pierre-félix so revisits our relationship with social media notifications

pierre-félix so revisits our relationship with social media notifications
(above) a large knob allows to choose which social network the user wants to receive bubble-notifications from
all images courtesy of pierre-félix so

pierre-félix so is a french designer fascinated with emerging open source technologies like arduino and 3D printing. his work questions objects that are now network-connected and inquires about their future. with his ‘push revolution!’ project which encompasses three different objects, he centers his research around social media notifications, how they reach us, and how we respond to them.

that project is a straight criticism to the notification presence and questions the relevance of their impact

‘ego’, the first object, takes into consideration the social network notifications. the designer chose to associate these alerts with soap bubbles in order to enhance their ephemeral natural while successfully materializing them for a short period of time. his reflection on the subject is that their virtual and immaterial nature prevents us from being aware of their presence and importance.

the object is made in corian, in a massive and monolithic shape that opposes to the bubbles

‘wow’ is the second object of the collection and is concerned with private notifications, and message exchanges with our loved ones. no matter if it’s an email, a text message or a photo, these notifications are a communication intermediary and bring emotions more or less strong, according to the sender. this piece was designed to enhance these emotions and to provide the same joyous feeling you experience when receiving this daily messages. to achieve this, ‘wow’ is an object that has a balloon that inflates when you receive the notification, and deflates some seconds later.

video courtesy of pierre-félix so

‘wow’ is meant to be surprising and intriguing 

the balloon plays the role of an emotional trigger

the shape follows the curves of the balloon 

3D printing helped during the research steps of the project

‘TacPad’ is the last object of the collection and it is a device that allows you to manage your notifications with pleasure. the designer references the act of popping bubble wrap, transforming through an object the routine action of consulting your notifications into a liberating event.

the designer was interested in guilty pleasures, especially in bubble wrap

bursting a bubble becomes associated with the idea of removing the notifications

the system uses silicone to reproduce the bubble wrap experience

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.