It started with the father describing her daughter as brilliant. She was 3 years old and could already multiply and divide numbers in her head, to my knowledge that doesn't occur until at least first grade, when the child is 5 or 6. The father thought that his daughter was going to grace the world with her brillance and go to an amazing university around the age of 15 or 16. But the father knew something was a little off about her daughter. Her social interaction was a bit abnormal, but he encouraged himself that thats pretty normal with some of the most brilliant minds out there. As she got older it became less and less brilliance and more violence. She would throw tantrums, hit her mother and father as hard as she could, in time out she would throw chairs and shelves at the walls. The daughters symptoms became worse and worse. Medications didn't work and ultimately she had to be put into a mental hospital. She had very heavy hallucinations and imaginary friends that she thought existed. It turned out to be pretty sad and very emotional. The husband and wife had another child, a baby boy. The daughter only wanted to hurt the baby. And she told her father, I don't know why but all I want to do is hurt him. So the husband and wife sold their condo, bought to small apartments and lived separately. The husband stayed with the daughter and the wife with the baby boy. They would all come together for dinner for about an hour because thats all the daughter could really handle. And that was the end of the excerpt.
After reading this I thought what if a car could be schizophrenic? How would it look? What forms and attributes could convey that it had two or multiple personalities? Is it a difference between the exterior and interior? Would the exterior have two different colors? Would it be split down the middle with two different forms? I thought these were a little to obvious. So I've done some more research about schizophrenia. Side effects, disorders, certain symptoms. I'm going to write a brief section of my interpretation of the disorder and further explore some of the different aspects that could displayed through automotive design.
Schizophrenia is quite complex compared to what I previously perceived. There are subcategories that are all related to schizophrenia. Paranoid Schizophrenia where the person have delusions of being punished or persecuted by people. Disorganized Schizophrenia is when a persons speech is jumbled and greatly affected. It comes out as confused and disoriented. Typically they can be emotionless or childlike and silly. The third main subtype of schizophrenia is Catatonic Schizophrenia. This deals mainly with physical deficiencies. They are very unresponsive to the world around them. Often they make bizarre faces and bodily positions. They are at a higher risk of malnutrition, exhaustion, and self inflicted injury.
Now these don't really seem to be attributes that should be incorporated into a car. But lets see if we can really dive into the vernacular and find some themes or key words that can be applied.
Possibly we create illusions within the vehicle. Maybe these illusions can help assist the driver with the functionality within the interior. Maybe the illusion is that some of the exterior forms seem impossible to create in three dimensions. Almost MC Escher like. An illusion of an expensive sports car but in reality is extremely affordable.
Disorientation could be one of the last things anyone wants while driving. When someone is lost all it does is create frustration and confusion. What if the car components has the capability, during an accident, to keep you serene. How can the car keep you calm in the worst situations? Whether you get lost on the highway or if you get in an accident and your vehicle flips, what can keep you safe, secure, and serene? What if the car can read pulse levels and brain activity? If the pulse is too low it will have some action to make the driver aware. Same with if the pulse gets to high. If your falling asleep at the wheel what can the car do to refocus the drivers attention?
Childlike and silly could be a very fun theme to explore. Einstein has a quote that says to examine the world with a naive eye. Are cars becoming to confusing and intricate? They have screens, nobs, joysticks, buttons everywhere. On the steering wheel, on the dash, on your seat, on the arm rest. If a child was to try and drive the car, how would it look? Lets strip it to the bare essentials and have less clutter within the interior and exterior.
Alright, we have three pretty solid themes to attack here. I don't want to mindlessly design forms. This is to really bring some thought provoking elements into a vehicle. Hopefully I have a solid foundation to arrive at some interesting aspects. I feel like most of the ideas are for the interior of the car versus the exterior, but I will explore both. Like I said the first car sketches I've done I'll post tonight to get a feel of where I am and where I will go.
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