HCI, Installations, Interactive, Tangible, Touch

Roles Lead Designer, Lead Developer (2007)
Technologies Java, ReacTIVision

DNS Award 2008, Laureate
ADC Junior Competition 2008, Award
:output Competition, Winner 2008

Special thanks to advisors Angelo Lüdin, Michael Renner, Roman Schnyder, Gregory Vines, as well as the IN:3 wood workshop for building the enclosure.

I designed this interactive installation in order to research how an emerging technology can be employed to produce imagery. The experimental heart of this interactive space, a self-made multi-touch screen, is a collaborative tool, tactile toy and visual laboratory rolled into one.

The project was exhibited several times and was met with an enthusiastic reception by the audience. For many people engaging in the experiment, its form actually created a new willingness to experiment with imagery. This demonstrates how a tactile interface can stimulate the way people express themselves visually, by rendering previously tedious tasks more humane. For instance: ornamental complexity.

People interacting with the piece can manipulate digital designs on the table with their bare hands and the assistance of metaphorical (yet physical) everyday items. What they do is instantly repeated as a pattern on the walls, empowering them to dynamically alter the atmosphere of their surroundings. In creating not just an application, but an actual environment, the project both became a collective experience because everybody in the audience was able to participate, as well as an interactive experience for the individual users who were actually creating patterns. Utopia: New digital tools should offer us an expressive, more humane approach to new visual worlds.