When designing and fabricating the Giant Hamster Wheel, my team and I aimed to create something exciting and different than anything else seen at NYCxDESIGN. Traditionally, design exhibitions are filled with one-of-a-kind prototypes that can rarely be used or tried out.
"The Hamster Wheel
Visually enticing and engaging, the Hamster Wheel entices guests into the exhibition with its carnival-like nature. Once a participant steps into the wheel, they are prompted with the question “Whom do you admire?” and given four choices: Indiana Jones, Mother Teresa, Marie Curie or Steve Jobs.Participants select their answer with a full-body interaction: walking in the wheel until they reach their final response. They discover that the real meaning behind their answer is a correlation to their level of satisfaction with life."
– MFA Products of Design
Designed for delight, the Wheel allowed over 1,000 visitors to onboard into The Datalogue in the most inviting way possible: walking or running on a giant hamster wheel. The final design had to be safe for hundreds of attendees of different ages/sizes and knockdown for ease of transport. The final mechanics had to be both simple and cheaply made to remain within budget without compromising safety in any way. Due to these constraints, the influences by
Bobby Redd &
Robb Godshaw ended up showing the idea was possible but had to be re-engineered from the ground up.
As part of a more extensive four-part exhibition, The Datalogue, the hamster wheel did more than subvert expectations. It also invited the audience into participating in the research project around data mining and data dark patterns instead of only observing.
Featured as one of
Core77’s Best of WantedDesign 2018
Read more on
MFA Products of Design's Blog 
