[dorkbotsea-blabber] Question / possible collaboration on telematic piece

[Susie Lee]

Hello dorkbot community!

My name is Susie Lee, and I'm a new media artist working in Seattle.

Through people that I know at DXArts, 911 Media Center and a few

dorkbot members themselves, I thought this might be a good

starting point for an inquiry that I have for a piece, and see if

there might be any good leads or collaborative possibilities.



I am interested in creating some sort of "telematic" piece in which

people (location can be anywhere in the world, ideally) can send a

signal (even a text on a cellphone might work) to be sent to a piece

(in a fixed location in a gallery in San Francisco).  Once this signal

reached the piece, it would light up momentarily and there would be a

brief chime.



What I wanted to explore was the meta-messages in this age of

instantaneous communication--in other words, through email, texting,

skyping, cell phones, facebook, etc..  The actual details and

information conveyed seems less vital than this implied notion of

"Hey, I'm here," or "Hey, I'm thinking of you."  The actual words and

the time required to have a conversation seem the primary impediments

to directly contacting someone (for example, if you want to talk to a

friend or a parent, but you don't have the time or space for an entire

hour long conversation).  So I began to wonder what the effect might

be if one could receive the signal that someone was thinking of them,

and would that be enough to counter a sense of loneliness and

alienation.



On the fixed end, I can imagine that a computer would be able to take

the data feeds, and a microcontroller could signal to turn on the

lights and sound.  What I'm struggling with is the possible vehicles

that the "moving" people could use that would send a reliable signal

from pretty much anywhere with minimal accoutrements.  In addition,

Laury MacCary brought up a good point about feedback to the person, to

encourage that people continue sending a signal. I'm wondering if I

could pick someone's brain at dorkbot, if there might be anyone

interested!



Thanks for your time,

cheers,

Susie Lee
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