Posed with the challenge of emulating a counterculture through the design of headphones, our team chose to focus on Burning Man. The headphone’s physical design showcases the themes of Burning Man: the antlers symbolize an escape from the urban environment and its restrictions, while the mirroring represents the reflective nature of the festival. Accompanying the headphones is a playlist with songs matched to art installations at the festival; the playlist allows festivalgoers to better discover the emotions and concepts evoked from the art pieces. Other Burners will add to the user’s playlist throughout the festival, emphasizing another Burning Man principle—that of gifting. In those ways, the headphones seek to resolve the paradox of community and self-reliance found at Burning Man. The headphones were created using SolidWorks.

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Headphone design by Alanah Anderson, Ha D.H. Le, and Clare McClintock. User experience design by Alanah Anderson, Ha D.H. Le, Xinwen Liu, and Clare McClintock.