In celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Furniture Fair of Milan, the Salone Satellite chief curator Marva Griffin invited the architecture and design Research Lab Non-linear Solutions Unit at GSAPP Columbia University to develop a small pavilion project in response to the question in what direction is design heading.

“The digital age has dissolved traditional spatial conceptions, spawning unlimited potential for global communication networks and redefining privacy and closeness to exclude physical intimacy. By merging physical and virtual space, can design encourage a new platform for interaction?”

Envisioning the new frontier of socialization, 24 international students of the Non-Linear Solution Unit directed by Caterina Tiazzoldi and in collaboration with the interaction designers Mirko Arcese and Luca Biada (BCAA.it), propose the interactive installation Social Cave.

While entering in the 100% recycled foam Cave, visitors are invited to interact with the projected ‘shadow’ of the visitor beyond the barrier wall, initiating a conversation that transcends traditional digital-physical boundaries.

The digital age has dissolved traditional conceptions of space. Whereas socialization once existed entirely within the physical realm, the virtual world has invited new rules and interaction within a previously unavailable dimension.

Growing virtual connectivity has certainly created a network of unlimited communication pathways. Yet while our social reach has extended, relationships spawned by the web often remain confined to the digital space in which they were initiated. The protection of that dematerialization is seductive; intimacy must no longer be defined by physicality. Emboldened by the blanket of physical anonymity, we may assert a redefined sense of privacy and closeness.

By merging physical and virtual space, how can design affect the changing vista of socialization? Can design encourage a new platform for interaction? We were invited to design a small, interactive installation that would be encountered by hundreds of thousands of people, most of whom are strangers to each other. In response, we have proposed the Social Cave, a typology that returns to the beginnings of our civilization. The Cave will blend the frenzied excitement of virtual connectivity’s power and speed with the calm of its form and materiality, a parametric aggregation of 100% recycled and 100% recyclable foam cubes.

The barrier wall separating the two enclosures within the Cave ensures that visitors inhabiting each of those spaces are initially concealed from each other. The presence of a visitor in the opposite space is revealed only through an abstracted projection capturing his movements. The physical anonymity created by the enclosure allows each visitor to feel comfortable engaging in a digital and visual conversation with the projected “shadow” or “ghost” of the visitor opposite him. Gestures and personalities are therefore made familiar to each other before the initial physical meeting. Thus, the Social Cave first hides and then exposes the proximity and identity of its visitors, allowing a conversation to begin that transcends traditional digital physical boundaries.

Credits:

Concept + Schematic Design: Non Linear Solutions Unit / GSAPP Columbia University – Caterina Tiazzoldi
Interaction Design with: Mirko Arcese and Luca Biada (BCAA.it)
Teaching and Research assistants:
Bryce Suite, Daniel Cashen, Javier Zaratiegui, Mauro Fassino, Vernon Roether

Students:
Allen Robinson, Andrew Kim, Alvin Shim, Benjamin Brichta, Cristina Handal, Courtney Pope, Dionysis Kaltis, Elena Fammartino, Elena Kapompasopoulou, Elena Iannace, Evan Bauer, Florence Schmitt , George Valdes, Georgina Lalli, Hye Lee Oh, Jeohg-in Choi, Jevin Dornic, Katherine Thorn, Kelsey Lents , Michael Gonzales, Mukesh Rosso, Youmi Kim, Sanny Ngy

Acknowledgments:

Marva Griffin / Curator Salone Satellite
Mark Wigley / Dean Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation GSAPP Columbia University
Laura Kurgan / Director of the Visual Studies section at GSAPP Columbia University
Marco Piana, Gabriele Sala
Elena Fammartino

Sponsor: AIPE, COSMIT, GSAPP, NSU

Website: www.tiazzoldi.org | nonlinearsolutions | BCAA.it