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Mass Distraction |
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contact us at: A project
presentation (.pdf, 81Kb) is available. For more information
and press material |
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 Mass Distraction is a series of three jackets (the Coin Jacket, the Hood Jacket and the Game Jacket) intended to provoke thought and discussion about the idea of presence: physical presence no longer guarantees a person’s availability and attentiveness. Nowadays the user of a mobile communication device often splits his attention between the people in his surroundings and the person to whom he's linked remotely. Often, in order to remain connected the people both near and far, the mobile phone user multitasks between the two communication channels. Whether disguised or not, this practice degrades the quality of the interaction with the people in his immediate presence. |
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 The Coin Jacket - Instructions 1. In this jacket there is a mobile phone 2. In order to answer the phone, insert a coin in the upper-left pocket 3. The phone call continues, if you don't stop to put the coin in the pocket |
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 The Hood Jacket - Instructions 1. In this jacket there is a mobile phone 2. In order to answer the phone, close the hood completely 3. The phone call continues, as long as you don't try to open the hood. |
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 The Game Jacket - Instructions 1. In this jacket there is a mobile phone and a videogame 2. In order to answer the phone, hand the game to your friend 3. The phone call lasts as long as he keeps on playing |
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The Movies Each jacket replaces a normal mobile phone in a prototypical situation of mobile communication, causing the user to answer an incoming call in a very peculiar way. Through these garments, the effort of the user in dividing his attention among different communication channels is highlighted and commented on ironically. Mass Distraction is a critical design project. None of the garments in the Mass Distraction series is meant to be a market product. The value of the series resides in the provocative and ironic oppositions it constructs between the nature of everyday objects and the unusual behaviours they provoke. These contrasts constitute a commentary on the potential of the mobile phone for disrupting and disturbing social interactions. Three Movies: The Coin Jacket (2 Mb) The Hood Jacket (1.7 Mb) The Game Jacket (1.7 Mb) |
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 Exhibition The Mass Distrcation jackets have been designed in order to be experienced and exhibited. At the typical Mass Distraction exhibition we invite people to try our jackets. Once a visitor tries on a jacket, the phone embedded in the jacket starts ringing. The visitors, intrigued to answer the calling phone, are motivated to follow the instructions and interact in the requested way. While doing so they can hear via the mobile phone the story of each jacket. In order to listen to the whole story they have to carry on the interaction according to the instructions. |
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 Design as Research From a design perspective this project has been thought in the context of design as research : focus of the project is producing tools potentially helpful in performing a research in the context of mobile phone communication. As soon as the garment we decided to design (the jackets reached the stage of working prototypes) exists and works, it’s time to give it to real people in the real world. So these jackets become an exploratory tool for understanding and mapping behaviors and attitudes in the context of mobile phone usage. Mass Distraction is featured in Pronto? Where are you? a research conducted by Davide Agnelli and Tal Drori at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, between Autumn 2003 and Spring 2004. |
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 Credits Mass Distraction has been conceived and developed at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, since Spring 2004, by: Agnelli Davide Drori Tal Thanks to: Annette Meyer, Nicoletta Granero, Molly W. Steenson, Massimo Banzi, Edoardo Brambilla, Yaniv Steiner, Ivan Gasparini, Soeren Pors, Steven Blyth, Myriel Milicevic, Silvia Rollino, Nathan Waterhouse and the whole IDII community. |
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