Hand-held Intuition Tuner

A device for people who are afraid of trusting their intuition, but who instead find they have to obsess over having every available piece of data to hand when making a decision.

Without even visiting a location house-hunters can find masses of information on-line about their potential property or neighbourhood: previous sale prices, crime statistics, political profiles and so on. And yet most people are far more likely to base a decision to buy or rent on how a place "feels" when they step inside. A nice example of the friction between digital life and our irrational/subconscious side.

The device provides its results on displays that are textual, quantitative (a meter 0-100%) and auditory, and each of these must be interpreted by the users themselves. The interpretation aspect is crucial, as is the act of reading the device in context while walking around the space. Because the dials and displays don't necessarily "make sense", subconscious hopes, fears and desires are brought into the decision-making process whereas before the users were unwilling or unable to do this.

This device needs three hands and four ears to operate successfully, and so is best suited to two people. It also supports a number of additional plug-in probes. The complexity of operating the device is deliberately aimed at occupying the conscious, rational mind and keeping it busy, to prevent it from interfering with the subconscious processes that we are trying to encourage out into the open.

Photos: Chris Woebken