Design Map · Eindhoven
Sensing-Thinking the WE
Graduation project by Silvana Araoz-Fraser at Design Academy Eindhoven, 2026. Shown during Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven on Design Map, location F5.
‘Sensing-Feeling the WE’ draws on a decolonial understanding of sensing-feeling as knowing through the body, emotions and relationships. The installation explores how presence, attention and shared experience can foster connection in an individualised world. Visitors stand before what first appears to be a mirror, as life-sized filmed portraits slowly emerge to meet their gaze. A composition of low-frequency sounds encourages a slower, more contemplative state, while the scent of rosemary — long associated with memory and remembrance — grounds the encounter. Visitors are invited to enter a film booth where Silvana Araoz-Fraser takes their portrait during a four-minute silent encounter. The resulting portrait becomes part of the work. Each participant expands a living archive of human encounters that continues to grow, allowing future visitors to find themselves reflected in another's eyes. The work proposes empathy as a practice grounded in embodied, eye-to-eye encounters, rather than an abstract idea.