Tangible Media Group

Glass bottles
have been a part of human culture for thousands of years, serving both practical
and aesthetic functions. The “bottles” project explores the transparency of an
interface that weaves itself into the fabric of everyday life. Seamless extension
of physical affordances and metaphors into the digital domain is a key principle
for the design. The “bottlogues” piece explores narrative contents for our bottles.
A set of three bottles is filled with a story told by three characters. Upon opening
each bottle, the man, eagle and stag start telling their part of the narrative.
Physical manipulation of the bottles - opening and closing - is the primary mode
of interaction with digital contents. This project grew out of the “musicBottles”
project to explore a wider variety of contents as well as both artistic and practical
applications of the idea: bottles as containers for bits. The character voices
were played by Kristin Hall, John Underkoffler and Jofish Kaye. We would also
like to thank Nyssim Lefford for sound engineering.