THIS IS TODAY
Interactive objects, environments and services to look at, touch and try out.
Interaction Design Institute Ivrea takes new media into our daily lives.
An estimated 25,000 visited the six-day exhibition “This is Today. L’invasione degli ultracorpi interattivi” at Milan’s Triennale during April’s Furniture Fair (14 to 19 April). 6,000 of them came on opening night alone. “Touch and try out” was the message of the exhibition
which featured twenty fascinating Projects and products, developed by an international
group of interaction designers (students, faculty and research), who were on hand
to demonstrate their use – an approach highly appreciated by the visitors.

Projects list and credits:

22 POP – A typewriter that sends email
Do you remember the classic Olivetti Lettera 22 typewriter (first produced in 1950)?
The one that became the faithful companion of lots of dogged reporters? Well, the
typewriter that has taken its rightful place in the history of twentieth-century design,
has now been given an electronic system enabling it to send emails through a normal
internet connection. “I thought it would be a good idea for my mother, who doesn’t use
a computer, much less the Internet, but she knows how to use a normal typewriter”,
explains Aparna Rao, the Indian designer who, along with Mathias Dahlström, has
developed 22 POP” (a combination of the terms “Lettera 22” and POP, the email
communication protocol). “You put in a pre-printed form and start typing. Once you
have compiled the text, you just take the sheet of paper out of the rollers to send the
email.”
To make things easy, Aparna has also thought up a system of memorising the most
frequently-used addresses (of friends, colleagues and family) so that, if you write the
opening of the letter – for example “Dear Aparna” – the system automatically knows to
whom you want to send the email.
Project by: Aparna Rao (India) and Mathias Dahlström (Sweden)

Not-So-White Walls – Interactive wallpaper
The age of switches, knobs and remote controls in the home is nearly over. With the
electronic wallpaper devised by Dario Buzzini, if you want to dim the lights, turn the
radio volume up and down, or switch on the TV, all you need do is touch some of the
“sensitive” parts of the wall lightly. “This is a normal wallpaper that can be applied to
walls using paste, but it has a grid of sensors, resistors and conduction elements on
the back that can be connected in turn to the electrical system in your house”, Dario
explains. “In this way, new technologies can be put into the home, with a fun approach,
and without intervening in an invasive manner, just like ‘simple tech’ technology
teaches us to do”. Other prototypes have followed on from this first interactive
wallpaper prototype, such as the one that transforms the walls of your house into
screens where you can view low-resolution images and texts, read your email or text
messages, or have another look at the pictures taken with your mobile phone camera.
There’s also the one where you can pencil in (exploiting the conductive properties of
graphite) the controls for your various household appliances to start them up, and then
remove them with an eraser to turn them off. And then there is the one that changes
your wallpaper into a kin of barometer. Dario explains: “The wall will change colour
according to the level of humidity perceived in the atmosphere; this has the added
effect of decorating our home interiors in a way that is novel and always changing”.
Project by: Dario Buzzini (Italy)

Mass Distraction – Fashion for techno-victims
Tal and Davide have taken their initial idea of making visible what is invisible one step
further and they are now developing a range of clothes, which they have christened
“Mass Distraction”.
The focus here is the interference of mobile communications in our lives, although it
takes on a different appearance each time. Among the garments there are, for example,
hooded sweatshirts with integrated mobile phones. They’re comfortable to wear, but
they have a serious purpose, because when you receive a phone call (or want to make
one), the only way to activate your mobile is to pull the hood over your head until you
insulate yourself completely from the social surroundings you are in, whether it’s a
party, a romantic dinner for two, or a country outing with your children.
and certainly a very radical way- of highlighting how mobile communications are a
source of distraction”, explains Davide, “that force people to lose the best part of both
interactive situations- the real one (in which you are physically present) and the virtual
one (in which you participate with your voice and your thoughts)”. The same goes for
the jacket-mobile, which enables you to make calls only if you keep putting coins into
your pocket, as if it were a walking telephone booth.
Alongside the three interactive sweatshirts, we have the bags from the Fashion Victim
collection. This project was developed together with Dario Buzzini and involves special
bags that develop a red stain each time you make or receive a phone call. The stain
grows larger and broader whenever the electro-magnetic waves of the mobile phone are
activated. As we said at the beginning, the point is making the invisible visible…
Project by: Davide Agnelli (Italy) and Tal Drori (Israel)

Ninja TV -Interactive TV, Ninja-version
“Interactive television” is the buzzword in many research centres scattered throughout
the world. At Interaction-Ivrea, Søren Pors has been working for months on this
topic. In this exhibition is one of the most intriguing of his Ninja TV applications is on
show; a combat set to turn you into a Ninja TV viewer without having to get out of your
armchair. Put on a pair of boxing gloves, and when you press the button, you’re ready to
punch your way out of all the pent-up irritation you’ve accumulated during the course
of a long, stressful day.
Project by: Søren Pors (Denmark) & Yaniv Steiner (Israel)

Smart Skins – Intelligent skins for dumb objects
This project aims to customise daily objects – such as books, chairs and key-rings – by
means of electronic devices. The idea is to work on a new layer of electronics for objects
we use normally every day, and try to stimulate new forms of communication (direct
and indirect) between people.
A removable chair-cover shows people around you how long you have been sitting
there (or how long you have been absent). A key-ring, on the other hand, becomes a
portable radio-transmitter and transmits sounds around you, telling your friends and
colleagues what you are doing. This set of devices adds emotional and social value to
the customised objects; they are intended for possible low-cost industrial production,
using already-existing technologies.
Project by: Rikako Sakai (Japan)
Soft Interface – A switch as soft as a bubble of gel
The question she started with was very simple: why are switches made in the shapes
and materials that are familiar to all of us? Could we imagine new, different shapes and
sensory qualities?Is it possible to design and prototype a soft, fluid switch that makes
us really want to touch it, and that transforms a banal, everyday gesture into a new
sensory experience? The answer is Soft Interface, a first step towards a world in which
the softness of gel is taken from the beauty parlour and put onto our bathroom walls.
Project by: Akemi Tazaki (Japan)

Sonic Texting – Where gestures and sounds are all you need to write a message
You can use this while keeping it hidden in your pocket or when you are in the dark, and
it performs three functions simultaneously: it’s a writing implement, a piece of musical
fun and a game for sophisticated minds. Its shape brings to mind either a joystick, a
mouse, or a mini remote control but it isn’t any of these.
So what is it? “It’s a system that enables you to write texts without using either pen and
paper, or a computer keyboard, but with certain hand gestures connected to a related
sound accompaniment”, explains Michal rinott, the inventor of the strange appliance.
original idea for gesture writing was inspired by Quikwriting by Ken Perlin of NYU.
You can’t use it straight away, because it needs a training phase (by means of a graphic
support interface)- just as any writing technique does- except that, in this case, the
play and fun elements are the most important. “Once you’ve learnt the mechanism, you
can easily write a letter or text message simply by keeping your hand in your pocket or
even standing in total darkness”, states Michal. “If you want to be sure that you haven’t
made a mistake, you just listen to the sound the device emits while you’re writing.”
Three different sound levels are provided: the easiest and most immediate one is the
one that scans the letters – always very tunefully. The most sophisticated one links each
letter you write with a certain music.
“I can now recognise the tune of my name”, says Michal, in order to explain
more clearly how Sonic Texting works. “The thing I was especially interested in
experimenting on, was a digital product that could combine our gestures with sounds in
a way that was not invasive, but entertaining and functional. Basically, anything we do
creates a certain sound, whether it’s putting a glass down on a table or shaking a bottle
of water”. It’s possible, therefore, for anyone who manages to be sufficiently skilled at
using Sonic Texting to create successful “musical texts” based on the harmonies that
they are able to express while writing.
Project by: Michal rinott (Israel)

Tableportation – Café tables for virtual seductions
Imagine sitting in a café and knowing that the table in front of you has quasi-magical
properties, that it is able to light up in a certain way if it is touched by your fingers
and to interact with the other tables in the café. This second effect is possible because
the translucent surfaces of each table (and what happens on them) are filmed by
TV cameras suspended above them and projected onto a large screen so as to form
a mosaic of images in perpetual motion. “Even tables that are quite distant from
each other can, in this way, find themselves very close to each other, and so can the
people sitting at them, who can touch each other’s hands and arms, albeit completely
virtually. This contact, in spite of being merely digital, can break down spatial and
psychological barriers”, explains Peggy Thoeny, who developed this project together
with Giorgio Olivero, “You can also decide to move your position on the projected
grid, and choose to have new people at neighbouring tables and new companions to
pass the time with”. The final effect is that of a subtle, ambiguous game of seduction,
consisting of voyeurism and exhibitionism at the same time. “There are people who
like to observe what it happening at other tables and those who show off by displaying
items from their personal sphere: the contents of a bag emptied onto the table or an
intimate diary opened at the last page”. The magic effect of touching the table surface
and thus activating light patterns is produced by a network of small metallic elements
embedded in the table; these are connected to a set of sensors that, when activated by
skin conductivity (the same process can occur by using a metallic object- a fork or a set
of keys, for instance- or water condensed in the bottom of a glass), turn on a series of
LEDs on a layer underneath the translucent table surface.
Project by: Giorgio Olivero (Italy) and Peggy Thoeny (Liechtenstein)

Uncle’s Phone – A telephone for a lazy uncle
Aparna Rao presents a project inspired by the daily life of her family in Bangalore. In
a house large enough for an extended family, her uncle lives an armchair-centred life.
When the phone rings, there’s pandemonium because the younger members of the
family have to dash to the phone and take it to him in his armchair- a very tiresome
activity. Very tiresome, that is, until Aparna conceived, designed and constructed this
two-metre-long telephone. Installed in a strategic point in the living-room, it enables
Uncle to talk comfortably without needing to bother all the rest of the family.
Project by: Aparna Rao (India)

Audiograffiti – Leave digital graffiti as you go by
Just as our ancestors in the past left traces of their existence by drawing graffiti on
cave-walls, so today we can leave traces of our presence in an entirely novel way, not by
splattering walls with spray paints but by tracing an “audio imprint”. To do this, we just
go into to the stomach of Ciccio, an inflatable, eight-metre-long white fabric tunnel.
Once inside, we step onto one of the bright discs on the floor to activate a microphone
ready to record and broadcast (both inside and outside Ciccio) whatever we like, in a
sort of melodic loop with a fading effect: it may be a raucous noise, a short poem, an
exclamation, or a smacking kiss. “When we presented it experimentally”, says Andreea
Chelaru, who designed the device along with Ben Dove, Noel Perlas and Thomas
Stovicek, “we had very varied reactions from those who tried it. Some of them jumped
from one light-disc to another, to leave as many tracks as possible, while others took
the microphone and passed it to their friends, transforming the experiment into a
group game. Others, again, imitated animal noises, as if they were in the middle of the
jungle”. This is mankind discovering its primordial roots, thanks to a digital drawing.
Project by: Andreea Chelaru (Romania), Ben Dove (United Kingdom), Noel Perlas
(Philippines) and Thomas Stovicek (Canada)
Light Brix – The intelligent light brick

The first version of Light Brix was developed by Helen Evans, Heiko Hansen and Graham Plumb
in Ivrea during the summer of 2001. It was a very simple but incredibly
fascinating idea: a brick that lights up when you touch it.Helen Evans and Heiko
Hansen have moved on from that first prototype and what you see in the Triennale is
the most recent version developed for AB+ in Turin. It’s a wall covered with a cloud
of 172 plastic hexagons, each of them interactive and reactive.If you move your hand
across them, they light up or go out, and the light increases (or decreases) in intensity.
Project by: Helen Evans (United Kingdom) and Heiko Hansen (Germany)

Collabolla – The videogame you jump around on until you drop
“Collabolla” is the first videogame where, instead of the classic joystick, computer
console or mouse, you have to sit astride a big “Spacehopper” ball (remember those
huge inflatable balls with handles, popular in the 1970s, that children used to jump
around on?). Then you can activate heroes on the screen, through the commands you
send to the ball with your body movements. “The other thing that’s new is that we have
made it so that the two players don’t play against each other, but have to join forces and
co-ordinate with each other to combat a common enemy. That’s how we came up with
the name for the game: it expresses a spirit of collaboration rather than competition”,
explains Simone Pia, who developed this project along with Jennifer L. Bove and
Nathan Waterhouse. As a demonstration, the highly popular “Pac Man” videogame
was adapted to the new characteristics of Collabolla. Basically, the two players are
side by side, each on his or her “Spacehopper”, facing a maxi-screen. One of the two
players can make the game’s hero move backwards or forwards, while the other can
make him turn left or right. “It’s essential, therefore, to have the right teamwork and
coordination so that the character will manage to complete the course by eating all the
little yellow balls and avoiding the dangers and pitfalls that obstruct his path”, explains
Jenn, “When we tried it out on our friends and relatives, we discovered Collabolla’s
value as a game: they all ended up hooting with of laughter and wanted to carry on
playing over and over again, until they were physically worn out”.
Project by: Jennifer L. Bove (USA), Simone Pia (USA) and Nathan Waterhouse (United
Kingdom)

Creative Collision – Artistic “wall-targeting”
“Ciccio”, the inflatable fabric tunnel set up by the Interaction-Ivrea, can be used in
several ways: to leave “audiograffiti” (see the project) and also to have fun producing
“creative collisions”. Here’s how the system designed by Giovanni Cannata and Anurag
Sehgal works: you take a sort of rubber pebble, magnetised by a metal tray, and you dip
it “virtually” into one of the three bowls of paint (red, orange or yellow) available. The
bowl where you have decided to dip the pebble transmits the order to use, for example,
yellow. At that point, when you throw the pebble against the Ciccio wall, the wall itself
(equipped with suitable sensors) will be stained- again virtually- with yellow (the
shape and size of the stain will depend on the intensity and the way in which the pebble
is thrown). This operation can be repeated several times using the various colours
and thus you can create your own graphic, which can be duly stored in the computer
memory.
Project by: Giovanni Cannata (Italy) and Anurag Sehgal (India)
Ciccio by: Stefano Mirti.

Goldenbook – Messages to treasure
You usually read and then delete the messages you get on your mobile phone in a matter
of seconds. But some of them might deserve to stay alive a little longer, because of the
stylistic ability of the person who has written them, or because they are poetic, or they
contain loving sentiments, or because of the emotional impact they made on you when
you received them. Thinking about these things gave rise to the idea of being able to
save one- and only one- text message per day in a “golden book”. At the end of the year,
your telephone operator will collect these pearls of wisdom, love, irony or light-hearted
superficiality, put them into a small printed book – with 365 pages for 365 messagesand
have this sent to the owner. “Your digital messages will thus be turned into an
analogue souvenir- touching, entertaining, sweet or embarrassing- of the year gone
by”, explains Professor Jan-Christoph Zoels, who devised the Goldenbook along with
a team of Interaction-Ivrea students. During the Salone del Mobile, Interaction-Ivrea
will use this same mechanism to collect comments about the event from the public
sent by text message (using a mobile phone number made available for visitors). These
will be published within 24 hours in a limited edition “instant book”, created for the
occasion with the new, fast-production, “print-on-demand” services.
Project by: Francesca Rosella (Italy), David Slocombe (United Kingdom), Livia Sunesson
(Sweden), Magnus Torstensson (Sweden) and Jan-Christoph Zoels (Germany)
The original idea for the Goldenbook was developed during an Applied Dreams workshop with support
from Sony Design Centre Europe, London.

Invisible Force – Digital fortune telling, with a sadistic touch
Having your future told by a table instead of a regular fortune-teller – this is what
Crispin Jones has thought up, blending the talents of a skilled carpenter with those
of a computer scientist. The surface of his “clairvoyant” table is a beautifully cut grid,
divided into dozens of little parallelepipeds. To consult the oracle, first of all you have
to choose one card (with a barcode on the back) from a special pack; this card carries
the question that best fits your requirements (like: “Will the woman I’m in love with
love me in return?”, or: “Will I be successful in getting that job?”). You then put it into
a slot in the table, keeping it pressed until a reply is obtained. This will gradually be
displayed by the wooden blocks moving frenetically (as if they were small pistons rising
and falling) on the table surface- which is deliberately made to look like a computer
screen with its pixel grid.Crispin has also inserted an element of ironic sadism into the
table consultation: while you are waiting for a response, a metal plate under your hand
warms up progressively, so that if you want to see the whole answer to your question,
you have to put up with a certain degree of pain. And the moral of this? That there is no
future without suffering.
Project by: Crispin Jones (United Kingdom)

Wiring – Lines of code that brighten up a cube
Hernando Barragàn is a computer scientist who is adept at writing programs: he lives
and breathes lines of code. So when he decided to combine these skills with designer
imagination, he wrote a new programming language, called “Wiring”, an evolution of
“Processing”, another language that was also developed within Interaction-Ivrea by a
team coordinated by Associate Professor Casey Reas and today used by a group of seven
thousand designers and artists.
The new language aims to help the interaction designer apply electronics to physical
objects (what is technically defined as “physical computing”). To show how easy it is to
use, and to demonstrate the properties of the new program, Hernando has brightened
up a Plexiglas cube with a magic light feature. If you touch the cube (connected to a PC
through a serial port), it not only turns on and off, but, thanks to a graphic application,
it creates ever-changing patterns of light both on the cube and on the computer screen,
according to how your hands touch the faces of the cube. Hernando has also created
another variation on the theme, in which the cube is filled with a thick liquid and, by
moving the cube so that the fluid contained in it moves around, more gentle lightgraphics
can be activated.
Project by: Hernando Barragàn (Colombia)

Processing – A programming language for designers
Casey Reas developed this programming language based on lessons learnt from
his teacher, John Maeda, when he studied with him at the MIT Media Lab in the
U.S.. “Design by Numbers” (developed by Maeda) influenced the development of
Processing- a language built on the experience of Casey Reas and Ben Fry in designing
commercial applications and in teaching interaction design. This new language was
designed to widen the designer’s horizons, both practical and conceptual, and it can be
applied in a large number of fields, from education to mobile phone applications.Casey
Reas taught in Ivrea, where he met Hernando Barragàn. Hernando used Processing as
a base for his software that combines principles of design with computer science and
electronics. The Projects evolve as the concept passes from master to student.
Project by: Casey Reas (USA) and Ben Fry (USA)

Audiolandscape – Audio-version souvenir postcards
This is a project devised primarily to help the visually impaired, but it might also be
useful for those with perfectly good eyesight. “Imagine you have to make a long car
trip. It will be natural for you to look around and admire the scenery. For a sightimpaired
friend or relative sitting next to you, however, this will be impossible and
may cause a strong feeling of disorientation”, explains Valentina Novello, the creator
of Audiolandscape. “That’s why I decided to create a system that would allow people
to listen to an audio description of the area they are traveling through in their cars”.
The project has so far only been developed in experimental form and would need
the collaboration of local authorities, because it would be the street signs (linked to
a centralised database) you pass on your journey that would send all the information
relating to a particular place, via GPRS, to an onboard computer. This, in turn, would
broadcast it out loud or through an earpiece inserted in the headrests of those who
want to listen, “starting with the driver who, even though he or she may have good
eyesight, needs to pay full attention to the road”, as Valentina says. A set of simple
controls located on the armrests also enables you to select your favourite subjects: local
history, culture and traditions, wine and food, practical information about hotels and
restaurants, etc. “The audio tracks you listen to can also be downloaded and stored
in the car computer to be kept as ‘audio-image’ souvenirs of your trip”, Valentina
concludes.The version in the exhibition is a work in progress.
Project by: Valentina Novello (Italy)

The exhibition space
The body snatchers arrive at the Triennale, and take possession of a large part of
the first floor in the Muzio building. The interior is dark, and lit by coloured neon
cylinders. Visitors have to walk upwards through the space, and you venture up the
steps, gradually discovering the various Projects in the exhibition. In the air, a constant
sound accompaniment takes you through the displays, highlighting the main points of
your discoveries with the sounds (suitably distorted and transformed) of your daily life.
It is a powerful setting, which owes its strength to the fact that it is completely invisible
to the eyes of the visitor.
Designed by: Cliostraat
Produced by: Dooley
Sound concept by: Raphael Monzini and e123

Technical Collaboration
For their support we thank the companies that have collaborated with us:
SERP, Burolo (TO)
ITALPLASTIC INDUSTRIALE, Olgiate Comasco (CO)
OSRAM Opto Semiconductors GmbH
OSRAM Italia
AB+, Torino
HITACHI DESIGN CENTRE EUROPE, Milano
ELETTRA FOTOLITO, Milano
MAZZUCCHILLI 1849 Spa, Milano
DOOLEY, Milano

- This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

"Salone Del Mobile / Italy" was posted on Friday, April 16th, 2004 at 2:49 am (6 years, 4 months ago) , It is filed under Exhibitions. You can follow the discussion on this feed or post a comment