Workshop – Interactive Lounge, Copenhagen 2007

Not your regular cocktail bar…

The main issue of the workshop was to create a new form of computer driven interactions within a public surrounding and social setting. The kind of interaction we aimed for was supported by tangible media. For this purpose, we asked our students to design a social event related to what we could call a lounge or coktail bar. The question is how can such a conventional environment and its related rituals be reformulated when considering the potentials for sensor technology and pervasive computing.

The proposal was to fragment the bar into 3 hanging “blobs” that act as (free) vodka dispensers. When triggered, the blob starts to pulsate, light patterns are appearing on its surface and the soundscape within a given radius around the sculptural object is reacting to the pouring of the precious elixir. Participants in the event were flocking around each suspended “organism” and together investigating possible interactions.