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

  • Touch #1

    In 2012 I created my first interactive touch wall: Touch #1. The work built on my experience creating the visuals for Still Life and was largely inspired by seeing autistic children experiencing pure joy while interacting in an immersive environment. Touch #1 received a great response and was later installed at Exploration Place and at…

  • 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.

  • Avian Migration

    In 2018 I collaborated with Artist Lisa Rundstrom and artist/engineer Tom McGuire to create the public art sculpture, Avian Migration at Wichita’s new Advanced Learning Library. Avian Migration consists of more than 1,300 LEDs controlled by 8 motion-activated sensors spread throughout the library. I was primarily responsible for the development and implementation of the software…

  • 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…

  • 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…