The Venting Machines
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Nicolas was faster than me in sharing the work of our "Third Place" group, during the Collaborative Artefacts Interactive Furniture workshop in bucolic Chateau d'Oex. Chris O’Shea, Sara Ljungblad, Fabien Girardin, Nicolas Nova, Peggy Thoeny, Kevin Walker and I had six hours to investigate the concept of third place (any place where you neither live nor work) and come up with the idea of a prototype. The first question we had to solve was "Which third place do we want to focus on?" The café, the corridors of the institute, the bathroom, the park, the entrance? We soon decided that we wanted to explore the vending machines. They can be found everywhere and answer quite well to the "third place" functions: relaxing, socializing, switching off, etc. THE VENTING MACHINES: A set of three vending machines to instal in corridors, at the entrance, in the cafétaria of the future EPFL building (more about the building itself later.) 1. The Pull Machine is best used in the morning when your little grey cells need some added boost. The machine distributes "brain 2. Push machine is meant for those moments when you need to unwind, release stress, tension, etc. It's been specially designed to stand your angry kicks and punches. Also a special receptacle allows you to scream your emotion without other people around being disturbed.
Once you have physically released you tension, the machine will give you a relaxing -placebo- pill. The Push Machines stores all the bad feelings of the day and releases them in a more positive way at the end of the day. Each afternoon, after classes (at, say, 5 o'clock), a fountain will tangibly display the daily amount of anger. The higher the jet of the fountain, the stronger the Push Machine has been kicked and shouted at. Possibility to add colour intensity to represent the same data. 3. The Push and Pull machine is meant for increased socialization. It functions as a notice board. You digit your query/offer on your mobile phone and beam it to the machine (Bluetooth connection) or on the machine display itself. One can offer kung fu lessons, help for physics homeworks or ask for a flat, announce the loss of a PDA, the need of a date, etc. The machine will search in its database what's on offer and will issue a ticket with the name and contact details of the person who could best help you. PPT presentation with Chris' drawings. |
