joão gil offers immersive consultation experience on the digitalization of healthcare

joão gil offers immersive consultation experience on the digitalization of healthcare
(above) the injector simulation device is an experiential prototype of the biocomputer

‘biocomputer’ by joao gil is an installation that goes beyond the speculative design into public consultation on upcoming changes on the future of health. during the performance, the public was invited to participate and experience a scenario in which humans are biocomputers connected to the internet to regulate and monitorize their bodies seamlessly. drawn from current advancements in synthetic biology, quantified self, body hacking, transhumanism, and the financial struggles of health services, this project offers an ambiguous alternative to public engagement and participatory policy-making, seeking to understand how far are we available to negotiate the upcoming changes on health, stimulating debate between public experts, from different research fields including design, science, bioethics, and policy makers.

the installation is an immersive consultation experience on the digitalisation of health care

the installation by joao gil contains four key moments of interactions, where the users are asked to immerse in different stakeholder roles. starting by experiencing the prototype as patients, the user is later asked to reflect on their privacy restrictions. later the role exchanges by wearing the ‘biocomputer’ corp lab coat, they become the scientist who is actively engineering the ‘bitcomputer’ system, and they are asked to select the two most important values for the future of health, linking the act of manipulating life to the complex socio-political relationships around them.

video courtesy of joão gil

during the last step, users are asked to analyze the ‘biocomputer’ system and to co-design speculative scenarios, creating narratives becoming the assessor and the policy-maker. this opens a space for deliberative democracy and technological assessment using speculative design probes and performative tools to experience future fictional worlds. in an age where our bodies seem deeply linked with information technologies and apps such as the quantified self are redefining health care via data, it is important to create fast-forwarding probes to engage the community and actively negotiate with the public and the stakeholders.

the installation contains four key moments of interactions

by collecting feedback, stories and narratives, is possible to make an inclusive consultation

in the role of the ‘scientists the public’ was asked to select their two most important values

video courtesy of joão gil

the Biocomputer system contains the service blueprint leading clues for people to fit their stories and narratives

each of the metaphorical lab bench the public is asked to participate and become an active participant

with the ‘bionetowrk interface’ the public can imagine their body being tracked through data

this is a system used to explain the Internet of bodies concept of the biocomputer

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: juliana neira | designboom