Alive

Language is a highly convenient communication tool that streamlines cognitive processing and enables rapid communication. On the other hand, due to its high semantic resolution, it has the aspect of exacerbating the fragmentation among human individuals. This work is a system that reduces the resolution of the tool and focuses only on the desire to be connected to someone.
Specifically, I built a website that allows users to warp their own mouse cursor into real space via a web browser and communicate in real time with other people gathered there. Unlike online games, where the situation is recreated by the client, this website is characterized by the ability to share actual time and space.
The feedback from the participants was about the sense of touch. When they placed the mouse cursor over the various components that made up the room, they felt as if they could feel the texture of each component, and when they overlapped with the mouse cursor of another person, they felt as if they were touching each other and had a comfort zone. It is interesting to note that the interaction also encouraged mirroring, such as following and aligning. Furthermore, when I added a function that allowed the user to leave traces, it was impressive that the remaining player wandered around the traces when one of them left, showing a movement reminiscent of a regretful farewell.
The sense of touch observed in this work are thought to be the activation of the functional areas of the brain that control bodily sensations through the interaction of the participants with the visual feedback of the mouse cursor. The mimicry of movement and traces is an intrinsic behavior of living organisms that show favoritism toward the preservation of the group/species, and the fact that this behavior is facilitated through a computer network may provide an important cognitive scientific basis for the digitization of the experience of the work itself.

Website(PC)
https://alive.salon

Award
Tokyo TDC Annual Awards 2022 Selected Work

Media
VOGUE JAPAN
NHK World “Design Talks Plus”

Created by
Yuta Sasaki

Conceptual work
Nicole Nakano

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