Luke Johnson

If you change who is empowered to lead family conversation, how does this cahnge the family dynamic and discussion space?

The text wall serves as a family "message board" for mobile texts (SMS). Displayed in a shared space, these text messages allow all family members to lend their voice in a unique way to the family dialogue.

Our application takes advantage of the relationship between Twitter and Flash to create a visual artifact of these text messages. Family members send text messages to an assigned number (via Twitter) which in turn is sent to a server. Because Twitter is an open source application, we were able to make our own application (in Flash) that assigned a color, size, and path of animation to each text sent to the server.

Using a projector and a Mac-Mini that connected to the server's IP address, the sent texts were projected onto the wall inside the home.

Based on our own in-studio testing, there were certain expected behaviors that we felt our families would display using the text wall. In both families the text wall was used as a message board, for storytelling, as a public journal, for self-promotion, to display emoticons and for public complaining- just as we used it.

What we didn't expect, however, were the families to send text messages when they couldn't see the wall and to use it in real-time to comment on television programs they were watching (think VHI pop-up video). The degree to which they gave the wall a personality was also outstanding. "Wally" was given a name, history, a fake biography and a childhood. Texting the wall also became a game where families members would text to be first or last so their messages would remain on the board. Finally, family members stayed up late a night to watch the wall "clear" at midnight and rose early to be the first to text it in the morning.

Yet the most profound lesson was how "sticky" the wall became. In both cases, family members texted the wall even after it had been removed from the home. I was also amazed to learn the extent that real-time media can introduce change in live systems. What had always been just a wall now became Wally. Moreover, it opened a space for public message that transcended traditional modes of message-leaving such as answering machines or refrigerator magnets. Instead, this space became a place that allowed family members to create new relationships. A space where a father learned about his daughter's sense of humor and where she felt safe to express it. A space where family members could talk about health concerns that were taboo. A space to simply to remind the kids to order a pizza. As a media designer, I began to see my own role as designing not for a media structure but for a social structure. That's a pretty powerful lesson indeed.

As I move forward into the final semester of Super Studio, I have identified three areas of interest that I would like to pursue further.

1. The creation of a hard bound book that we will design and give to the families containing all their text. One of the goals of the second semester was to create projects that "give back" to the families. This book will serve not only as a family journal but as an example of taking the digital and translation it into the analogue.

2. I am also interested in experimenting with form next semester. Are there any other spaces (fireplace) or existing technologies (plasma screen televisions) within the home that could better convey the functionality of the text wall? Could it exist in a private space such as in a cabinet or on a magic box?

3. Finally, I am also interested in developing a broader and clearer definition of design research as means of creating my own sustainable methodology.