Peek,poke,talk
in collaboration with elim cheng

Introduction

This project is inspired by how strangers sit on benches in public spaces in New York City, like subway stations, parks, museums, etc. We noticed that most strangers sit far from one another, and avoid looking at each other, let along having conversations. So we created a video sculpture: an intervention around the bench, using shadows which randomly playback from a video database of strangers’ interactions, to surprise people, and to make them think.

 

   

Audience

Everyone as long as you have a butt

User Scenario

When two people sit on this bench, with a space between them, one shadow interaction video is triggered in which the sitters' shadows seem to come alive, proceeding to flirt, poke, and interact with each other, for example, doing strange things like faux-attack with a drill.

If they sit closer to each other, then nothing will happen. The shadows will not act on their own, because if the sitters already feel comfortable sitting close, they don’t need this “ice breaker”. The interaction is not between the human and the shadow, but between the two participants.
 

Goals

Add magic and surprise to the environment, making it feel less lonely and making the people in it more familiar.
  

How it works

A switch is embedded into a bench and connected to the Arduino microcontroller. When two people are sitting on certain spots of the bench, the switch turns on, the Arduino will send signal to the laptop, and trigger Max/MSP to randomly play the pre-recorded shadow video, which will be projected onto the ground in front of the bench to produce the illusion of the sitters’ real shadows. 

Technical Equipments

- A MAC laptop that has the software MAX/MSP
- A projector that is able to hang on the ceiling 
- A space to fit our bench and projection of the shadows

Video documentation:

Peek Poke Talk in ITP show

We also presented this piece at Electronic Social Club.
Here are more pictures:

building process:
first prototype: (using processing, video capture and tracking, arduino, projector)

second prototype: (building bench, using light to make real shadow, instead of using camera capture and tracking, with processing)