Shani Langberg

Department: Social Design
Website: shanilangberg.com

Body and Mind

Medical technology in the form of home sensors, apps and monitors aim to improve our habits and health. But for Shani Langberg, this actually distances us from our body. As we grow reliant on such electronics, we lose our innate understanding of our own needs. Instead of feeling and listening to what our body is telling us, we read graphs and words updating us on our condition. This can actually make things worse instead of better: raising our heart-rate and stress level, because we need to use our rational minds to understand the technology.
With ‘Body and Mind’, Shani seeks a way to benefit from wearable self-monitoring technology while also re-connecting the relation between body and mind. A special shirt contains an inbuilt optical heart pulse sensor and belt. When the heart rate is too high, the belt tightens and releases, guiding the body in when to inhale and exhale through deep belly breaths. This acts as an intuitive biofeedback mechanism to change our breathing patterns, helping us to reach a state of calm. The goal of this training tool is that in time, the body will adjust its breathing patterns unconsciously in certain situations.