Anthony Dunne & Fiona Raby ... Fields and Thresholds ... Doors2
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E x a m p l e s
The following slides are examples of early sketches exploring how some of these ideas might work in physical terms.
d r u m
These slides show a situation where two corridors formed into rings are located in different buildings. Speakers, microphones and sensors are positioned around the interior of the structure and respond to location and movement.
Participants can move through the space, following, chasing, colliding with, or shadowing each other depending on the situation.
Perhaps a structure like this could allow for expression of cultural difference through the different uses of space materialised as sound.
b e n c h
These next slides show two cold steel benches located in different cities, When somebody sits on one of them, a corresponding position on the other bench warms up opening up a sound channel.... At the other location, by feeling the bench for `body heat', a person can decide to make contact by sitting on the warm part, or open their own channel by sitting nearby. Initially the sound channel is distorted, but as the bench slowly warms up, the channel clears, providing a moment to discretely slide away if you change your mind.
t e l e - v i s i t s
Our first thoughts on blending telematic space with physical space were related to navigating through existing voice mail systems.
For instance, by phoning into a building, a caller could use the telephone keypad to move through different physical locations, possibly meeting the actual inhabitants, striking up conversations or simply hanging around and listening in.
q u i v e r i n g p i e c e
Perhaps, for example, you might dial into the object in the right hand slide. By connecting with it you cause it to quiver indicating your presence, while you listen to the distorted sounds of nearby activities.
A casual passer-by, might, noticing the movement, slowly make contact with the caller by gently lifting the cloth and clearing the distorted line.
w e a t h e r
Or by pressing another key, the callers could transfer themselves to other objects, for instance, onto the roof or into the garden, to listen to the weather through a `sonic window'.
d o g
Or even onto a `pet' to experience a variable acoustic impression of an environment controlled by the free will of an animal, and possibly meeting other pet lovers!
t e l e c h a t l i n e
Another version of the fusion between physical and telematic space is the chat-line. People dial into the building to participate in a spatialised tele-discussion. They are accessible to the actual inhabitants of the building through a variety of artefactual and spatial devices. For example, the teleparticipant can remotely control the range of their zone of sensitivity, or an inhabitant can ease their way into the discussion.
l o b b y
In the image on the right, the lobby is treated as a point of entry into the system for both tele- and physical participants, people waiting in the lobby can listen to the ambient sounds of tele-participants arriving and departing.
p a n s p e c t r o n
The panspectron is a piece of furniture for accessing the `chatosphere', the airborne conversations between users of mobile phones and radios. The seat tunes from frequency to frequency by slowly turning it within its frame.
t e l e r a t s
Much to our disapointment we discovered that multi-participant `chatlines' no longer exist in the UK as a few people were listening in on others swopping private details, resulting in a few serious asults on women in their homes. Today, all conversations are taped and `by-standing' is no longer allowed. We wanted to set up our own chatline to test out some ideas. The following observations resulted from a series of informal experiments designed to provide us with some concrete experience of the more intangible aspects of the themes discussed earlier. The experiments were set up in the Computer Related Design department at the Royal College of Art, and consisted of real time interaction with working cardboard test-pieces using microphones and speakers, linked to a central sound-mixing unit connecting different rooms.
We set up a situation where two teleparticipants are involved in conversation, a third teleparticipant `arrives', eavesdropping at first, then trying to join in. We began to explore the use of sound to indicate approach, arrival, entry, and identity.
We discovered that when there were four people connected from the start, group conversation was very lively and successful, it was quite easy to butt in and drop out.
However, when only two people were already in conversation, the abrupt `arrival' of a third person was very disruptive for the two already speaking. It actually proved quite difficult to adjust the conversation to accommodate the `visitor'.
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We
found that the use of a distortion device as a means of entering an existing
conversation worked very well, and proved to be a very subtle and interesting
way of sonically signifying presence. The perception was that the distorted
voice was somehow `arriving' or `appearing'. The disruption to the existing
conversation was more gentle and it was easier to then accommodate the
`visitor'. But, nevertheless, it was felt that the people already involved in a
conversation should have the possibility to block out the `visitor' if they so
desired.
During the distortion exercises, we were unable to provide feedback for the person being faded into the conversation and this was felt to be a definite disadvantage. They should be aware of their condition, and also of the conversation already in progress and the effect they are having on it while `arriving'.
- The reaction to knowing that others were present even though only two or three voices could be heard, was mixed.Those that minded, felt that the bystander ought to signify their presence somehow, possibly in the form of a `sonic identity' which could be either related to the location, or to the personal identity of the participant. This could be a minimal sound taking the form of static or interference. A participant familiar with the system would eventually be able to sense the passive presence of others.
- Other experiments were tried where the glow from coloured light sources were used as feedback for entering into an ongoing conversation. After a short time, these variations in light level lost their significance. The experience of being involved in a conversation totally dominated the situation. It was therefore felt that light was not as effective as sonic feedback and would be more appropriate for use during the build-up to contact, rather than during the conversation. This led onto some more specific ideas for light, for example, indicating presence through different degrees of focus. Or by spatialising a projected image by moving it off the wall onto the floor in response to presence at the another location. Extending an invitation for communication. The content of the projected image could also offer possibilities for visualising different zones of spatial sensitivity reinforced by audio distortion.
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