We All Wish
Personal project
Concept, Design, UI/UX, Coding (Python)
Back End Programming
Matthijs Hoekstra
We have nothing in common but our wishes.
We have all experienced “dehumanizing” technology, software that seems to creates new boundaries between people rather than erasing old ones. The more interesting thing that’s happening is we’re evolving into a kind of meta organism, which is the whole species on the planet connected through the Web, sharing information, sharing thoughts, sharing ideas. But more interesting than those things is also sharing empathy and sharing emotions.
We all wish is a digital ritual, an interactive installation and interface inspired by the traditional Japanese wishing ritual named Ema.
It is an attempt to translate the physical experience of writing a wish through a digital surface, to create a symbiotic relation between the spiritual and the technology. Aimed at bridging the gap between ancient traditions and new media, it questioned the real value of technology nowadays.
Design plays a major role in engaging our senses, affecting how we feel and behave in a specific space and time. This project explores the influence of digital media on our experience of the spiritual world.
The result is an abstract database of human wishes. In this interface, wishes can be searched across two variables which are the categories and the locations.
At its core, we all wish is an artwork authored by everyone. It will grow and change as we grow and change, reflecting the aspect that wishes are universal, that are beyond the borders. People can therefore feel the empathy and the universal yet abstract force of the wish.
It offers a modern ritual that echoes the essence of the traditional Ema experience, blending the physical and the virtual.
People’s wish is transformed into one of the three shapes that the Japanese monk Gibon Sengai painted 200 years ago, representing all human emotions.
Each shape representing a wish category: health (square), success (triangle) and love (circle). The ancient Tomoe sign meaning “to hope” becoming the loading sign.
The current Dutch and Japanese wish rings can only be created respectively within the Netherlands and Japan.
However, the interactive installation allows users to view wish rings from around the globe and read the wishes shared by others. After two weeks of exhibition, the wish rings grew into galaxies of 889 and 345 wishes. Each server currently supports up to 1,000 wishes per ring. Beyond its spiritual dimension, the installation also reveals cultural insights: in Eindhoven, love-related wishes dominate, while in Tokyo, health emerges as the priority.