Have a Seat!

Have a Seat! is a playful interactive installation in which a video of a traveler of both time and space urges viewers to sit on a couch.

When three people sit close together on the couch a special broadcast or snippet of The Muppet Show plays. Strangers coming to view the work find themselves uncomfortably close to each other to experience something whimsical, thus breaking down personal barriers between them.

Have a Seat! was created in collaboration with artist Meghan Miller as part of Transmogrification, an experimental art show at Harvester Arts in Wichita, March 2024. The work consists of a working console TV, couch, sensors, microcontroller, and laptop computer with custom software written in C++ in Pure Data. Jered Becker played the part of the traveler in the video.

Similar Posts

  • Assembly Language Programming

    In the Spring of 2008 I taught Wichita State University’s Assembly Language Programming for Engineers course. As explained in the syllabus, the course used the Z80 microprocessor and the GameBoy platform to introduce general concepts of computer architecture, machine and assembly language programming. Students practiced the ideas and concepts introduced in the course with programming…

  • Digital Puppetry

    I worked with a team of colleagues, community members, and urban youth. Our intention was to help the youth learn in a playful environment, find personal self-expression, and have their voices heard by communities in Boston. To do this, we adapted commercially available technology to provide a unique medium: digital puppetry.

  • Still Life

    In 2011, as part of Hack.Art.Lab, I collaborated with composer Mary Ellen Childs and percussionist Michael Holland to create live animation triggered by live performance of Mary Ellen Childs’ composition “Still Life.” We analyzed the piece into 11 sections and created algorithmic video triggered by sound and motion to match each of the 11 sections. The video was projected…

  • TechArtICT: Dreamgrass

    In Fall 2022, TechArtICT installed Dreamgrass at Exploration Place. The installation was presented as part of the Tallgrass Film Festival. Dreamgrass described a dystopian world where a corporate conglomerate called Happy Corp proudly demonstrated its aggressive use of 80s technology to pacify children. Dreamgrass featured Wichita artists Ernie Kind, Tom McGuire, Kyra Rubinstein, Pankaja Withanachchi,…

  • Microphone with proximity detection

    Around 2004 I developed a few protoype microphones enhanced to also offer proximity detection. The microphone could adjust it’s amplitude and bass response based on the proximity of the person using it. This would lessen the variable results users experience when holding a microphone too close or too far. Moreover, with proximity or its derivative mapped to a combination…