Calling
Interactive Design
2022
Death is loss. Death is pain, grief, homage, and a durational philosophical problem. It is a myth that tolls a strange fascination for me.
Remembrance, complicated, and paternal love are the keywords that have driven my practice this year. Father is a complex word in the past tense for me. A paternal love may not be as delicate as maternal love, but it is deep love.
My work aims to convey my emotion about my father since his passing. He had his dreams, his ambitions, his warm small family, and his happiest daughter on earth. Our deep sadness comes from the discontinuation of everything and the impossible chasm between life and death.
But I know he is with me, at every important moment, including now. He would like to know how happy and how sad I am, he would make the impossible possible as he always does, and he would answer my phone call.
I made this supernatural telephone using 3D printing, computer programming, and machine learning. In the process of randomness and certainty, this is a channel of communication with people long deceased. Hearing his voice is a desire, and talking to him is my wish. The interactive telephone provides an opportunity for audiences to ask a question to their loved ones.
Audiences are encouraged to pick up the receiver and ask one question. Their voices are recognised and processed using machine learning. This information is ‘hashed’ into random 0s and 1s to match sentences in a designed word bank. This random process is where ‘supernatural power’ acts.
A meaningful response to the audience’s question is automatically generated and visualised on a leaflet which is produced through the connected printer.
The Leaflet
The leaflet is also an important part of the interactive telephone installation. It is where people can get responses from the supernatural telephone.
The size of the leaflet is an A5 portrait.
