Telepresence

insights and concept:
after the tele-bench project, i’m very obsessed into bench, such a shared personal space in public places, e.g subway station, parks, gallery, waiting room, etc. people seating themselves on the spots, consiously or not, they have seperated the space and take it as a personal space, relax mentally, puting stuff on physically, even sharing with others. that could explain why i always forget stuff, cellphone, wallet, my paper… etc on the bench. in this way, public bench is similar to public restroom (i know, that may bring bad association… that’s why I’m also obsessed into restroom) but that’s really true. and also similar to texi, public phonebooth, buses, cafes, etc.

so i just can’t help sitting on one bench, staring at the other bench, observing what’s going on in the subway.

the intersting things we could take away are:
1, two strangers seat on spots not next to others, leaving a blank spot in between, (even dog followes the norm).

2, strangers don’t touch each other (though there could be exceptions…)

by sgis in flickr. under CC.

So, keeping space in between, and no interaction between strangers on bench. that’s very normal, how about breaking the norm, see what will happen.

after the spring show, there will be more information here.