Idle Hands is a machine from (n)either the future (n)or the past. Its origins and use are unknown- only two small buttons provide any hint of its function. Touching the ‘Bored’ plaque causes a few lights to glow, then text scrolls across the display. The text seems to be a peek into the dark depths of someone’s thoughts. After touching the ‘Afraid’ plaque, obituaries of successful people scroll across the display.
Idle Hands contains a Internet-enabled microcontroller, a smaller, more standard microcontroller, stepper motor, various electronics, and other odds and ends. Special thanks to my friends at Rahulbotics and GrowDown for the assistance.
The Phantasy Phone provides an anonymous communication medium to satisfy both the desire to disclose fantasies (not necessarily sexual) as well as the voyeuristic desire to intercept them. It attempts to combine the magic of a ringing payphone with the magic of knowing that your desires are heard.
The Phantasy Phone contains an Internet enabled microcontroller and its own email address. The phone will ring periodically and choose one of the most recent received fantasies. Passing public, if choosing to answer the phone, will hear the text of the email read to them through the handset.
The Terror-o-meter attempts to provide citizens with an accurate, up-to-the-minute forecast of the threat of terrorism. By parsing Internet news feeds for specific keywords, the amount of terror-related content reported by the media is used to predict the upcoming impact of terrorism on our lives. This quantity is displayed on an easy-to-read needle meter packaged in an attractive, wall-hung device.
The Terror-o-meter contains an Internet enabled microcontroller that parses frequently updated world news feeds. It is designed to be truly plug-and-play, providing instant readouts after being connected to any DHCP capable network. The Terror-o-meter has been featured in Maximum PC magazine, the Deseret News, as well as many smaller technology and culture magazines. A Terror-o-meter unit has been stolen by Gear magazine. Shame on you.
“The GiveBack Curtain v.2”
by Kennedy and Violich Architecture
Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum
New York, New York 2002
The Giveback Curtain returns light into a space after darkness arrives through phosphorescent dyes and white LEDs. It is part solar shade, part ambient light source, and part information display. The network of LEDs is controlled by a microprocessor capable of displaying any pattern or relevant information.
Images are copyright of Kennedy and Violich Architecture, 2002
Utilizing brass, copper, slateboard, microcontrollers, sensors, and LEDs, Deb Todd Wheeler has created a work of five pieces which brings us to the role of investigating the natural world, ultimately making us investigate our own place in that world.
The Technology Detector is a tool to discover and uncover the technology that pervades our world. Inspired by my friend Rahul Bhargava at Institute of the Future, the Technology Detector means to arm technocrats/technophobes with a means of exploiting/avoiding the technology which is becoming ubiquitous to our world and lives.
The Technology Detector contains sensors to detect high freqency EM fields, such as wireless computer networks, infrared emmitters common to night vision security cameras and automatic toilet flushers, and low frequency EM fields coming from anti-theft protection hardware and RF tag readers. The information from this suite of sensors is displayed on the front panel through indicator LEDs and a Collective Technology Meter.
