Cyberhelvetia Pavillion (2002) by 3Deluxe
The Cyberhelvetia Pavillion by 3Deluxe was part of the “Arteplage Biel” during the Swiss Expo of 2002. A big pool made of glass was illuminated with a water animation whose parameters were depending on the real weather-situation outside, resulting in rougher or calmer water simulations. Pool-side aquaphones featured 3 interfaces to an interactive sound-pool where visitors exchanged sound-messages in digital water bubbles. Using the aquaphones (a combination of a 3d-tracker used as cursor, a speaker and a microphone) people created bubbles by speaking into the microphone which were then shared among 2 projections facing each other on the sides of the pool.
'Don't think disappearance of reality in representation; think disappearance of the self! In postmodernity it seems that simulation has become the existential ground of personality itself.' David Howes
Hyperesthesia, or The Sensual Logic of Late Capitalism explores ideas from The Experience Economy (1999) by Pine & Gilmore and Emotional Design (2004) by Don Norman and posits an interesting question - with the commercially motivated hyperestheticization of everyday products, how long will it be before every aspect of sensation is brought under the scrutiny of intellectual property rights? A scarry thought. The hyperesthetic of McLuhan's acoustic space has indeeed come home to roost...
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