An observation that I have made when researching interactive architecture is that a trend seems to be about interactions that are associated with leaving something behind once a surface has been touched or approached. Examples of this have been when a person puts a cup on a table, the colour changes and when the cup is removed the altered surface colour gradually decays back to the original colour of the table.
A more visual example of this is the Venetian Mirror by Fabrica (depicted above) that was exhibited at the Decode exhibition 2010, V&A London. In the later project, a person stood in front of the mirror and a faint image of the gradually built up and then decayed over time once they left the sceen. As new people walked in front of the mirror, their self-image gradually materialises but the last persons images is still faintly visible.
What I find interesting about these two projects is the idea of a visible trace to remind people that someone has been there before. I feel this avenue has many possibilities to develop in interactive architecture and is something that I would like to potentially develop further.
One idea that got me thinking is how this could be applied to the Patina project. What if when we touch a book, our trace is left behind for others to follow our research trail. Furthermore, we could also see other people’s research trails based on the current book we were holding. For example, I could pick up a book by say Peter Zumthor and then after reading this, research trails of people who also picked up the Peter Zumthor book become visible. I may get a trail that then leads me along a path about atmospheres or alternatively, the path could take me outside of the architectural discourse and lead me on a path un-thought of before.
A few questions that could be asked from this are:
1. How would this make ourselves perceive Libraries and the notion of research?
2. Can these trails leave us around a city or place, not just one building?
3. How can this information be visualised and two who? Could you track the research paths of colleagues like a book version of Google Latitude or is it something more private and anonymous?
4. How do we leave the trail, is it something physical or is it digital? What are the meanings of these two types of traces?
5. Would this replace the book and be a complete digital realm or is it a digital/analogue hybrid?
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