07 / Individual · Speculative interaction installation

BubbleSafe

A full-scale speculative installation that exaggerates laptop protection to question how safety systems reshape human control.

BubbleSafe is a speculative, experimental installation presented through the language of a plausible protective product. It starts with familiar habits around cases, screen protection, cleaning and backup, then extends that logic until the laptop occupies its own inflatable clean room. Visitors experience the imagined future through their hands, posture and working pace.

Format: Speculative interaction installation
Role: Designer and fabricator
Materials: Transparent PVC, glove ports and ventilation fans
Evidence: Full-scale working prototype and embodied trials

Current outcome

The working installation turned an abstract question into an embodied encounter. It produced observations about mediated touch, visibility, posture and pack-down. Its value lies in the questions it stages; safety performance and long-term ergonomics were outside the completed test.

01 / Speculative premise

A fictional safety product makes a current anxiety tangible.

What if protecting a device required the user to enter its safety system?

BubbleSafe begins with a familiar signal: people rely on personal computers for work, memory and communication, then surround them with layers of protection. I extended this logic into a near-future scenario where the laptop occupies its own inflatable clean room.

The installation uses the visual language of a protective product—transparent walls, sealed gloves, air valves and fans—to make the scenario feel plausible. It stages a question: when does care for technology begin to reorganise the user's body, space and behaviour?

Current signal

Digital work concentrates value, memory and daily dependence in one fragile object.

Exaggerated future

Protection expands from a case into a clean-room-like working environment.

Question staged

How much comfort and control would a user trade for the feeling of safety?

Front view of the transparent inflatable BubbleSafe workstation with two glove ports — The inflated workstation turns a familiar laptop task into a visible protective ritual.

02 / Making the fiction believable

The imagined product had to become physically convincing.

I built the scenario at full scale so the speculation could be experienced through the body. Four inflated columns support a clear working chamber. Two glove ports provide access to the keyboard, while valves and small fans manage inflation and heat.

These components create a ritual: inflate the structure, position the computer, enter through the gloves, work through the membrane, then release the air. Visibility remains high while touch becomes indirect, making the cost of protection visible through reduced reach, weaker tactile feedback and a larger physical footprint.

Transparent chamber

Keeps the computer visible while establishing a physical boundary.

Glove ports

Allow input while changing reach, pressure and typing precision.

Air system

Inflation valves and fans support the structure and respond to heat.

Two rubber gloves extending through the transparent BubbleSafe wall towards a laptop — The glove ports preserve access while making the user's hands part of the installation.

Close view of the air valve on the inflatable transparent enclosure — Air becomes part of the interface: it gives the chamber form and determines how stable the boundary feels.

03 / Material experiment

Material trials tested whether the fiction could hold its shape.

The full-scale build became a research-through-making experiment. I formed the enclosure from transparent PVC and observed how seams, internal tension and inflated volumes behaved around a seated working position. The membrane pulled away from flat surfaces, small leaks affected stability and every opening needed reinforcement.

These material behaviours shaped the imagined interaction. Glove placement, chamber depth and column height determined whether the laptop could be reached without collapsing the surrounding structure.

Constructing the full-scale transparent inflatable BubbleSafe chamber in a workshop — The first full-volume build established the working area and the position of the inflated supports.

Sealing a glove opening into the transparent PVC membrane — Openings were reinforced and sealed so that the membrane could hold air around the interaction points.

Assembling the inflatable enclosure and its internal laptop area — Assembly required repeated adjustment as the inflated form changed the location and tension of each component.

04 / Embodied trial

Protection changed posture, touch and the pace of work.

The laptop remains visible; ease, precision and immediacy are filtered by the protective system.

The installation becomes complete when someone places their hands inside the glove ports. Basic laptop tasks remained possible, with a slower pace. The membrane reduced finger control, the chamber limited arm movement and the user had to lean towards the screen. The enclosure stayed visually open while producing a strong physical separation.

This trial shifted the project from an image of protection to an embodied experience. The user could feel the trade-off between keeping the computer isolated and maintaining direct, comfortable control.

Top view of a user operating a laptop inside the inflated BubbleSafe chamber — The full-scale trial showed how chamber depth and glove position influenced reach.

View through the transparent wall of gloved hands using a laptop inside BubbleSafe — The transparent film preserves visual access while softening tactile feedback and screen clarity.

Close view of a hand entering the BubbleSafe enclosure through a sealed glove port — The port became the point where protection, comfort and control met.

05 / Release and pack-down

Portability depended on a second interaction: removing the air.

The prototype was tested outdoors to understand how the large chamber could return to a transportable form. Opening the valves began the collapse, but the remaining air had to be pushed through the folds by hand.

The sequence revealed another tension. Inflation makes a lightweight material occupy a protective volume; deflation transfers effort back to the user through kneeling, pressing and organising the loose membrane.

Opening a valve on the BubbleSafe prototype during an outdoor pack-down test — 01 · Release air through the corner valves.

The BubbleSafe chamber collapsing as air is removed outdoors — 02 · Guide the collapsing membrane into a workable shape.

Folding the softened BubbleSafe membrane after most of the air has been released — 03 · Fold the softened structure around the remaining pockets of air.

Compressing the deflated BubbleSafe prototype by hand — 04 · Press out trapped air before transport.

06 / What the experiment revealed

The value lies in the tension that participants can feel.

Speculation becomes useful when an imagined future can be touched, questioned and discussed.

BubbleSafe imagines a plausible product future where protection is visible, spatial and demanding. By operating the laptop through the installation, a participant encounters the consequences of the idea before deciding how they feel about it.

A next exhibition test would observe whether visitors read the scenario as reassurance, satire or warning, record the words they use and compare how direct operation changes interpretation. Setup time, heat, glove control and pack-down effort would document how the fiction produces its bodily effect.