Simple Objects for Everyday Communication with Haiyan Zhang
Strangely Familiar: Part One
Heather Martin, Reto Wettach, Massimo Banzi, and Yaniv Steiner.
Every year at IDII, someone does a project about maintaining long distance relationships. This year it was Haiyan and I. Yet despite our sweet intentions, the connections our simple objects ended up maintaining were a little on the strange side. For one, a pair of phones which allowed you to pull the other phone off the hook, thereby eavesdropping on an empty room. The other, a set of ghostly knockers which sent a stream of metallic sonar pulses back and forth at a velocity dubbed "The Speed of Love".
Our tutors took us through a fantastic journey. First by bringing the Kaos Pilots in to do some group building, which helped Haiyan and I form a common vision. Then Heather and Reto took us through the analytical process of deconstructing our so-many-functions-they-don't-function telephone answering machines and radio alarm clocks, while Massimo and Yaniv inducted us into the Order of the Blinking L.E.D. by way of hot solder and keyboard hacks.
In fact, Haiyan and I had so much fun, we joined the Strangely Familiar 2: Applied Dreams workshop and continued developing our prototypes.
Visit the class website maintained by Yaniv.
View the Flickr photoset for this class.
Watch Haiyan battle the Segretaria Digitale.
Watch a video prototype for messaging in space.
Watch Tok Tok v.1 in action.