Charged Conversation is a new project designed for the Burning Man festival in Nevada, August 2014.
See my Burning Man projects Radiation Catcher from 2010 and HeartBeat Dome from 2011.

Charged Conversation is an interactive project inspired by the popular refrigerator “Magnet Words”. I thought of this project, and several other spin-offs (crossword puzzle! scrabble! word logic puzzle!) because there are not very many interactive projects that include text.

I also want to make something that multiple people can use all at once, making friends and laughing with eachother, as happens when participating in an activity together.

Project Description

In the daytime, participants will see a 8’ x 8’ wooden stand-alone wall with plastic moveable words, which are hung using pegs, placed all over it, sometimes in haiku, sometimes in gibberish, sometimes a marriage proposal.

There are 150+ words, created from laser-cut white acrylic. To glamorize for the Night, an LED strip wall lights up the words. Some of the words even have a Burning Man theme, such as “shirt” and “cocker” or “darkwad”.
Individual participants can move the words as well as joining with multiple participants to create their own poetic landscape.

I made this prototype word by laser-cutting it from half-opaque white acrylic.
For the final version, I will use completely opaque white acrylic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rendition of project in the daytime:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At night, the words light up. The lights are located on the wall behind the words, and they light up based on simple proximity sensors (like the kind that light up your lights in your driveway when you come home) built into sections on the wall.

Even in a dust storm, the words comprise a surreal scene, light  blobs visible from a distance, but as the participant approaches, the words come into focus.

Actual protype word being lit up by LED wall behind it

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rendition of Charged Conversation at Night

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Rendition of Charged Conversation at Night

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some words about me and how I relate to this piece:

I say what I mean, even when it leaves me vulnerable.
Although it can be awfully uncomfortable to admit need for another person, or strong feelings of lust, I’m saying it, because I could die tomorrow, next week, NOW.
The thing is, I find it so much easier to say those things over text. Somehow it’s much easier to write the words and let them float away, far away from my mouth, onto a digital landscape.
And once the vehicle for delivery, the send button, is pressed, I can re-read my words, over and over, thinking of different ways and moods my words have been received.

With Charged Conversation, I hope that the participants will write those uncomfortable phrases and bring their intended receivers to the piece to see them. I hope that participants will feel as free as they do playing with Magnet Words on a fridge at a party.

I hope that Charged Conversation will inspire participants to share the truths they aren’t ready to speak out loud, and for them to leave an ephemeral legacy for the next person to read, absorb, and draw from in their own communications. I want to provide the vehicle for people to leave words for strangers, messages in bottles, and a means to let go of the thoughts that have been weighing them down, the ones that it’s time to let go.

UPDATE: I have designed the 150- 9V batteries out of this project, we are having a nice conversation about this over at eplaya.