eETIQUETTE (project in collaboration with T-Mobile)
In late 2009 the Design Interactions Department took a trip to Berlin to have a have a chat with the very hospitable people at T-Mobile about etiquette and it's apparent electronic great grandson e-etiquette. We spoke at great length about hash tags, text speak, Inge Wolff, e-mails gone wrong, knigge... then we thew some balloons around in a shopping center, gave a presentation and went home. Returning to England I began to think that while everything that we had spoken about was of importance, the framing had been only confusing matters as opposed to aiding. Why separate e-etiquette from etiquette and suggest that it is mutually exclusive? Perhaps a more holistic approach was required? Taking inspiration from the writing of Anthony Giddens I attempted to re-frame etiquette by thinking of it as 'a codified social mechanism for the gain and maintenance of trust relationships'. What are the trust relationships that we have with both objects and different perceptions of risk? The outcome was a three legged stool that can be programmed to 'self destruct' under different criteria, meaning that while the chair only has two variables a multiplicity of different scenario's can be played out with participants. Could we learn about how much trust or faith people have in abstract ideas when they are experienced through physical experience?
The red leg is help in place by the tension of the rope
The small box contains an Arduino board
When the rope is cut the red leg will fall away outwards
A crude but functional sping loaded saw blade cuts the rope