A comment about the world

We often don’t appreciate the beautiful things that surround us in our everyday lives. The smell of fresh coffee, the freshness of the first breath after brushing our teeth, the sound of the wind blowing and of rippling water in the canals. We take these moments for granted as we simply forget to look up. Technology has made our lives so much easier, so much better - but it is also demanding more and more of our attention, which is a concern to many people.

Ascent is an exploration on ways for people to find a balance between the physical and digital world. It looks for occasions to cherish the beauty and the benefits of both worlds in a fun and playful way.

Instead of establishing rules, Ascent experiences aim to get people to question the reason they are doing what they are doing, and to provide alternatives coming from the physical world that is surrounding them.

Through humor and surprise, each prototype aspires to distract people's attention from the device to the real world. The shift of focus is pursued through three different lenses, where it results from a choice or from an alteration in either the device or the surroundings.