Smoke
Introduction • Quicktime: Behaviour / Family
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60-70% of children treated for breathing problems are caused by inhaling passive smoke from parents.
The Smoke doll provides a lasting visual reminder of the effects of passive smoking on children.
Smoke is a toy that monitors and reacts to the parent's smoking habits.
Smoke's physical breathing is depending on it's exposure to smoke.
If exposed to smoke frequently, smoke's breathing becomes irregularily and finally ceases completely. It can be cured, but only by the breath of a non-smoker and not the own parents.
Smoke takes the parents consideration for the child's health out of the parental home and makes this socially visible. It is a lasting visual sign and accusing reminder of how much the child's health is affected by passive smoke.
The aim of the Smoke doll is not to make parents quit instantly but to raise their awareness how much their child's health and the health of the doll is affected by their behaviour. An either healthy or sick doll provides a visible and lasting sign to raise the parent's awareness and guilt about their smoking habits around their children.
It gains access to the parents home as an "innocent" object and gives the child a way to document and monitor the parent's smoking habits around him with the means of a physically visible object.
The doll in a family environment |
Cure the doll |
The doll can be cured, but only by the breath of a non-smoker which means that the child's own parents can not help curing the doll due to the consistant nicotine level in their breath.
Fields of application for the doll could be as a therapeutic toy in children's hospitals that deal especially with asthmatic children. It could be given to smoking parents by concerned friends or relatives of the family.
The smoke doll was developed in close collaboration with practicing doctor specialized in children's lung deseases.
© 2008 Daniel Goddemeyer / daniel [at] someprojects.org