By Chance is an installation piece representing the relationships of people in the world. What we try to talk about is not the relationships with parents/ brother or sister/ lover/ close friends who will always be with you. What we want to explore is the relationships with a person who you meet in a specific time and space in your life. Maybe you study together for two years/work together for three months/ even just give a smile to each other when you meet on the street, then separate. You may never meet each other again in your life. However, something indeed changed. We hope that by using the light and display devices people can see the warmth and understanding they share at the moment they meet. They light up each other's life.

The inspiration comes from a beautiful poem by Xu Zhimo:
“You and I met at sea in the darkness of night.
You have your destination, I have mine.
You may remember though it would be best if you forgot.
We glowed as our paths crossed and brightly shined.”


Audience
People who live in this earth.:)

User Scenario
There will be rain coats that symbolize the outfit when people sail in the ocean at night. People will walk randomly wearing them and carry some messages which they can’t read on their own at first. When the two people encounter each other face to face, the light bulb they carry will automatically light up. Then they can read the message at that moment. The content of the message on LCDs is also only understandable when two people meet.


Implementation
Each rain coat will have IR emitters and IR receivers to send and receive a signal and one LED as digital output which is set inside of the bulb. 16 x 2 LCD displays are used as a message displayer. All of them are connected to Arduino which is on the inner side of the rain coats.