The handbag is an accessory with a long history of evolution. Once called a reticule (or "ridicule" by men) in the 18th century, the handbag of today is seen as a status symbol, whose outward appearance is as telling as the inner contents. This project examines how the ordinary handbag, as a computationally enabled object in a ubiquitous & wireless networked environment can provide new insights into what we carry, what we collect, and how we make sense of our inner and outer worlds.
Sponsored by TRIP
Abstract
Inside/Outside is part of a body of research that focuses on the behavior of people in urban public space. Inside/Outside integrates pollution sensors with an ordinary fashion accessory to provide an aesthetically and functionally integrated object. Personally invested technology and community networks combine to monitor environmental factors creating alternative city mappings based on co-location in physical space.
Introduction
Inside/Outside is a personally invested environmental monitoring tool which uses the handbag as a metaphor for information storage and retrieval. We are looking at what we carry, collect, and how we make sense of our inner and outer worlds.
Through surveys and workshops in Dublin and Los Angeles, we began investigating personal investment in individual objects and their ability to enable the actions of COLLECTION, REFLECTION, and ACTION.
While an ordinary handbag collects physical objects which are often personally invested, Inside/Outside collects digital data about the environment, allowing processes of reflection and action to create personally invested relationships to the city and other individuals in the urban space.
In our implementation the Inside/Outside bag detects "environmental irritants" either air quality or audio pollution. Data is simultaneously visualized as an ambient display on the surface of the bag and collected into a digital data diary for review at a later date. The presentation of data both in real-time, and in aggregate provides opportunities for both spontaneous and planned reflection of one's environmental exposure, acting as both "mirror" and "journal" of one's urban experience. Information about the environment becomes an "object" that the individual collects and reflects upon to initiate action, possibly taking different city routes or otherwise altering their behavior.
The Inside/Outside bag works both as an independent object, and as part of network of like objects. When multiple Inside/Outside bags are networked together they form a distributed sensor network, allowing for asynchronous readings of environmental data to be collected by various individuals. The wearer of an Inside/Outside object sees a "necessarily incomplete" map of environmental data for the city, one that expands or contracts based on personal mobility. Information collected can be shared in an ad-hoc manner through co-located presence. For example: Individuals who pass through dense areas of activity in the city center (with more Inside/Outside objects present) will have different mappings than those who act within more sparsely populated areas. We are interested in the alternative urban mappings and underlying social networks that can emerge from the daily use of this augmented everyday object.
Locally sensitive and contextually relevant data can be used by the inhabitants of a community to police and monitor their own neighborhoods and public spaces. This "local knowledge" is a very powerful factor in allowing for personal identification and connection with the environment, and can lead to greater emotional investment and connection with public space. Through the process of collection, reflection, and action, personally invested environmental monitoring can provide alternative views of the city, and redirect behavior within the urban zone.