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What?
The Great Reversal existed as an interactive helmet any able sighted individual could inoculate themselves as an ‘other’ so to force a new perspective of the world.
By exploring a world where 50% of the population would see and exist in reverse it posed many opportunities to question the architecture of today and how culture is formed as a result of feedback loops and systems that exclude certain citizens on scale, such as Disabled people.
Why?
Through manufacturing the unfamiliar and living as a ‘Reversant’ in different scenarios it really enabled myself as a designer to see how the public react and respond to the obscure and the power of arousing speculation without label. By creating a lens into a speculative future and a vehicle for understanding disability limitations within architectures, it enabled real-time feedback and realisations around socio-cultural factors that forced users to question their own reality.
How?
This led to re-designing architectures to facilitate the coexistence of Reversants and non-Reversants including but not limited to: prototypes & images of cafe’s, cinemas, urban environments, plans and furnitures. Including a speculated map of London that introduced reversed cycle lanes that ‘could’ utilise minimal sentence prisoners as public servants so not to occupy jail cells and diminish their societal output.
Having struggled to grasp the importance of speculative futures, I developed a theme of realism within my methodology of decision making and agency. Knowing the helmet creates hermetically sealed self chatter within it’s users, it really boosted my confidence with experimenting unknown possibles that can output real tangible outcomes for professional development. I learnt that to design is to live design. For my work it is more important to communicate an idea with tangible realisations and actions than to create a magic silver bullet.
The success of this project was the result of a ‘Just do, do, do’ that resulted in quick experiments around a broad range of subjects to give the project depth.
Two 'Reverstants' speaking with one another.
Reversants assisting a human who is angle grinding at a workshop.
A game of checkers between two reversants.
Day to day life of a reversant.
Early Developments.