Robbert

Portfolio Old Media: www.robbertritmeester.nl

Portfolio New Media: www.stichtingenen.nl

TouchPoints

What constitutes ‘being close to somebody’? Grooming and cocooning on the sofa with the telephone switched off? Or quite the opposite, by being in touch and touching base 24/7 through Skype, Messenger, WhatsApp? Or simply both, whenever?

Touch_Points from Robbert Ritmeester on Vimeo.

Never in the history of mankind have we been connected in a scale, and with a variety of means as nowadays. Yet we haven’t cracked the problem of virtual touch (Thinking Big, Gamble et al, 2014. p. 200). If this question is met with a technical solution, like a pressure-glove, will that be a conceptually promising way to pursue? Will that be enough to create an advanced feeling of social presence? The ‘grooming touch’ brings us all the way back to the early, ape-like years of mankind. 

These are big issues; too big. Let’s bring it back to a small experiment I would like to call TouchPoints. This installation is not investigating bonding, grooming and closeness as elements of modern days’ communications; as a matter of fact it does the opposite and takes small drawbacks from these types of communication like Skype, to see how they are experienced as jammer stations when being physically close to someone. The setup it is not a statement; it is about being sensitive of somebody being close to you. It is expected that this installation will be slightly uncomfortable and gigglish.

Conceptual space

Face to face conversation while physically present:

Face to face conversation without physicality:

TouchPoints: If only Skype had ‘touch’ …

Results

Work in Progress

Old laptops, extension wires and external hardware devices... they all hate each other. Every connection is a hardware conflict. But, after a long day of fixing drivers and settling arguments it works. Wires are carefully labelled!

Somehow two monitors must be placed in here; back to back. The installation is constructed in the basement with little room to move. The parts will come together for the first time in the exposition space. No opportunities to try the construction before.

The glove box is nearly done. It feels very heavy and I hope the construction will support its weight. Realized only yesterday that I'm not allowed to anchore it to a wall.

The wireless chairs seem to be working. However there is a nasty glitch. Sometimes the radio sents a 0 (zero) which turns of the light for a moment when still sitting on the chair. There must be some programming solution: if (radio==0)...

NMNT Assignment 3 - Radio chairs from Robbert Ritmeester on Vimeo.

Two weeks ago (estimated delivery time 3 to 5 days) I ordered some large (to the shoulder) gloves (#gauntlets)  for the glove box. Now I have to face the fact they won’t arrive on time. The decision is to made to cut the holes without connections.

Postscript: the gloves arrived two weeks after the exposition