The Strangers Project
1 family, 2 timezones, 3 people, 9 lights.
Super-ordinary, amplified everyday objects.
The Strangers Project is a design intervention dealing with issues of familial closeness, daily ritual, tolerable inconvenience, nuanced conversation, and opportunity, missed (and gained). The purpose of the project is twofold: one, as a design research probe addressing issues of closeness and relationships, and to, as an experiment in interaction design, with the new interaction being embedded into an existing behavior instead of a new, learned behavior.
The project addresses the simple behavior of turning on a lamp in the home, and the amplification of this activity. With the project installed, each participant is simultaneously turning on a light in each other other two participants' homes when turning on an existing "hacked" lamp in her home. In this way, the participant is not asked to learn a new behavior, rather, the project functions within the framework of existing behaviors. The project takes place in three separate locations. A kit consisting of a two-light setup is installed in each participant's home. Each of the two lights is controlled via the internet by an existing lamp in the other two participants' homes. By turning on an existing lamp in his or her home, each participant is simultaneously turning on a light in each other other two participants' homes.
The project participants consist of a family of three (myself included), the Tsao family. The three participants, Gus, Alice, and Julia, though a family by definition, have lived as separate households for many years, and in essence are strangers to each others daily behavior.
The project began on April 1, 2008, and will take place on an ongoing basis. The ultimate goal is to have the project gain a sense of invisibility in the daily lives of the participants, and to then gauge the impact of the project once it reaches that point.
Thanks to Hans and Jason of ioBridge.
No comments:
Post a Comment