Friday evening
as NYC prepped for Hurricane Irene, I went to the MOMA to check out Talk to Me - a show that explores ‘communication between people and objects’. Most of the works incorporate digital media such as data visualization, gaming, augmented reality, QR codes, video, toys, GPS.
There seem to be about 5-10 sub themes, including technology +: ethnography, urban living, health/ re- production, identity, sexuality, nature/animals, global versus local politics/ economies, and other philosophical quandaries.
After spending an hour or so looking at, and listening to, as well as scanning (via QR reader) the 50+ different works, I felt that I had taken a circuitous path, which was rather satisfying. The show manages to cover both sides of the conversation between object and person: both the personification/ visualization of technology communications into every day common objects, (i.e. email system becomes a real live human interface, and hyperlinks are re-imagined as physical 3 dimensional ties in the pages of a book)
Hi, A Real Human Interface by Pujol, Armegol & Villacañas
Typographic Links by Dan Collie
Also the opposite side of the coin — being the transformation of person or physical object into super powered digital data (people on the street into animated characters, postcards into digital displays, and a woman’s menstrual cycle turned into the menstrual machine)
Hungry Hungry Eat Head by Jody Hudson-Powell and Luke Powell
Post Secret by Frank Warren
Other interesting concepts in the show include Helix: a card game based upon swabs of personal saliva that generates a customized 50-card deck from each player’s specific DNA. ‘The deck becomes a literal, pocket sized copy of genetic code.. and in the game, as in reality, life depends on how the cards are played, not on which cards are dealt.
5th Dimensional Camera by Ardern & Jain
The 5th dimensional camera which explores the potential of quantum computing in which although we observe time as linear, diverging time lines occur in parallel worlds, with each possible outcome having a different probability.
In as much as the show was really interesting, overall I felt that looking and seeing was not enough; I wanted to be able to touch or further engage with the objects beyond a surface level. Some of the works allowed a bit of interface interaction via personal mouse clicking (ie google maps), and Happy Life had some sort of image capture.. but I couldn’t identify the outcomes. Perhaps shaking hands with a robot, or more facial or voice recognition technology would be interesting.
Infographic ‘The Hierarchy of Digital Distractions by David McCandless
