interacting in paris

› summary

vallee — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:00:00 +0000

here’s a brief summary of the whole project in form of a 3.5 x 1 m board:

› prototype

vallee — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:50:59 +0000

to simulate the function of the couch in my presentation at strate, i built a small prototype.

the prototype reacts to the distance of the observer and mixes two soundfiles depending on his closeness.
when you’re far away, the only thing you’ll hear is white noise, but the closer you get, the better you can hear the couches recorded voices.

to accomplish this task i made a simple arduino mock-up where i took an infrared distance sensor and wrote a small script in vvvv that mixed the two pre-edited soundfiles together.

› what it looks like

vallee — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:09:27 +0000

the ghostorytellers’ couch › how it works

vallee — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:08:18 +0000

the mechanism of the piece of furniture that i finally came up with is rather simple: it will record voices of your friends while they’re there and plays those sounds back when you are in need of remembrance of your friends.

this is how it works in detail:

imagine you invite your friends over, they will be sitting, chatting and having a good time on your couch

your couch absorbs their voices and records the positions where their voices were most present

when they’re gone.. and you feel alone…

simply lie down on your couch and wait. your couch will feel that you are alone if you’re calm and quiet and slowly and subtly start playing back the sounds from the past. not whole conversations, obviously, not even full sentences, but only random words, sounding as if they were far away but still close.

only if you take your time, concentrate, and snuggle closely into your couch you will be able to hear their voices become clearer. you have to make an effort and you have to be really needy for some memories.

as the couch knows the positions of the voices recorded, you can move along the couch, search for different people, as you remember the event where the voices were recorded and the images of the people they belong to come back to you.

ghostorytellers’ soundscapes

vallee — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 11:07:49 +0000

i finally came to the conclusion that the best way to be reminded of the presence of humans is (besides smell) by sound. not without reason is it that you call a friend when you’re lonely “just to hear his voice” as friends are often told. it is by the voice of a familiar person that you are instantly reminded of happy or unhappy situations, feelings and thoughts. even through the lossy connection of a telephone or internet cable you can recognize a friend’s voice, as you can immeadiately tell his state of mind, whether he’s tired, excited, bored or sad, just by the way he says “hello”.

every sound creates certain emotions within us. not only can you see this in the cinema, where it’s the creepy soundscape that makes a scary movie scare us in the first place, but also in smaller scale, in everyday things. the sound of hot tea poured into a cup makes us feel comfortable as does the cracking of a fireplace.
also, sound is ubiquitous. you cannot shut your ears. it’s always with you.

so this is what i want to do: to use this premisses to create a reactive piece of furniture that helps you fight your loneliness by the use of sound.

ghostorytellers’ wall

vallee — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 09:57:47 +0000

do you know that lonely feeling when you’ve had a party at your place and the next day everybody is gone?
a wall that records the shadows having been cast on your wall by your friends, playing them back when you’re alone again, can conserve that feeling of a crowded place for a little while longer.

ghostorytellers’ bed

vallee — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 09:54:35 +0000

if you are in a long-distance-relationship you might want to feel your loved-one next to you at night although he’s miles away. a set of two beds, equipped with pressure sensores and connected to each other, records your movements and displays them on its other half. that way you can always feel where your loved-one lies, how he moves or even if there’s another person lying next to him…

ghostorytellers’ invitable

vallee — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 08:19:30 +0000

again, an idea to get into a dialogue with the foreigners who might pass by your garden fence every day but still don’t know what’s happening behind the walls of your house.

are you one of those people who don’t like cooking for themselves alone? with the invitable you can always make the tripple amount of food. it will realize when there’s only you sitting on the table and hence expand towards the outer side of your walls, sending a subtle invitation to the passers-by to sit down and share your meal with you.

ghostorytellers for all the lonely people

vallee — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 08:09:51 +0000

…so I decided to make furniture for all those lonely people. Making them feel more comfortable by giving them company in a virtual or analog way.

But why would you possibly be lonely? Is it because you’re a computer nerd who’s only social environment is that of mmorpgs?

How about providing them with an opportunity to feel close to their far-away-friends even when they fall asleep on their desk at 5am after a long night of gaming?
A wooden table, including 4 speakers and a map of the world, would do the job. Moving your ear across the world map you can listen to your friend’s broadcasts all across the world.

one of those ideas

vallee — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 05:32:06 +0000

the garden-path that invites you to come in