Students were invited to invent, design and prototype one or more ‘signals in space’: an interactive installation in a public place. It had to be site-specific— its nature and form derived from the unique geometry and genius loci of a specific place, to give the project intensity and specificity. The installation had to provide information—recorded or real-time, precise or impressionistic. Though the installation’s main function was information and/or use, emotional and aesthetic qualities affect the way in which these are perceived and so needed to be carefully considered.
The studio met four afternoons a week for 12 weeks; the course began with a week of research on installations followed by a week-long workshop on electronics by Yaniv Steiner: an interactive gardening project. Students learned to use the Arduino board to link the outside world and their computer through sensors. There followed a week of communal brainstorming before forming teams and deciding on a project concept. After four weeks of design development and detailed design the project was brought to completion in a prototyping workshop run by Durrell Bishop and Tom Hulbert of Luckybite, London.
Professors on the course were Philip Tabor with Gillian Crampton Smith.