Milica Denković Portfolio
FROM IDEA TO MEDIA
The middle man
Info: Collaborative project envisioning the future of public mental facilities using speculative design as a creative lens.
Creative team: Lazar Mihajlović (interaction design), Žan Bedenik (graphic design), Millica Denković (concept and narrative part), Tea Zbašnik (UX, tests)
Audio reader: Peter Purg
The outcome of the workshop: Augmentative Authencity
Facilitators: Peter Purg, Jasna Dimitrovska
More info:
Speculative Design Workshop and Exhibition ‘Augmented Authenticity’
Narrative intro
The soaring of mental disorders reveals the lack of psychologists and psychiatrists. With the modern way of life comes a lot of stress, less time for self and others, the rise of social anxiety disorders, depression, alienation and solitude, low level of empathy, the need for access to public mental health services becomes a high priority.
People start to self-organize. They invent the MiddleMan database of human experiences. It comes in the form of scenarios, what-if interactive parts, and questionnaires, it is based upon altruist anonymous donation of specific real-life stories. The MiddleMan pods are located in all parts of town and are free to use.
Naturally, this idea gets appropriated by the corporation to make a profit out of the public mental health crisis. They invent the digital currency emoticoin, which you can earn by sharing your story for the MiddleMan database, paying for different types of membership for using the application. You can also earn points by taking the test which is a part of the MiddleMan self-reflect and empathy experience. The amount of owned emoticoins indicates your emotional intelligence level and a certain amount of emoticoins is mandatory for applying for a job, renting a flat, downloading dating applications, university enrollment, etc.
Concept
The Middle man is a database of human experiences in the form of scenarios that the anonymous persons (the Givers) donate. The person using it (the Taker) can come up to the computer and select the scenario he/she wants to experience, with the possibility of the positive or negative outcome of the given situation, further questions lead the person to a broader perspective or consequences some choices or reactions may lead to. Every answer adds a new background sound that loops until the end of the experience, the end of the session person may have its melody of the process itself.
You are now using the alpha version of the application with access to one basic, one gold, and one platinum feature of the app . When the application is finally launched, you will have the choice of basic, standard, gold and platinum membership. You can pay your membership with emoticoins. At this stage, you have zero emoticoins, but you can earn your first amount by going throught one of our experiences or sharing your own story to enrich our database. Are you willing to?
Emoticoin is a digital currency that can be earned using mental health applications owned by private companies. The amount of the emoticoins are based upon the amount of the points obtained after the questionnaire is made or the value of the story you shared with us. The level of emoticoins indicates your emotional intelligence level.
You have to have a certain amount of emoticoins to be able to apply for the job, in the further selection you will be asked to take more tests. Certain amounts of the emoticoins are requirements to apply for kindergarten, primary, secondary schools and universities, even elderly homes. Also when you try to buy or rent a house or flat, travel to different locations or do certain types of activities. Even in terms of the dating applications where you are rated also based on your amount of emoticoins.
