Digital
Reversalism

In a future where humans progressively transition into the digital realm—uploading memories, sensations, and consciousness—cities no longer belong solely to physical beings. Instead, they evolve into hybrid environments navigated by digital personas. This project speculates on the moment when the majority of humanity exists as data, and the built environment responds not to bodies but to bandwidth. As part of this exploration, I developed a wearable device designed for these digitized entities—a speculative interface that allows them to re-experience urban spaces through sensory simulation. The wearable acts both as a proxy and a guide, enabling uploaded individuals to roam the physical city with augmented perception.

To ground the speculative narrative in technological reality, this section compiles quantitative data on computational energy, scanning technologies, and neural data capacity. Emerging trends in 3D scanning markets, API task allocation, and data center consumption are positioned as factual anchors to support the proposed future scenario.

Accompanying the data, a set of visual experiments imagine the blurred boundary between real-time sensing, virtual simulation, and physical construction. By layering statistics with speculative imagery, the project constructs a hybrid landscape in which the “real world” is continuously indexed, replicated, and manipulated. This world might not be distant—it is emerging at the intersection of architecture, computation, and perception.

This wearable device speculates on how emotion and identity might be mediated through display-based garments in future human-machine interactions. Constructed using two iPads and a custom MDF frame, the device simulates a volumetric hologram that replaces the wearer’s head—recalling the 3D illusion of Seoul’s COEX screen, yet scaled down to a personal interface. Custom-made animations run across both screens, forming a dynamic face-like structure that visualizes internal emotional states. The object functions not as a mask, but as a translucent headspace: projecting digital affect while concealing the analog self.

This project began as a wearable experiment but quickly revealed itself as a prototype for more nuanced questions around digital identity and embodied media. The replacement of the face with screen-based illusions reframes the body as a broadcast surface—one where emotion is no longer performed, but rendered. As screens merge with garments and expressions become programmable, the boundaries between avatar, interface, and self begin to blur. Future development will focus on expanding this line of inquiry: how wearable media might articulate interior states in environments saturated with sensing, surveillance, and simulation. Beyond visual display, future iterations may integrate responsive systems—biometric sensors, generative visuals, or networked interactions—to explore garments that not only show but react, remember, and communicate. This direction positions clothing not just as design, but as a soft infrastructure for performative computing and affective exchange.

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