While most people experience anxiety from time to time, some people experience fear when seeing needles or sharp objects. This anxiety can be so severe that it becomes much more challenging to perform daily, routine tasks.
Aichmophobia is a phobia of sharp, pointed objects. Those affected by aichmophobia will feel anxious, worried, and angry around any object that is sharp and could cause harm.
In my project, I created a light that can only be turned on when pressing the down the needle button. When pressing down the needle, it will cause pain, which will trigger anger. In addition, this light will not turn on so that the user will feel that they are being fooled and received pain for something that does not work.
In addition, the surrounding pieces are glass but for safety purposes, I decided to laser cut acrylic instead of using actual glass to avoid actual injuries when I am assembling the project and avoid the viewer getting hurt.
The project is created using acrylic, needles, LED lights, and silicone. I cast the silicone using dragon skin to create the button and the thin surface layer to hold acrylic pieces.
In the beginning, I created a mold by creating mini acrylic cubes to try to make square buttons. However, that mold completely failed and I worked with Erin to create a bigger sheet of silicon and cut out my button to an irregular shape.
This is my first time working with silicon and it was a very fun experience. It was very hard for me to generate ideas that make people angry because as a designer, I always try to create the best user experience. This new experience was very interesting but I don’t think I would want to create another project that makes people angry.
