Religious traditions have masterfully orchestrated our conflicting feelings of social responsibility and personal ambition, mixing empathy, guilt, relief and intimacy into powerful experiences of directed intention. The Triptych borrows some of those strategies to expose and explore our messy nature using our own psychology and our own pockets as the playing field.

Ledger

The Ledger is a furniture attachment designed to resemble the latticed screen of a confessional, where anyone can leave a secret related to their environmental conscience and listen to secrets left by others. It is based on our curiosity about others, and on our practice of judging our behavior against others. A simple exchange mechanism spotlights the dichotomy of personal ethics and social responsibility. The gesture of confession, transferred from a religious to a public context where the moral authority is each other, becomes a reflection on our common values.

The personal Ledger is designed for private use, though the library of messages is shared between all the users. In addition a public Ledger is circulated in places that we share while remaining strangers. This public installation relates strangers to each other and creates a sense of community, curiosity about others and play.

Pardoner

The Pardoner is an attachment on one’s faucet that monitors the amount of water one uses. It is activated by swiping a credit card through it. The Pardoner goes a step further than just informing one of one’s behavior: it calculates the cost of any amount that is over ‘one’s share’ of water (this target is chosen by the user when first activating the device based on sustainable water use suggestions), and at the end of each week, donates the accumulated overage amount to the Water Project (https://thewaterproject.org/).

The Pardoner is based on the practice of selling Indulgences by the church as a remission of punishment for sins. Money raised by indulgences was used for many righteous causes, including building churches, hospitals, schools, roads, and bridges. Today the analogous (and equally questionable) practice of selling carbon credits is supposed to balance out one’s unsustainable deeds by applying money to a positive cause elsewhere. In this true consumer fashion, instead of attempting to limit one’s consumption, Pardoner offers a promise of clear conscience despite one’s lapses in frugality. (Energy Use Pardoner and Waste Production Pardoner will also be available).

Monstrance

The Monstrance is an ornate freezer display housing a small glacier sample, designed to be exhibited in public by its owner. Adapting the idea of relics, the Monstrance displays an object that is venerated by the culture’s value system. Melting glaciers today symbolize the health of the environment disappearing due to the global warming and environmental crisis. The original draw of relics may be that they were a manifestation of contact with the sacred, and in the current context it may be the symbol of contact with nature, precious and endangered. The procurement of the relic and the ornate container protecting and displaying it historically could only be afforded by the privileged group or members of society (whom we consumers in the western world my consider ourselves to be), and would enormously elevate their status in the society.

Monstrance comes with Energy Use Pardoner built-in. Since it would be quite a shame to unplug the glacier (especially since it’s publicly venerated), the owner continues to donate through the Pardoner (Energy Use Pardoner donates the amount of the cost of energy used to upkeep the Monstrance to Solar Electric Light Fund (http://www.self.org/)).

The Game

The Triptych for Accountable Consumers is also a game played between different users of the Triptych. The game is in a flavor of Monopoly. Players have as much money as they have donated through their Pardoners (which is also the measure of their overconsumption). They draw random secrets from the Ledger library and are assigned penalty or reward for it by the other players.
The questionable valor and vice of our consumer and environmentalist behaviors are discussed and evaluated in the process, exposing common values that emerge form the messiness and complexity of our bearings.

Okay is a human-size figure, white and soft. If one gives it a big hug, squeezing it for a few moments, it will whisper into one’s ear a promise. More hugging will elicit more promises.
One can also whisper a promise of one’s own into the figure’s ear. It will be recorded into the library of promises and made available for randomized playback in response to another hug. Most of the Okay figures are home accessories, but a few are placed in public settings: a gallery, a public park, a school. All of them are networked and the library of promises is shared between all the figures.

An optional addition is a cuff, designed to be worn on the upper arm. It is wirelessly connected with the Okay figure. Whenever a new promise is recorded, it will squeeze one’s arm reassuredly.

An algorithm of reciprocity is created when people feel held to their promise by the future interactors. The personal connection that is created by the tangibility of the hug transfers the token of kindness from person to person in a intimate, personable way, eliciting earnest promises and inspiring thoughtfulness. The blank figure starts a chain of small exchanges as the personal promises accumulate.

The figure is made out of memory foam, retaining the impression of the huger. This inverted imprint of intimate details of one’s anatomy and clothing fades slowly over a few minutes.

The figure is made from memory foam: the imprint of the hugger remains visible on it after they have left and slowly fades.

BACKGROUND:
Many studies show that we can produce feelings and affect our thoughts by simply reenacting their bodily expressions:

“Every interaction has an emotional subtext. Along with whatever else we are doing, we can make each other feel a little better, or a lot worse. The mechanism of emotional contagion rests on two psychological facts. First, our facial and physical expressions affect our mood. If you make a sad face for a prolonged time you will experience both emotional and physiological changes in effect making you feel sad. The second piece of the puzzle comes from the fact that humans mimic. If you smile at people they will tend to mimic and reflexively smile back. This will in turn affect their mood.

The amygdala (an almond-shaped area in the midbrain) extracts emotional meaning from the nonverbal message, whether it be a scowl, a sudden change of posture, or a shift in tone of voice–even microseconds before we yet know what we are looking at. Amygdala’s wiring provides no direct access to the centers for speech. When we register a feeling, signals from our brain circuits, instead of alerting the verbal areas, where words can express what we know, mimic that emotion in our own bodies.” (from Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships, written by Daniel Goleman)

Studies suggest that hugs trigger the release of a neurochemical which is responsible for feelings of care and love (oxytocin), and research on autism shows that physical pressure (simulating the reception of a hug) has a comforting effect on humans and animals. Studies on autism also show that we store specific physical body states and non-verbal memories that trigger the feelings associated with these body states.

Thus, simply the mechanics of a hug can positively affect us and predispose us to a positive reaction. We intuit this mechanism and inscribe it into this installation, even though the actual physiological reaction might be too subtle to observe.

Stereopsis lets us achieve a singleness of vision: a unitary world perceived from two slightly different projections of it onto the retinas of the two eyes. The difference in the two retinal images is called horizontal disparity and arises from the different positions of the eyes in the head. This difference leads to the perception of depth.

In this project mechanism of stereoscopic vision is hijacked in an attempt to increase the perceived depth through increasing the disparity of the two views.

Horizontal disparity (Right/Left)

This stereoscope lets the viewer see to the right with the left eye and to the left with the right eye.

Adjacency disparity (In/Out)

In this stereoscope one of the eyes looks outwards and the other inwards (it sees the eye’s own image reflected in a mirror).

Focus disparity (Micro/Macro)

In this stereoscope one of the eyes has a very narrow field of view, focusing on individual objects with shallow depth of field, while the other sees the wide angle view and can focus on the big picture.

Surveyor Suite is an iPhone app used with a portable mini projector. It has 3 modes, each featuring a human figure whose actions can be directed by the user to engage with the environment it’s projected onto.  The simple actions of each figure are the entry point for re-interpreting the reality of urban environment. Used in a public space, the Suite becomes a public engagement tool that inspires personal involvement and facilitates public discussion. Activated by the imagination of the viewers, it is a catalyst that lets us see our surroundings anew, wonder what’s behind the walls and reevaluate things by inviting speculation and questioning through storytelling and imaginative thinking.

Mode 1: Surveyor

Surveyor has binoculars and a log book. He observes and notes. The user of the app can direct Surveyor’s gaze, vicariously examining the physical site he’s in. The virtual gaze of the surveyor directs the attention of the people around him, be it to other people or to their surroundings. Playful tool of engagement at a distance, it instantly creates a connection between the device user and the people viewing the projection, as they become implicated in the piece.

First tests:

Mode 2: Examiner

Here a woman examines the surface she’s projected on. She puts her ear to it, listening in for what might be happening on the other side. She inspects it with her hands, prying into cracks and openings, often with her back to the viewer. The user of the app can direct her attention, leading her to examine different parts of the surface.

Mode 3: Prospector

Prospector is looking for natural resources. He is willing to entertain a notion of that every thing might contain value. He invites reflection on our value system and our speculations about what is truly irreplaceable and valuable. He attempts to put together his own value system. The user of the app can direct the prospector’s attention, and invest it with his own speculative thoughts. He considers our artifacts, spaces and designs for the first time and without any pre-learned cultural context.

The devices are distributed among a group of participants. Each participant contributes a log of thoughts and ideas (in any format such as audio, images, videos, writings) inspired by the interaction of the projection with the environment, all of which are collected online, creating a shared imagined dimension of a shared physical space. The stories embody the reflections on the participant’s surroundings, curiosity and personal connections to it. The careful considerations of the details of the physical space as observed from a specific point of view activates it in imagination and memory in unexpected ways.

The device can be used anywhere, thought it was imagined for urban environment with ubiquity of vertical surfaces that can act both as a support for the projection and as a fodder for the imagination. The user can have the figure move (run or walk) from site to site on the walls and surfaces of the city until he arrives at a site that he might examine with his projection.

Here the surveyor is perched atop a board leaning on a bookshelf, surveying, and working on his Theory of Everything.

Here’s a short interview about Puff at the makezine blog: http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/09/world_maker_faire_ny_puff_interview.html

Here’s a little bit more information about the Article:

Article 2010 presents Stavanger with temporary public interventions, conference, workshop and public screening by international artists from the 14th September to the 15th of October.
Article 2010 provides interstices for «unstable artforms»: we intend to encompass site-specific art which is not yet institutionalised and stabilised by traditional frameworks of production and distribution, art which crosses disciplinary boundaries, which engages unusual contexts and references, or art which is not anchored by permanent static objects. These are complimented by public presentations, workshop and a conference.

Participating artists and presenters include:
Nele Azevedo/Michael Bauwens/Tina Finnas/Terike Haapoja/Helen&Hard/Simon Høgsberg/
Sophie Jerram/Scott Kellogg/Tapio Màkele/Andrea Polli/Lerato Shadie/Karolina Sobecka/
Momoko Seto/Kim Stokke/Ulla Taipale/The Yes Men/Ubermorgen.com/James Webb

- The iPhone is connected to the On-Board Diagnostic port on the car that allows the communication with the car’s computer through a special cable (the goLink cable).

- Puff app gets the value of the MAF sensor 10 times per second. MAF (Mass Air Flow) sensor converts the amount of air drawn into the engine into a voltage signal, which is converted to a digital value. It is used in cars to determine how much fuel to inject, when to ignite the cylinder and when to shift the transmission.

-By EPA regulations vehicles use the oxygen sensors to control the air to fuel ratio. This ratio is set at the chemically ideal value of 14.7 grams of air to every gram of gasoline. We can use this value to convert the MAF to gallons of gas per minute.

1. Divide the MAF by 14.7 to get grams of gas per second
2. Divide result by 454 to get Lbs gas per second
3. Multiply the result by 60 to get the Lbs gas per minute

-CO2 emission per gallon of gas is calculated to be on average 19.4 (as explained here). We use this value to calculate the Lbs CO2 per minute.

-CO2 emisstion rates range from .1 Lbs CO2/min when idling to over 2.0 Lbs CO2 / min when slamming on the gas when driving fast. We map this range to a color range between green and red, with yellows and oranges in between.

-iPhone communicates wirelessly with the Arduino microcontroller with a WiFi shield in the lamp.
Here is a quick demo of the iPhone app controlling the lamp color:

-The Arduino is programmed to change the color of the LEDs according to the emission value it gets from the iPhone. The color is similarly mapped to represent the same range.

James has built our Puff iPhone app, which was no easy (or comfortable) task, given the hours spent coding in the car and dealing with the arcane knowledge of communication with the car’s on-board computer.

My name is James George and I live in Brooklyn, NY. I’m a freelance software developer. I try to work on artsy projects. Through the process of working on Puff I came to form my own opinion on what it means to quantitatively analyze your effect on the environment.

One thing I was thinking with Puff was that, rather than just having this negative thing happening: tracking the amount you’re destroying something or contributing to a problem, it would be sweet if you could balance out this number by acting in different ways. If perhaps there was a way to attach this number to the effect of having plants in your house that are recycling CO2 and turning it back into oxygen, you could take your Puff home, plug it into a plant and watch the meter go down, and you would feel this cleansing process. Maybe it would motivate people to have richer gardens. It would be a funny balance.