Antenna Design Workshop – January 13-15
Created by Nien Lam, David Phillips and Allison Walker
ITP held a workshop with Antenna Design. We were given the assignment to ‘design an intervention (= installation or an automated machine) for “interactive services” in public space which will generate a new interaction amongst people. An “interactive service” is a “mechanism” which provides some service or product for people. It is a kind of hybrid object/environment, such as an automated vending machine, information or entertainment kiosk, street furniture, etc. My team created a micro-destination station for our NYU Bobst Library for people who need to decompress and create a sense of community or communal experience. There were 5 separate floors, each with a different destination (ordered by altitude: underwater, beach, rainforest, mountainside, night sky) and each was given unique attributes. Every station had increased oxygen flow, headphone jacks, lighting control, and richer soundscapes depending on how many people were sitting with you.
It took a few days for us to come to this conclusion however…
Day 1: Our initial idea was a coin-based game that would be played in a planetarium up and down the stairs. The biggest issue was that our concept wasn’t site specific. We were told to literally go to any physical location and create a site-specific concept.
Day 2: We decided on the Bobst Library. We thought of a variety of games that could be played from floor to floor and on the ceiling, finally landing on relaxation. We kept seeing people walk away from their desk to the outside and just stare into nowhere, presumably decompressing from their homework for 5-10 minutes.
Day 3: We created a Keynote presentation and dragged an entire bench in for our presentation. We had a great time!
Photos of the final presentation were taken by the incomparable Jonathan Ystad
