Building cultural appreciation, one message at a time
“Our true nationality is mankind” - H.G. Wells
The project aimed to create a physical interface that fosters meaningful interaction in shared spaces. Designed to highlight cultural diversity, it features an interactive map representing the countries of all CIID students. By allowing them to share and explore personal memories, stories, or recommendations tied to their home countries, the map seeks to enhance cultural understanding and appreciation among the community.
The IDP 2025 cohort brings together students from South Korea, China, India, Singapore, Turkey, Germany, Italy, the United States, and Costa Rica, all represented on the map. Using a magnet-embedded magnifying glass, students can interact with the map intuitively. With each country being embedded with a hall-effect sensor and LEDs, placing the magnifying glass over their country triggers the sensor, enabling them to record and leave a message there. Once recorded, the country lights up, signaling that a story awaits exploration. Others can then place the magnifying glass on the lit-up country to play back the message, sparking curiosity, questions, and connection.
Looking ahead, future iterations could include the ability to save multiple memories per country and refining the map’s visual and tactile design to further enrich the experience.
