Ambient Robotany

Jill Coffin and John Taylor

Breeze is an ambient robot inhabiting the body of a willow tree. Unlike us, Breeze can visually sense and react through 360 degrees, allowing her to reach out to you and others wherever you are near.

Judith Donath, Karrie G. Karahalios

Chit Chat Club brings the online visitors into the public physical space of the cafe. It does this by both providing them with a view of the cafe and by giving them a physical presence with it.

Heidi Kumao and Chipp Jansen

CNNplusplus presents a technologically sabotaged newscast through subtle, automated media juxtaposition and replacement. The newscaster (video and audio) stays positioned solidly in the right corner of the screen as always, while our News Enhancement Program selectively replaces the other 2 regions of the screen. Independent news headlines replace weather, sports, stocks, and mainstream headlines on the bottom of the screen, while the upper left image is replaced with the results of a keyword-triggered Google Image Search. With the appearance and sound of a “normal” broadcast, CNNplusplus can entertain and educate the ordinary viewer.

Osman Khan and John Houck

enCODe is a projection of virtual fish on the café’s table tops. Using machine vision algorithms the fish avoid objects on the table (including hands and arms). The fish “swim” between projections via a network of networked computers. Each fish s also able to carry a message which is uploaded by visitors from a website and is released into the virtual pond when fish are trapped. Thus the project becomes both a fun interaction that takes advantage of natural activity over tabletops and a communal bulletin board recording thoughts and reflections occurring during the event.

Ami Wolf, Jin-Yo Mok

The Light Bead Curtain is a visceral interactive installation. Taking the form of a beaded curtain, each bead, upon being touched, illuminates and adds a unique sound to an evolving soundscape. Simply by touching the beads the installation aims to affect the senses; to touch a person playful sense and amuse their sense of wonder.

Rikayo Horimizu, Kenneth Haller, Kentaro Okuda, Michael Schneider

"Rock My Chair" is an interactive installation consisting of two sets of four rocking chairs. The chairs emit different parts of a melody according to their being rocked. People sitting near each other are able to create different harmonies and rhythms encouraging communication and play.

Judith Donath, Martin Wattenberg and Orkan Telhan

Past and Present is a visualization of activity in the cafe, both current and in the past. The visualization is shown on a large projection screen in the cafe. It is an abstract, animated image in which the movements of the elements are shaped by the actions of the people in the cafe. The topology underlying the animation is the space of the cafe, and as people move through it, occupy a space for a long time, order drinks, etc. they reshape that topology and thus the patterns of the animation. It is an abstract visualization in much the same way that ripples on a pond are a visualization of activity on and near the surface of the water.

 Will Pappenheimer

Every 15 minutes Internet users will be able to change the overall light temperature of the large cafe space. The overall light temperature will be based on a computational distillation of information from a news stories described and imaged my Google News. This system will utilize a dimmer controlled combination of red-blue-green lights to achieve a variety of colors. Lights will be directed primarily at the ceiling. If possible a computer station in the room will display the source and results of the current entry. The concept is based on the tradition of the "mood ring" which is composed of a material which changes color chemically based on the body temperature of the ring bearer. In this case it is a public issue which must be chosen by the Internet participant and then translated into color temperature for the destination space. A simple computational model will be chosen for the source news text and imagery which will then be translated into a color temperature based upon varying models maintained by different cultures. This system represents an offering and participatory mood encapsulating current issues of public concern.

JD Beltran

Secrets, told through the use of video and subtitles on mini-LCD screens, are revealed in hidden and unexpected spots scattered around the café. They are discovered by visitors and patrons of the café in places like under the salt, in the interior door of a bathroom stall, at the cocktail bar, or beneath the sugar dispenser at the coffee counter. The secrets themselves were and are being collected by the artist in a multi-year project, and are found by her through posting calls on internet sites, as well as through distributing thousands of postcards about the project in cities all over the world. Potential participants are directed to a website, www.seekingsecrets.com, where participants can send their secrets without even revealing their e-mail addresses. The artist sets these secrets to her own video footage, resulting in a series of short, intriguing, and revealing films. The C4F3 patrons and visitors themselves are invited to participate in the project and submit their own secrets, which are made into videos by the artist during the first week of the ISEA2006 conference, and are screened in the mix of secrets during the second week.

John Mallia

This installation is intended for use as a sign-in/comments area during an exhibit. Visitors to the exhibition may sign a guest book with a pencil amplified by means of an attached phono cartridge, making the physical recording of their signature, information and comments audible to other visitors in the immediate vicinity of the installation as well as more remote areas of the exhibit space. Visitors are also invited to use the two available manual typewriters to fill out survey cards. Short, continuously varied audio fragments of nervous pencil scratchings and dense, pattering typewriter keys are triggered in reponse to the vistors' typing actions and are projected through loudspeakers mounted inside of the typewriter cases.

Mauricio Arango

Mauricio Arango will create a reading-news-area in which visitors will be able to sit comfortably and read local and national newspapers. On the wall, there will be a projection of a map of the world connected to a database fed by news coming from several international newspapers. The visibility of each country on the map will depend of how much media coverage each country receives. Countries receiving little or no attention will disappear over time. Users will be able to interact with the map and learn about the countries on it and read stored news over the last 50 days.