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

  • SoundBlocks

    SoundBlocks is a tangible environment where youth connect blocks to describe network dataflow. The environment explores digital sound manipulation as a personal, meaningful and fun artistic endeavor, rather than as a venture into mathematical, electronic or networking relationships.

  • 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,…

  • Ghost in the Machine

    Originally conceived in 2008, Ghost in the Machine (GITM) consists of a webcam and display which mixes and crossfades events in realtime with motion-activated video it has recorded previously. It continually shifts between 3 states: individual, community, and the world. GITM has been shown in many venues and contexts.

  • Contrapuntal Composer

    Contrapuntal Composer is Prolog code which writes music for three simultaneous voices. Depending on initial parameters, it can write a fugue, a rondo, or any other contrapuntal form. Contrapuntal Composer obeys the rules of good voice leading within each voice and between the voices.

  • LegalLanguage

    I wrote LegalLanguage, a scripting language for lawyers at Legal Services Corporation in West Virginia. The staff used LegalLanguage to write simple scripts that could then ask clients questions, give guidance, and print out the appropriate forms. This freed up resources to focus on the large number of cases involving domestic violence.