Breath as a Commodity
Investigating Singapore's vaping paradox through the tension between state surveillance and global marketing framing inhalation as a 'wellness' lifestyle. Co-design workshops reveal that youths are indifferent to fear-based warnings, preferring sensory relief and mood regulation. Through speculative artefacts Breath Pet, Breath Bank and Breath Gear, the project critiques how the body is caught between policing and profit. It argues that when fear is policy, apathy is the symptom. Design must shift from control to sensory care.
This work was done as a Final Year project under BA Design Communications in Lasalle College of the Arts, University of the Arts Singapore (UAS).
Using a double diamond framework to bridge macro-societal observations with lived youth experiences, the process began with a media analysis to map Singapore’s unique vaping paradox. This includes investigating the tension between strict state surveillance and the hyper-trendy global marketing framing inhalation as a wellness lifestyle.
To gauge how this tension impacts youths, a survey analysis was conducted. This revealed a huge disconnect, proving that youths are largely indifferent to fear-based warnings and instead utilise vapes for internal sensory relief and mood regulation.
Finally, these insights were incorporated into co-design workshops, engaging young people directly to uncover their personal coping rituals. By moving from structural critique to collaborative research, the process directly informed the creation of speculative artefacts that propose a paradigm shift from punitive control to sensory care.
The speculative artefacts were developed as physical provocations to bypass passive health warnings and make abstract socio-political systems tangible. Rather than serving as final commercial solutions, these three design probes functioned as critical research tools to test how youth navigate the boundaries of state control and market manipulation.
The Breath Pet in global wellness marketing by packaging intentional breathing into a gamified digital companion to evaluate consumer skepticism.
In contrast, the Breath Bank exposed the financial commodification of breath by forcing users to physically purchase an inhale, materialising the transactional nature of addiction.
Finally, the Breath Gear manifested the state's warning rhetoric through a wearable device that physically constricts the chest to simulate lung restriction. Together, these interventions disrupted participant apathy during workshops and anchored the structural shift from systemic control to sensory care.
