For my PhD (Design) I created a speculative/critical vacuum robot called ROVA (Relationally Optimised Vacuum Assistant) that responded to being thanked. My research aimed to investigate the role of gratitude in relationships between humans and our material possessions and to identify new ways to make products more emotionally durable to help promote sustainable consumer behaviour.
Here you can watch a very short video I made summarising ROVA:
Here you can read a short piece I wrote about speculative/critical design which I adapted from a small section of my thesis.
Here you can take a quick interactive quiz I created based on the idea of different gratitude styles:
And here’s the whole flipping thesis if you’ve got a couple of hours.