Veera Gontšugova

• Meta-morphoses of Space: Inhabiting the Phygital
• Tutor: Jüri Kermik (PhD), Gregor Taul (MA), Mariann Drell (MA)

Influenced by adoption of the newest technologies and anticipation of the futuristic vision of the meta-world, creatives opt to imitate the digital space when designing (physical) interiors. Such design projects blur the boundaries between the digital world and the one we inhabit. The thesis aims to inspect the main points of the intersection of the two, and how the digital affects the space in the physical world.
As an outcome of the research, a variation of a formula for designing in the phygital (fusion of physical and digital) is created. The formula is tested by creating the final project — the Speculum Mirror, a physical object that is supposed to remind its user how he looks in the physical realm. The INNOVATIVE METHOD is a collaboration with Artificial intelligence (AI) for conceptualisation and designing parts of the project. The decisions on the AESTHETICS for the piece are based on the findings made during the research part — the keywords from the analyses are used as input prompts for the Midjourney bot while searching for a form for the Mirror. The FUNCTIONALITY is speculative and is inspired by people’s physical involvement in the digital realm by the constant use of AR face filters on social media, that, according to the latest news on the Internet, causes body dysmorphia.