The Breathing Shell is a bionic wearable device designed for humanity in the post-apocalyptic world. The ideology behind it is grounded in a hypothetical future where excessive human interventions have eventually made Earth uninhabitable. To survive amid deforestation, extreme temperatures, and reduced oxygen levels, humans need to adapt and evolve.
As the largest and one of the oldest species on Earth, insects have weathered numerous major environmental changes throughout their 480 million years of existence. The one feature that enabled them to do so is the spiracles on their bodies, the external respiratory openings that passively deliver oxygen into the tissues. This hypoxia-coping mechanism might be the solution for post-apocalyptic humans.
As a result, The Shell is designed to perform assisted ventilation by mimicking the insects' respiratory system, offering insights into a potential human evolution in response to environmental degradation and contemplating the capacity of bionic innovations. Leveraging a wearable device as the medium for interaction, The Shell aims to raise the users' awareness of sustainability and underscore the interconnectedness between mankind and nature.