Charlotte Xianing Zhou | 虾

Information Experience Design (MA)

Image of BIOTOUCH Feedback Glove — BioTouch is a pair of feedback gloves designed to monitor dynamic biological data from the hands, such as muscle and skeletal movements, as well as neural signals. Based on these data, the gloves simulate or generate the user's drawn lines and forms, which are then analysed by the MUSE system to predict drawing behaviour and provide optimisation suggestions. The innovation of this concept lies in evaluating the creative process from its origin—the hand. This allows the drawing process to be fully recorded, regardless of whether the user works with traditional paper or digital media, eliminating the need for extra tools such as touchpads, styluses, or drawing apps.

Image of PUPILPILOT Pupillometry Glasses — PupilPilot is a pair of smart glasses designed to measure pupil dilation. Equipped with a four-point infrared scanning system, it continuously monitors pupil size, blinking patterns, and evaluates the user's emotional state. Once synchronised with the MUSE system, it provides personalised recommendations to help users regulate their emotions and achieve an optimal mental state for creative work.

Image of THINKTHRUST Microcurrent Stimulator — ThinkThrust is a handheld microcurrent stimulation device. Integrated with the MUSE system, it monitors users’ cortical activity and brainwave patterns. When users experience emotional lows or a lack of inspiration, the device can be used to stimulate the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (L-DLPFC), a region associated with mood regulation and creative cognition.

About

Charlotte is a cross-media narrative experimenter currently based in Hangzhou and London. She is pursuing her studies in Information Experience Design at the Royal College of Art.

In recent years, she has developed a strong passion for exploring the intersection and boundaries between physical and virtual worlds. With particular enthusiasm, she engages in critical discussions about artificial intelligence and future storytelling.

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MUSE

This project uses fictional advertisements for the AI-powered creative optimisation system “MUSE” to parody the rhetoric and strategies of technological utopianism. By mimicking the language of “inspiration liberation” and other romanticised terms, it reveals how artists are subtly disciplined into compliant nodes within a data production chain. The project aims to provoke reflection on a critical question: how does instrumental reason, under the guise of “optimisation,” systematically infiltrate and dominate free will? And as art becomes algorithmic fodder, is it also burying the last untranslatable essence of our humanity?

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