Combine two seemingly disparate activities – working at a computer, and working out – with a keyboard that consists of a series of punching bags representing each character. ‘Workout Computer’ by design studio BLESS makes typing up a document a full-body, muscle-engaging effort for an experience that’s the polar opposite of most sedentary, seated working environments.
Punch, kick or step on each component to write out a paragraph, and then hit the ‘print’ bag to preserve what you’ve composed. Intending to blur the boundaries between work and leisure activities, making the act of typing on a computer far more physical, the computer encourages increased activity to keep office workers from going soft.
The installation was presented at the second Istanbul Design Biennial, inviting passersby to experience it themselves. The users watch their chosen letters pop up on the computer screen, and then wait for it to be printed at the end of their impromptu boxing session. “Personally we would love to be, at the end of the working day, physically as exhausted as mentally,” the designers told Dezeen.
