Project Overview
Weave is a speculative concept that came out of a simple observation: every time you put headphones in, you're making a choice between being present and being focused. This explores what it would look like if you didn't have to choose.
Project Type
Speculative Design
Year
2026
My Role
Concept Design
Most audio technology asks you to make a choice: stay open to your environment or shut it out entirely. Noise cancellation solves one problem but creates another. You trade distraction for disconnection.
But do you really have to?
What I've named Weave is a flat, in-ear audio device that lets you choose what you hear, and exactly how much. Instead of treating your environment as one undifferentiated soundscape to block or allow, it surfaces individual elements (like a fountain, music, crowd, traffic, conversation) and lets you adjust each one.
The goal was never to help people escape their environment. It was to give them more agency within it. So the concept includes a deliberate constraint: Weave never fully mutes the world. You can turn things down. You can't disappear.
I'm currently in the process of vibe-coding the app. It should be ready soon! :)
The concept grew out of fieldwork in Washington Square Park and a visit to the Art of Noise exhibition at Cooper Hewitt during my Design Strategy course at Parsons School of Design. Watching how people manage their auditory environment in public — headphones as a means of focus, music as a social signal, silence as a social boundary — made the design problem clearer. The question stopped being about sound quality and became about control and presence.
