMO’s structure will create a design platform that can be modified and adjusted for the users’ changing tastes; a design platform that can be enjoyable to have with you throughout a lifetime. It will act as living proof that products can be created for more than just temporary consumption, where it will eventually be thrown away and replaced. With MOMO, we intend to create an inorganic form that feels like a real living organism, replicating just how easy environmental factors can influence how it behaves and lives. This organism can build relationships and connections with the users, reinforcing the idea that it is more than simply a kinetic sculpture. With MOMO, we hope that users will be influenced to make more sustainable choices in all aspects of their life, whether it is buying more reusable and durable products, or by making more environmentally conscious decisions in their day to day lives.

"If we are self sufficient and conservative with consumption, we improve our lives and the lives of others around us. We become less fragile and less dependent. We become less vulnerable. We become more stable and can bring balance to our lives."

We designed our sculpture as a toy pet that would remind the user to turn off lights should the user have an unnecessary amount on. Our goal is to create an emotional connection between the user and our sculpture. One way to fuel that connection is giving it human characteristics such as a name. We call it MOMO. Currently, there is no particular reason for the name aside from the fact that it’s “cute”, but we’ll be sure to make up a fancy acronym for the final report. MOMO reads information from the room that it is put inside. For instance, if the user keeps MOMO in the living room, MOMO would read certain information about the light usage of the living room such as how many lights are turned on, how many people are in the room and whether it’s daytime or nighttime using various sensors. MOMO also keeps track of how the user uses light in that particular room so that it can compare the existing data that is recorded onboard to the current situation overtime. MOMO would use its lighting, breathing and movement mechanism to communicate to the user about the light usage.

 

For example, say Tom usually spends his evening after work watching TV on the couch with only one light on, however today he has two lights on while watching TV. MOMO would move toward Tom in its panic state. Its movement and breathing pulse would be much faster than normal and eventually it will come to a complete stop, which we call we its ‘dying state’. In order to bring MOMO back to life, Tom has to turn off those extra lights or pet MOMO. Petting MOMO will resurrect him and it will turn off the lights in the room or dim them down to respectable levels for the situation if the user configures it. Then MOMO can start breathing and moving normally.

With such functions, MOMO is not only able to communicate to the user about their usage of light, but the vulnerability associated with high energy usage. The natural but in-organic movement and its behavior for example, gives the sense of wear and tear. The more you use some mechanical objects over time, the slower and less responsive they become. The organic like breathing on the geometric crystalline shell, representing how much life there is to spare, taking its breath away as you move from natural resources to more artificial providers. This bridges the organic and inorganic effects on consumption into one seamless sculpture.

MOMO also communicates the related side effects. For example, over consumption can lead to panic and despair. By consuming more resources than we need, we expose ourselves to shortages and become vulnerable to our dependency on such external forces. However, if we lead a balanced sustainable life we can improve our lives and the lives of others around us. If we keep care of what we have, it will lead to more enjoyable lives. With MOMO promoting such ideals, we can help educate users on the benefits of maintaining a more sustainable lifestyle

MOMO