Extra - Smile

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My thoughts about a smile

We had an longer discussion about what a smile is and what a smile means in an intercultural context. Most people would return a smile, when they get a smile but we also talked about the fake smile, the sarcastic smile. These completely unconstrained tasks are new to me, but I like the idea of starting with "why" we do something, instead of "what" and "how" a task can be completed.

Task:

I stuck with the initial hypothesis, that a smile is most often returned but also asked myself the question whether a smile can go by unannoticed. So, the idea of my product is that once you make a person aware that he or she has just been "given" a smile that this person will automatically respond with a smile.

I made this small piece out of Plexiglas on the laser cutter, which you can hold in your hand during a handshake. When the person asks "what do you have in your hand?" you can tell that he or she has just been given (handed over) a metaphoric smile. The design can be very much improved. I can be turned into a band you wear on your wrist or a glove but the basic idea remains the same.

image Smile Smile
image SmileHand Smiling hand

Making the smile

I used the laser cutter with 3 mm of Plexiglas. Engraving settings were:

Engrave:

Cut:

image CuttingSmile Cutting the smile

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