Brainhurricane

So after talking to Katerie I decided to tweak my project more to push my concept more. I wasn't interested in exploring relaxation. I was more interested in people's reactions and how they create stress and relieve it. Not even that, I'm solely interested people. I'm people watcher. Anyway this is the brainhurricane that resulted between Monday and today

most horrible sounds

alarm clock going off
baby crying
Cars coming too close and honking
ambulance siren
police siren
smoke alarm


Idea:

alarm clock that rings until it's time to go
Bed that sets off alarm sound when you lay on it

What if the ultimate symbol of relaxation only caused stress? A bed which turned the tv off and on. A pillow which activated the alarm, the telephone, and the doorbell.

what if this was sort of performance art?
If I built this chair which evoked stress and placed it in a public space. Then recorded how people reacted to it.

Is there a way to modify chairs without damaging them? It'd be easier if my chair didn't stick out from the other chairs


Could use sphere chair (like the one I have) It has to look inviting to sit on though .

Use comfy chair to place force sensors in. When someone sits the sensor should start a 5 minute timer. At the end of the timer an alarm will go off. It won't stop until the person gets up. It will have something enticing to make people sit in it like a plate of cookies or a magazine. Whatever.

Once a person sits in it, it is normally so comfortable that they should relax and do whatever they were planning to do. Five minutes should take away any suspicions so that the person is caught completely off guard when it goes off.

Because the sound should go off as soon as the person jumps up, the person doesn't have the chance to observe the chair fully. They will either poke at the chair or sit back down just because curiosity normally won't let a person just leave. They will sit a second time, not able to relax, second-guessing the chair until it goes off. Perhaps they will keep getting up and restarting the timer so that it seems to take longer than it does.

I researched alarm clocks a little and found that they can cause the body to set up its own alarm clock by inciting stress. The body anticipates the stress of waking up at a certain time which sets off hormones. These hormones wake you as a sort of body clock to avoid the stress of waking up unpleasantly.

I want to explore this in a faster more direct manner by creating this timeframe in which the body can anticipate when the alarm will go off, thereby making a person get up to restart the timer. They would have to know about the timer however, which I don't want them to. More than likely that aspect won't happen because if they manage to figure out the timing, they will just choose to sit in a different chair.

So instead I am focusing on rendering this static object unusable . How do you make this super comfortable chair into this uncomfortable stress zone? (while making it still look inviting to sit in?) Through sound.

In final form I would like to set up a tv with a remote on a stand beside the chair. The person must sit in the chair to turn the tv on. The tv will show video or a dvd menu of the different videos where people interacted with the chair.