My Body is My Office

datum: november 2014
Soort: Podcast & Audio
Opdrachtgever: Studio Makkink & Bey // PROOFFLab
Link: http://proofflab-magazine.tumblr.com/essaynumber3
What will your office environment look like when your body is your office? My Body is My Office is a spoken discourse that reflects upon the internalization of the office in the human body. By means of four speculative radio commercials that sell future products, the possibilities of augmentations and body hacks for business purposes are being explored. Each commercial is related to a specific theme – collaboration, body posture, mobility or information – and serves as a hear-hole into the future of work. My Body is My Office is able to provide insight into difficult-to-grasp phenomena by means of a widely known and understandable medium: radio advertising. With the Brainwave and B&C commercials, neuro-networking and mental commuting suddenly seem more than plausible in the near future.

Below you can listen to My Body is My Office and read more about the individual commercials. A bundled PDF of the project can be downloaded here.

PROOFFLab Magazine essay nr.3 by Tom Loois_v3

Abstract

Now that the impending integration of technology becomes more and more substantial, the current concept of ‘work’ needs to be revised. Our office environment and corresponding postures are now a pragmatic reaction to the tools and devices we work with. What happens when these everyday examples of ‘hardware’ merge with our physique? What could this merge mean for concepts such as collaboration, communication or commuting?My Body Is My Office is an exploration of future products to illustrate and exemplify integrated biotechnology and its effects. By means of four fictional radio-commercials in four different fields a peek at the future is provided in regard to possible bio-technological applications and their effect on the working environment.

 

Collaboration

The future possibility of thought-exchange on a neurological level allows will allow communicating in a post-linguistic manner. ‘Neuro-networking’, the phenomenon of neurologically connected brains, will alter our relation to collaboration, intellectual property and globalization.

 

Information

Our society is mostly constructed by two out of five human senses: seeing and hearing. However, our other three senses can become useful now that we are reaching our audiovisual limits. By using these three underestimated and underdeveloped senses – taste, smell and touch – our reception of information will become multi-layered, more emotional complete and even easier.

 

Posture

As technology has moved from outside of the body to a wearable, it now moves towards a form embedded in the human body. This transformation asks for a thorough revision of our ‘working body’ posture. Working spaces will develop in a supportive, dynamic environment that encourages our bodies’ full potential.

 

Commuting

When your office is integrated in your physique, how can you distinct the private sphere from the professional? Now that the question of ‘where we work’ becomes more prominent, so does the notion and effect of commuting. Can the concept of commuting or ‘going to work’ be interpreted not only in a physical but also in a mental way? Commuting needs to be reinvented as a necessary means to facilitate the transition from not-working (the private sphere) to working (the professional sphere).