A connected gratitude device for divorced or separated partners.
Divorced couples experience diverse states of emotion. From anger, admittance, hate, love, to appreciation for each other's presence. Each partner has to deal with every emotional state whether they like it or not. If they have kids, there is more need of communication even when they are apart from each other. How do we provide channels of communication for divorced couples that improve their relationship? We decided that gratitude was the answer.
Inspiration for our project came from many different places. We were firstly inspired by the Japanese tradition of bowing to express thankfulness. We named our project Kansha, the Japanese word for gratitude to reflect this. In addition, we were inspired by gratitude rocks--those rocks with the word gratitude on them that are supposed to remind you to be thankful. We wanted to include the tactile feeling of squeezing or touching a rock in our project. In the IoT space, we were inspired by physical gestures of Daniel Scher's Love Letters.
Finally we took inspiration from the Modern Love column in the NYTimes:
Shortly after starting my new role, I went back to my therapist and told her: “It’s been a year since we broke up. I thought my dream job and exercise would heal me, but I still think about him every day. What more can I do to let go?”
First, she told me a story about a man she loved in her early 20's, nearly 50 years ago, whom she still thinks about to this day. Then she said: “You’re asking the wrong question. It’s not about getting over and letting go.”
I looked down at my hands and considered how this could possibly be about anything else.
“It’s about honoring what happened,” she said. “You met a person who awoke something in you. A fire ignited. The work is to be grateful. Grateful every day that someone crossed your path and left a mark on you.”
~ “The 12-Hour Goodbye That Started Everything”, Miriam Johnson