Brian Nesin
April 2, 1997
MAS 837 Collaboration Between People Computers and Things

Proposal #1

Hole-in-Space worked to create public life in the city because people:

1)Felt they were in the public eye (on stage) because it was like TV

2)Felt safe, because they could step away from the screen any time they
wanted.

The European opera houses of the eighteenth century were similar.
Elite audience members sat in private boxes.  Some of the most
prestigious boxes were right on the stage, where their occupants could
be seen by all.  However, privacy was also possible, if one withdrew
to the rear of the box, out of the public eye.  The music was
secondary, the real function of the opera house was social, to "see
and be seen."

I want to propose a movie theater which employs the technology of the
Hole-in-Space to recreate the "public life" of the opera house.
Perhaps while the audience is entering the theater they see on the
screen an audience in another city, in real time.

I would like to be able to set it up in two small auditoriums.  Would
people talk to the other audience before the movie, or ask them what
they thought after it?  Would the situation be different if everyone
had a small screen on the back of the seat in front of them?

Questions:  Would it be possible to achieve real-time movement with
video?
	Does the media lab have equipment that I could use?
	What are some good precedents (you mentioned the European Xerox Parc)

Proposal #2 (needs focus) 

I am interested in exploring architecture as the "thing" in
"collaboration between people, computers, and things."

Standard elements of buildings are already used to convey information,
like the house lights which are flashed in a theater, to let the
audience members know to return to their seats.  How could other parts
of the building, like the HVAC system, be made more sophisticated, so
that they can communicate information.  Perhaps at a newsroom, the
heat of the room is set to rise as the deadline approaches.  Or in a
room for students taking a test, the lights begin to dim and then go
off as time is up.

I would like to set up an experiment in which certain configurations
of light and/or temperature are coded to have specific meanings.  I
would like to see what I could communicate using standard
"infrastructure" which is already in buildings.