Dans le blanc des yeux: binocular portals between two distant places

The placement mattered because the two units could connect very different parts of a city and invite social interactions between people who were unlikely to meet otherwise. We drew on Eduardo Kac’s telepresence art as a reference for connecting place, distance, and interaction.

A pressure plate tells each unit when someone is standing there. The system then shifts between looking around a place and talking to a person.

We adapted the Participant Journey Map to distinguish observation from participation. The map focused our attention on the handoff between those states: when a person first notices the object, understands that another site exists, realizes another person has arrived, and decides whether to engage.

That analysis led us to make the mode change physical. The binoculars stop moving the moment both plates are loaded, so the shift from surveying a place to facing a person arrives as a change in the object rather than a notification on a screen.

The screen delivered the encounter, but the physical change made it legible.

The shape mattered. Before building, we rendered two versions into street photographs: one with the mechanism exposed and one wrapped in fabric. The final build used a shorter, pleated fabric skirt.

Making the concept work pulled several systems into one object: gyroscopes to track movement, pressure plates to sense presence, cameras, microphones, and speakers for the encounter, and LTE to connect the two sites.

The mechanics had to keep up. A slip ring let each head rotate without twisting its cables, while separate motor power kept movement from interrupting the computer mid-stream.

We demonstrated the prototype on campus and at an exhibition. People recognized the binocular form, took the handles, and began exploring without instructions.

The familiar form gave people a clear first move, even though the experience that followed was new.