Project Description

Tangible Weather Channel is a sculptural apparatus that enables the participant to input the remote location of a loved one and interprets its real-time weather information as a way of creating an emotional connection. Rather than employing traditional graphical representation, Tangible Weather Channel renders weather information into a multi-sensory experience by using natural elements such as water, air and sound. By materializing weather dynamics on intimate sites to mediate what occurs in another place, Tangible Weather Channel encourages the participant to establish links with his/her experiential memories of a specific place and to create a sense of closeness to via touch and contemplation.

The capability of creating a continuum between the physical and virtual through media technology has implied a new relationship among the body, perception, space and time. From an architectural perspective, the physical envelope has the tendency to evolve itself into a portal connecting our bodies with other networked spaces and liberating ourselves from the captivity of the physically-bound surroundings. From a phenomenological perspective, our perception of "now and here" might just as well be "now and there", in both temporal and spatial senses. Tangible Weather Channel explores these architectural and phenomenological potential and implications. It also investigates the experiential and performative aspects of information representation, and interrelationship among material, meaning, memory and perception.


Artist Bio:

Yu-Cheng Hsu is a media artist/designer exploring the phenomenological potential in the continuum of physical and cyber spaces. Hsu studied architecture in Taiwan, and earned an M.S. in information technology at Georgia Tech, where he was a member of the Topological Media Lab and specialized in the design of responsive spaces. He later attended Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), and acquired an MFA degree with Honor in Degital Media. While at RISD, he conducted research in novel forms of tangible information representation for enriching human sensory experiences. His collaborative and personal works have been shown in several major venues, including the Exploratorium, San Francisco; the Museum of Science, Boston; the Milan Furniture Fair, Italy and ACM Multimedia 2005 in Singapore.