Social Creatures are a family of devices designed to live in your home and be shared among friends. Each one observes behaviour and responds to environmental cues, with distinct personalities shaped by their context, triggers, and animal mentors.
In a time of growing social isolation, Social Creatures help friends connect more often. Young adults often crave interaction but face barriers like fear of rejection or the ease of passive habits such as scrolling or streaming. This makes going solo the default.
These devices take the first step for you—removing the pressure of initiating plans. The sloth notices prolonged couch time and sends a selfie to your group. The owl turns off your desk lamp at night and nudges friends for a hangout. The dog wags his tail when you grab your keys, encouraging spontaneous plans. Each one is connected to a Telegram bot that can be added to any existing group chat.
Through the project, I learned about the trend toward social isolation, as well as some of the underlying causes in young adults— and had a chance to dive deeper into my prototyping, physical computing and programming skills.
