tvs talk all the time we just choose to think they are not.
This is the project I did with Patricia and Stefanie for physcomp it is a TV that we rewired to listen to the amplitude of noise in a room. The above is a schematic of the final wiring we did for the TV. The basic interaction is triggered by the TV’s noise threshold being reached; it then turns the TV programming off and tells everyone to pay attention. We originally wanted to deal with the content of the program as well as the physical interaction that takes place when a TV is present, but due to time constraints we decided to emphasize the physical aspect. We were looking at what the mechanizes that defined the interaction of the user and the TV. We wanted to reveal the implicit nature that lies behind the TV medium and the forceful interaction that it demands when it is present in a room. This interaction often times takes over the language of everyday interpersonal relationships supplanting the everyday lexicon with one of its own choosing, making you speak “TV.” and hear in broadcasting. This can function because of the space that we relegate the TV to. It inherently has fewer barriers than talking to a person because it appears to be non-partial and objective. So at the very least the project is a bit funny because our TV becomes very partial in a very dumb way hopefully reminding you of what the object is and what its role can be. And at the most it will help to watch other TVs with the same skills you use when talking to a person.