The idea for this project arose from my desire to build a storytelling device with emergent characteristics. The machine performs the acts of listening and remembering by manipulating the spatial and temporal characteristics of its sonic surroundings.

Comprised of an array of six speakers and six microphones, the machine hangs from the ceiling. With its microphones listening to the space, its speakers transmit what has been heard, generating a continuous sonic feedback loop. Occasionally, the machine records the sounds being transmitted through its system and stores these samples on a computer hard drive. These stored samples are played back … Continue Reading

WalkAbout is a mobile utility that turns a person’s daily physical activity into social currency. Using a mobile phone’s built-in accelerometer, the system runs in the background, counting the user’s steps as s/he goes about his/her daily business. WalkAbout users can dedicate their steps to a variety of different participation modes – each mode defined by different degrees of social engagement and competitiveness.

The goal of the application is to stimulate activity among people with sedentary lifestyles by building awareness of their current activity levels and leveraging this awareness to stimulate further activity through the use of social engagement, and competitive … Continue Reading

The KBD-1000 Boombox features wireless connectivity (802.11g wi-fi) that allows the user to stream audio to the device and play it through a high quality, portable sound system, while preserving the classic aesthetics and high quality production of the vintage machines.

The design of the KBD-1000 is inspired by the Panasonic RX-7000 (the same model was also distributed by National). Originally released in 1981 and retailing for $700.00 US, this product was targeted at the high-end market, as its wood side panels and controls were similar to those found on the high-end home stereo receivers of the day. In keeping with … Continue Reading

The skateboard locker concept was developed for a class project that required us to examine and re-design a doorway/transition experience. Our initial observations and brainstorming helped us identify “transition smoothing” as a theme for our project.

Our next step was to find a location that would benefit from some form of “transition smoothing”. The main entrance to Green Library on Stanford campus proved to be an ideal location. Upon further observations and interviews with staff, students, and facilities management, we identified skateboard storage a an opportunity area.

Skateboards can currently be checked behind the security desk located at the library’s entrance, however … Continue Reading

The Higher Men, an interactive new media installation, explores literate ways of knowing with contemporary thinkers – philosophers, new media theorists and filmmakers.

Alain Badiou, Jean Baudrillard, Judith Butler, Peter Greenaway, Jean-Luc Nancy, Larry Rickels, Wolfgang Schirmacher, Elias Sulieman, Gregory Ulmer, and Slavoj Žižek appear on a wall of screens speaking at once, creating an almost incomprehensible cacophony, until a viewer engages one of them. Each thinker reappears with the same thought or a different one “but it’s not repetition” as new juxtapositions change the context of their ideas.

Upon first entering the room the viewer is dwarfed by the big screen … Continue Reading

Exhibited during the month of July 2005 at InterAccess Electronic Media Arts Centre in Toronto, Harmony Bank is a performance-based art installation that explores the dynamics between audience and performer.

Within the Harmony Bank, performance artist Amy Learmonth is separated from the audience as she entertains from an isolated room. Through this physical disconnect, the performance is mediated through a custom made “gaming” console. As the audience plays with the buttons and joystick on the console, they directly impact the outcome of the performance.

Pressing any of the buttons on the console’s right panel selects which song the performer sings, while … Continue Reading

Greenhouse (2005) is a telematic artwork that creates a symbiotic relationship between a fully-automated greenhouse and single orchid flower housed within it. Using the Internet, real-time data is collected from a weather station in the orchid’s native habitat. This weather information is then used by a control system to create a simulation of these natural environmental conditions within the greenhouse.

Within this system, the roles traditionally associated to nature and machine are reversed. The plant is reduced to an industrial element defined by its production and consumption of various resources, while the machine is trusted with the role of … Continue Reading