An installation designed by Random Studio at Nike’s House of Innovation in Paris tracked users’ breath using AI, delivering an experience that underscored wellbeing.

Key features

To promote Nike’s Holistic Fitness campaign, Random Studio reimagined the Nike House of Innovation in Paris to embody the new direction of the brand’s vision. Central to the activation was the BreathLab, an intuitive, responsive installation that shifted in sync with each visitor’s breath. AI helped Random to develop it, the seemingly effortless result required intensive labour, with Random training an AI to detect inhalation and exhalation by manually labelling 8,000 thermal-camera images. It was designed to focus on feeling rather than movement, ushering in a different approach to individual wellbeing both through product innovation and breath-work skills picked up at the BreathLab.

Visitors walked through a tunnel lined with mannequins dressed in the featured collection and screens pulsing with light that cycled from cool to warm. Fashioned out of panels of stretchy fabric, a pink sphere housed the BreathLab at the end of the tunnel. Animated by changing light, up to two visitors were guided through a breathwork exercise. With each breath, a thermal camera measured the users' changing breath rate, reflecting it in a glowing aura portrait. At the end of the exercise, visitors could take a photo of their portrait before it was projected on the walls of the BreathLab, lingering until the next participant arrived.

FRAME’s take

The BreathLab underscores the place that AI has in retail design, going far beyond using it just for the sake of mouthing the latest buzzwords. ‘Until recently, phygital retail was an exciting prospect with exceptionally underwhelming results,’ Tracey Ingram writes in the upcoming issue of FRAME. ‘Dotting a few token iPads through the customer journey was somehow sold as a tech-enhanced experience, even though the tech was often more disruptive than constructive.’

Random’s approach to the BreathLab shows how technology can actuallyholistically bolster the retail environment to create a meaningful experience: ‘meaning equals memorability, and memorability equals connection,' she writes. 'And connected customers feel more compelled to return.’ AI – and technology more generally – can, therefore, be an asset in crafting, communicating and connecting a strong brand narrative. Brands and designers looking to incorporate technology into their spaces should do so in a way that transcends superficiality and delivers memory and meaning for the user, which, through its other works is clearly Random’s strong suit.