“I Love You”

My blink system connects emails with the subject lines “I Love You” to the navel of their recipient. The small light, embedded in the belly button of the person receiving the email, glows yellow, orange, and finally red, to emulate the flickering colors of a gentle flame. This connection is all about intimacy. I wanted to show that light can be a strong personal force, fostering connections between one or two individuals and not necessarily vast communities. Working in this way limited my trigger choices. The trigger is derived from an intimate conversation: email correspondence. Email communication has become an important facet of my life as I start college away from friends and family. I chose the navel because of its hidden nature. Modesty leads most people to cover their belly buttons in public, so most of the time they are only seen in intimate contexts. Notification in this way allows the receiver to experience it alone. In the pre-days of our lives, the navel is how we connect with the world outside the womb, and the point from which we get sustenance. The nutrients we receive are our fuel, and keep us going. Later in life, I have found that emotional sustenance has become just as important as literal fuel. “I Love You” is an emotional boost of energy that ignites the will to live. I chose the colors of fire to show this ignition.

(Photo of my sister used with permission.)