What is "Personal Space"?

You must be asking yourself what "Personal Space" is.

Well, as an artist and inventor, I felt like it was my obligation to come up with a solution for certain problems I face - and I'm sure lots of people (especially those who live in big cities) do, too.

I live in a city of nearly 20 million people.

Whenever I walk out in the streets, I don't know if I look too thin, too ugly, too repulsive or if I seem to be "invisible".

I only know people seem not to see me, as as they're always bumping, hitting me, stepping on me, or pushing me. Of course I always HATE when they cough or sneeze on me. Sometimes people aren't even polite enough to say "sorry", but well, even if they do - so what? You gave me YOUR disease, dammit! I don't think you're sorry enough. If you were, you'd have AT LEAST covered your mouth, or turned your head before doing that on me.

Yes, folks, we live in a planet that gets more and more populous every day, and some people don't seem to understand the most basic rules of courtesy. I can't ask people to respect my personal space, my health, my will to walk freely without being pushed or bumped.

So I created this AWESOME object of art, called "PERSONAL SPACE". It's been classified as "functional art", and it ensures we maintain a safe distance from others - still being sociable, without hurting ANYONE, without being aggressive, without being impolite - WITHOUT GETTING HURT either. I'm positive this will be VERY popular in the future with lots of people, as EVERYONE would like to have personal space but no one knows HOW to preserve it.

This device is a piece that can be worn like a belt, you don't need to use your hands to hold it, so you'll have freedom of movement - you'll be able to move your waist, back, arms and legs normally with it.

At first the idea was to protect human beings from problems we can cause to each other, like being hit, bumped, etc., as well as health issues like keeping a safe distance to prevent the spread of infectious/ contagious diseases like the swine flu.

It is scientifically proved that keeping a distance of 3 to 6 feet from infected people can be more effective to prevent infections than wearing masks.

If you wear a mask and someone coughs right above your head, YOU'RE SICK.

BUT if someone coughs like there's no tomorrow and you're at a safe distance, NOTHING will happen to you. Why? Simply because germs can't travel that long in space to reach you. They can travel some, but not that long. That's why personal space is important. It kind of reminds me of the Middle Ages, when people didn't know that something as simple as washing hands could save lives. It feels like people have no idea that something as simple as keeping their personal space safe can prevent diseases (like the swine flu) and save lives!!!!!

I tested PERSONAL SPACE in Brazil, and I got the most amazing feedback.

People not only LOVED the idea of having a device to protect them against diseases and certain problems we face in crowded big cities, as they also created new uses for "Personal Space", calling the object"Personal Father" (so that fathers could let their daughters go out at night without worrying if their boyfriends would keep a certain distance from the girls....

Someone else called it "Personal Husband", saying she'd let her husband go out more often, knowing other women would be kept distant from her husband.. another person said it would be great if people who ride bikes could wear it as a protection measure, like helmets; another person emphasized that this object can decrease the rate of crimes like raping (very interesting uses, I'd say!)..

I thought people would frown at the idea of wearing my device, but nobody actually did it. What most people said was "HOW / WHERE CAN I GET ONE? IT'S THE BEST THING I'VE EVER SEEN, I WANT ONE".