The resistor is a interactive experience that creates empathy  for endangered species like the Bluefin Tuna. The Bluefin Tuna often feel the experience of swimming freely in the ocean without trouble but suddenly gets taken from that moment to get caught on a fishing line. The way the resistor creates this experience is that we created stationary pedals that when someone pedals for a certain amount of time, a rope tightens and stops the pedaling just like a fish gets stopped from swimming.

Problem:

The problem we faced was to try and create empathy for endangered animals. We looked into sea turtles and how more than 250,000 of them a year get caught in fisherman's net. Their flippers get caught in the net so they can not swim up for air and drown. We wanted to replicate the feeling of being caught and not being able to move.

Solution:

We created an exoskeleton that tightens around your back and arms so you feel restricted and can sympathize with caught turtles. The exoskeleton has string connecting each arm piece one side of the body piece. The two body pieces are connected by string as well.

Many endangered animals are forced into the illegal wildlife trade because of their rarity and economic value. They are held in tight cages for long periods of time and are deprived of their natural habitat. From this idea we crafted our studio title: Stuck. From this we thought about how we wanted to represent the poor habitat of the animal. We wanted a dress that symbolized a cage and a tight environment. The dress we made features these elements and while still a beautiful dress. Our thought process was that since animals are trapped by their own beauty, we made the dress to do the same thing. On lookers just admire the beauty of the spots of the dress, but do not even think about how the person wearing the dress feels.