A site-specific interactive installation

Round LCD-displays, minicomputers, small touch displays, wireless access points, fiber-optic network of the building

The starting point of the proposal was to create a playful work of art that connects different user groups of the multi-purpose building, mainly preschool and school students of different ages. The purpose was to emphasize the importance of cooperation by giving students the opportunity to play "on the same side", instead of playing against each other. The networking of students of different ages through the artwork spread around the building provides a good breeding ground for the school's collective spirit and for uniting. This common spirit is above all symbolic and conceptual, and of course we do not assume that thanks to the essentially growing work of interacting with preschoolers and middle school students.

On different sides of the building there are small learning halls and multipurpose spaces for students to gather. Such lobby spaces have been given their own signature color from the seven basic colors of Goethe's color theory, instead of choosing the system most commonly used today. The starting point is to familiarize the students with the theories related to color theory and to show that the models have changed over the years. Each color-coded lobby space has 3 four-inch touch screens, embedded in e.g. the light switches hidden behind the doors. A small computer is permanently connected to the touch screen with a wireless connection. The devices were originally designed, for example, to control the air conditioning in an apartment.

In the basic mode, the screens dimly light up the signature color of the respective lobby, until one of these 21 small screens brightens and the abstracted stopwatch starts counting the decreasing time. Although there are three screens in each lobby, only one of them is activated at a time. If someone manages to touch the screen before the stopwatch has run out, the corresponding screen in some part of the house will start to behave in the same way until someone in turn touches that screen. And so on, until all 21 screens have been played, and the game moves to the next, slightly faster level. If, on the other hand, the activated screen is not touched before the time has elapsed, the game round ends and the system returns to the initial state.

Seven round, 600 mm diameter LCD screens are hung in a circle on the wood-paneled wall of the school's combined dining/party hall. In our opinion, the location is the most complete and the best place in the space, even though on sunny afternoons, direct sunlight comes through the adjacent glass wall on the wall for a while. Each screen represents one of the color-coded lobby spaces mentioned above, and is wirelessly connected to the three small touch screens there. When a touch screen is activated, the connected round screen in the dining/party hall is also activated at the same time. Also on this screen, an abstracted stopwatch rotates, showing the remaining time, while its color indicates where the blinking touch screen is located in the building. When the flashing one is touched and the next touch screen is activated, the round screen of the dining/party hall connected to it is also activated. The non-active screens, on the other hand, show in block diagram form at which stage of the game round and at which level we are. You can participate in the game by consciously looking for an activated screen, or more passively, by accidentally touching it while passing by.

Not only do the screens in the dining/party hall allow you to follow the progress of the game, they also act as an abstract piece of light art that changes randomly.