Postgheimnis
A series of speculative experiments addressing the benefits and shortcomings of physical and electronic mail, and the possibility of combining the affordances of both. Collaboration with Julia Tsao, Spring 2009
Instructor: Philip Van Allen
The PostGeheimnis System consists of a platform of "super-objects" that have been imbued with special communication behaviors. The objects exist in conjunction with an input management interface, from which a sender can create video/audio/text/image messages to recipients. From this interface, a sender composes a message to a recipient, and then selects which object to send the message to. Once an object receives a message in its queue, it will attempt to attract your attention, letting you know that you have a message. In essence, the PostGeheinmis objects become little postmen within your home that deliver special messages from your close friends and family.
In our demo, we showed a series of three such objects:
The PostGeheimnis Video Lamp
The PostGeheimnis Video Lamp acts as a portal to incoming video Post messages from your friends and family. The Video Lamp will alert you when it has a new Post to deliver. Let the lamp know when you want to view the message by touching the activator, and it will play the message by shining it on the floor around you.
The PostGeheimnis Talking Chair
The PostGeheimnis Talking Chair delivers new audio Post messages from your friends and family. The Talking Chair start talking outloud in a series of strange musings when it has a new Post to deliver. Simply sit down in the chair and your message will be softly played back to you.
The PostGeheimnis Text Toaster
is a delivery space for special AM morning Post messages. The Text Toaster will toast your incoming Posts into your untoasted bread in the morning! Simply place some bread into the toaster, and wait and see who sent you an early morning message!
Design Decisions
In designing the PostGeheimnis system, we were careful to take into consideration the point we had identified in our initial physical mail/email research. We understood that we weren't trying to "fix" email, rather, we were creating the PostGeheimnis system as an alternative method of communication for special messages akin to a physical letter or package from a close friend or family member that would otherwise lose its "specialness" if sent through email.
Additional design decisions were made with the design of the system itself. We questioned whether to give the sender or receiver the ability to choose which object a message was delivered to. If the recipient were to make the decision (i.e., all messages from your mother go to your armchair), then the system would be more like a bin notification system. We decided to go with the sender having the decision-making role in the system. In this way, PostGeheimnis is much more akin to the act of coming home and getting your mail from your physical mailbox--when you reach in, you have no idea what you're going to get. Similarly, the recipient, upon entering his house, has no idea how many messages he's received, who the messages are from, or what the messages are about until he enters the home and engages with any objects that have messages to deliver. We found it important to engage with this sense of excitement and anticipation.
Our project title "PostGeheimnis" is actually a German phrase, "post geheimnis," meaning "mail whisper." We chose to give our project this name because we identified early on that the system of communication that we were interested in cultivating was not physical mail, nor was it electronic mail in their pure forms. Rather, our system, PostGeheimnis, draws inspiration from the two forms, and creates a kind of unique and alternative hybrid channel of communication, where messages, or "posts" are sent to cultivate a sense of playfulness and specialness of content from those closest to you.
Pervasive Computing
The issue of pervasive computing is a hard one to wrap the mind around. We're so used to the convenience of the computer, of being able to do so much from the digital space of the computer, that it's hard to imagine a scenario where a more traditional physical interface is preferred.
Of course, much is both lost and gained during the translation analog to digital interface systems. To gain a better understanding of this transition, and the affordances of both the physical and virtual interactions, we created a step-by-step chart mapping out the behavioral and experiential flow of sending and receiving both physical and electronic mail.
Imagination as Research
Charting the differences between physical and electronic mail allowed us to clearly identify opportunity areas for design interventions. We took the understanding that emerged from this more critical analysis and took a step back from the information and let ourselves brainstorm freely, giving ourselves the freedom to come up with wild ideas without worry about practicality or feasibility. We allowed ourselves to let our imagination to drive the design, and to allow a sense of exploration and play to guide the project forward.
The Robotic Mail Pigeon from Julia Tsao on Vimeo.
The Color Circles from Julia Tsao on Vimeo.
The World Map from Julia Tsao on Vimeo.
The Mail Bubble from Julia Tsao on Vimeo.