Echo of Expectation
The goal of this installation is to break expectations and show (literate) people that not everything is or does what they assume, shifting their point of view and bringing awareness and empathy.
The majority of literate people are unaware that people with low literacy face challenges in tasks that many consider simple: understanding an instruction manual, filling in forms, or even reading signs. This can make it hard for illiterates to express their difficulties and ask for help.
Visitors step into a cozy room, with warm red tones, where every interactable object stands out in blue. The space looks familiar at first, but once inside, nothing behaves the way they expect. When they try to switch on the lamp, a trash can opens. When they adjust the radio, the lamp lights up instead. The fan controls the radio, the pedal bin controls the fan, all responding in unexpected ways. Simple tasks turn into small puzzles, and familiar actions no longer lead to familiar results.
Students: Jesse Birnage, Anniek van de Velde, Anna Both & Maaike Hoevenaars
To decide on what the final space would look like, concerning the furniture, color scheme, and room lay-out, we created a scale model to be able to quickly try out several options without having to change the final prototype itself.
From second-hand shops, we gathered all the furniture for our prototype. For the walls we used MDF plates connected to scaffolding pipes. After deciding on the color pallet, we spray-painted all of the objects.
To connect the objects to home assistant using ESP mini chips, we had to disassemble them and integrate the chips by soldering.
Next these chips had to be connected to home assistant, a wireless network using a router. In this way, we made the objects smart and connected.
When the color palette and the wireless network where both integrated in the space, some final details were added to make the space come together, like the custom poster and the name in letters.
