Haptic Suicide

Over thousands of years, humans have fabricated physical objects in an attempt to create connective tissue for immaterial cultural paradigms and systems of dogma. These invented objects have acted as aids in the pursuit of understanding reality and our place in the universe.

This work uses real-time metrics to create experiential, if not spiritual, connections to the most basic of physiological conditions: birth, suffering, and death.

Embracing existing religious artefacts and implements, this work uses seemingly now-worshipped data and technology in conjunction with traditional objects of worship. Augmentations to reclaimed Protestant church pews are used to express metrics of suicide by sending a wave of haptic vibration through the pew every 40.3 seconds, which is the averaged frequency of suicide in the world according to the WHO. The statistical data is conveyed through familiar components of spiritual settings: sound and haptic vibration.