Txtual healing
October 16th, 2007 by sauce
TXTual Healing is a series of interactive projects that encourage public participation through text messaging from mobile phones. It looks at the cell phone as a device not just to remove oneself from a physical space, but to interact with and explore it. Build community through public story telling.
Using ‘always on’ technology, cell phones with SMS allow an audience to tell stories in public space through light projections on the structures that surround us, like the facade of a building for instance. Speech bubbles are projected on walls near windows and doors to encourage an audience to create the conversations happening inside. The public audience receives a paper tab with a phone number. A participant sends a text message to the provided phone number and it is then displayed inside the speech bubble. The whole system is automatic and uncensored.
The piece explores the use of mobile technology to trigger dialogue, action and create content for a staged public performance. By using the facade of a building the intention is to engage an audience to think about the physical spaces we move through, live in and share. They are rying to address public vs. private space and what kind of dialogue might transpire if people shared their private thoughts and stories in public. The piece was designed to encourage play, idea sharing, thought, discourse, and entertainment.