A Place to Departure
Monday, November 2, 2015 at 4:15PM
In the flow of life, every moment is both an arrival and a departure. When I decided to write this piece, the first thing that struck me was that whereas my previous blog was called “Arriving”, this one would contain the word “Departure”. Presence goes beyond both and is fascinating.
When online, we sense the presence of others in various ways. We become familiar with the way an individual combines texts, visuals and sounds and the way they interact on websites and social media. We know the other is there interacting when we receive comments, emojis or voice messages in response to what we post We sense the movement of the other through the change of an avatar or profile picture, or we watch them and their movement via apps such as snapchat or periscope.
In the physical world, sensory stimulation received about the other person makes them feel more present. When we see, hear, smell or touch them we know they are there. Visual and auditory stimulation is becoming more and more sophisticated online, but the dimensions of touch and smell, two of the senses humans rely heavily on, especially during childhood, are still limited although developing.
I visited Dubai for three days last week for The Dubai Design Week. Upon arrival in the Al Fahidi District, formerly called Al Bastakiya, the first installation I saw was “A Place to Departure”, the inspiration for this blog.
The plaque next to it read:
“What you are looking at is half of the whole. Elsewhere there is an installation just like this one. With people like you. Come. Touch it. Feel the glass. May you and the other person touch the same spot, at the same time. You will both gently feel each other’s presence.”
Reading it was an immediate resonance with all I write about at here2here. A meeting in a special wespace despite the constraints of linear time and physical space was before me in a new way!
Designed by D3 (Brazil), A Place to Departure uses a haptic feedback system and is an interactive installation allowing people to interact remotely with each other by touch, despite their distance. The further development of this concept will further revolutionize our current technology.
If you also own an Apple Watch, you and I can send each other our current heartbeats. How much more real you will be when I can actually touch you!
The first installations of A Place to Departure was in Beijing and Brazil and you can see it in operation here:
A Place To Departure from D3 on Vimeo.
The Dubai Design Week installation had the two pieces in the Al Fahidi District and the Dubai Design District. Made of glass and wood, digital interaction is taken to a new level. When the clear window is touched, the digital mark is transported to the second window, and when someone is touching that spot on the other window, you each gently feel it, despite your physical distance.
Whereas the glass section allows one to be connected in a mindspace by the moment, the wooden section is a reminder of where you are currently present in bodily form. The geographic coordinates of each spot are important for the windows, whereas the wood used in the pieces in Dubai had clear resemblances of the mashrabiya in their design.
There were awesome installations at the Dubai Design Week but I kept returning to touch the glass on numerous occasions over the next three days. I am happy to report that I was fortunate enough to touch another in this way.
On my last morning, I was fortunate enough to chat to two of the people involved in the project. I photographed the installation yet again and in keeping with the name of the installation, used it as a starting point of departure for a stroll through the sikkas (alleyways) of the surrounding area. I have included a gallery of pics which also shows you where I walked and has a few more links of interest.