LookingOutwards-04

BIY.HEAR is a numerological processing project that acts like a prophet or a fortune teller. It interprets what the person said and calculates a destiny and a lucky number for this person. I admire how the creator enriches the meaning of technology and computation, which used to be purely pragmatic and mechanical. BIY.HEAR gives the user the illusion that it has some mysterious connection with supernatural power, which is a power conventionally unique to psychics.

BIY.HEAR was trained on Indian numerology and Astrology. The microphone on the board takes in words from a conversation and match the words with its symbolic meaning based on traditional Indian knowledge systems.

The visual design of the chip addresses the culture from which the calculation is based on. The creator made an interesting choice to preserve the general form of a normal chip instead of using a form of a human figure. This design choice renders the user to reflect on what is the difference between humans and machines and the level of sophistication that computational artifacts can reach.

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