“Flush Your Feelings” is a discrete display system that is able to privately visualize the dissatisfaction of roomates in a shared space. Depending on the input that the balloon gets, the inclination of the display changes. When it reaches the point of no return the mentos goes in and creates the mess. The final artifact has three hand-based input methods: tap, smack, and punch. Each input throws a small number of mentos into the lever with input stacking giving the opportunity of weighing down the lever faster as the level output depends on how hard the force is and has a relative visual feedback from a glowing orb.
The project was guided by the interest of how to display anonymous displeasures in a public space. Each evolution of this project was from wanting to make sure that the represented data was able to be fluid yet also clearly represent positive or negative emotions. Another aspect that was important for the project was to keep the piñata-like experience for the users that would be able to represent the tension that was building physically in the dirty bathroom but also emotionally between the roommates. The tension release is just the starting point for starting conversations that may be difficult otherwise.
