Where Are You? September 2015
Family Five is Emmie, Mark, their eight-year-old son Joseph and their dog Molly. They live in rural Cornwall, in a house that is adjoined by Emmie's parents. Both Emmie and Mark are self-employed. Mark is a lawyer with clients who are based across the South of England. He makes visits to them in their homes and will typically spend two or three nights away per week. Emmie is a management consultant for cultural organisations; she also has periods of working away from home, but less regularly than Mark. They are one of the five families we worked with in the Family Rituals 2.0 study.
We designed and built a bespoke technology for Emmie, Mark and Joseph that would create moments of reflection for them; allowing us to talk about their work/life balance and their attitudes to working away from home. We framed this around the everyday rituals of the home, which are missed in this separation.
We got to know Emmie, Mark and Joseph through interviews and the materials they generated from a set of cultural probes. We immediately responded to their love of their geography and the outdoors and became interested in the way in which Joseph communicated with his mum and dad when they were away. Mark has a small stuffed toy given to him by Joseph, saying No.1 Daddy, which he has taken with him on his travels. Mark takes photographs of it at various landmarks which he then shares with his son. We decided to extend this ritual.
Where are You? is a telescope for Joseph that allows him to explore the world beyond his village. By pointing the telescope in different directions and by zooming with the wheel he can explore the whole country and beyond. Inside he sees an illustrated world of the towns, cities and landmarks. When they go away Emmie and Mark take a device to mark their travels. Wherever they plant the flag it will appear in the telescope world. Joseph has a paper map so that he can record these places when he finds them. We hoped this would begin conversations either on the telephone whilst they are away or together with the map on their return.
The telescope contains 21 detailed panoramas of England, Wales, Eire, Northern Ireland, Scotland and beyond illustrated by Naomi Elliott. Each constructs a complete 360-degree view of the world at successively greater distances from Joseph's home in Cornwall. There are day and night versions of each that are interchanged at the point of sunset and sunrise, which is calculated for each day.
The telescope is constructed from laser-cut acrylic and cardboard, held together with elastic bands. It is designed for Joseph to build and modify it himself. We wanted him to have an ownership and encourage reinterpretations of the device. The display is driven by an iPhone that runs a bespoke app using the electronic compass and gyroscope to determine the telescope's position. It communicates via WiFi.
The travelling device allows Emmie or Mark to plant a flag so that it will appear in the same place in the telescope world as they are. It does not track them all the time, only when they choose to mark that place. The flag will stay there in the telescope world until it is moved somewhere else. It contains a mobile telephone with a pressure sensitive screen, when the flag is pushed into the hole the screen changes colour and the current location is determined by GPS and communicated by the mobile data service.
Displayed at the London Design Festival (September 2015) and at the Victoria and Albert Museum's Digital Design drop-in (November 2015).
This was developed at Open Lab, Newcastle University in collaboration with the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design at the Royal College of Art, as part of the Family Rituals 2.0 project funded by the EPSRC.
Credits:
Ethnography: Paulina Yurman, David Chatting
Design: David Chatting, Paulina Yurman, David Kirk
Fabrication: David Chatting
Illustration: Naomi Elliott
Electronics and Software: David Chatting (with thanks to Mark McKeague)