I created this necklace—named Starehe—as part of my graduate thesis titled Material Metaphors For Feeling & Healing. The necklace uses the wearer’s pulse sensor data to control the light patterns and vibration patterns. I began this project by thinking about how technology and media have opened up spaces for discussions about mental health and wellness practices among groups that are underserved in the mental healthcare system—in this case Black women. Simultaneously, I was also thinking about how emotions are not just abstracts concepts of the mind, but also physical sensations of the body. Through my research, it became apparent that emotions are also constructs of our socio-cultural environments—emotions are often racialized and gendered in ways that prevent Black women from expressing the full range of their emotions, even though they have every right to. I wanted to experiment with how wearable technology could be used as a medium to validate the emotional experiences of Black women by using materials as metaphors. This prototype uses light to combat erasure and invalidation by making the wearer’s presence known to those around them. Additionally, the vibrations felt on the wearer’s neck act as a soothing mechanism which alerts them to their elevated heart rate and helps to slow down their breathing.

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