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

  • Auralis

    Auralis is a musical instrument constructed from a multitouch table and custom software ported from my earlier touch wall Touch #2. Merging sound, interactivity, and sequencing, Auralis is simultaneously engaging, meditative and soothing. I created the work for youth ages 8-14. A virtual world of suns, stars and planets interact with each other. Participants run…

  • Minigolf at Figment in New York

    As a faculty member Wichita State University’s College of Engineering (WSU), I worked with students to create and install a mini-golf hole as part of FIGMENT at Governor’s Island, NY in 2010. I also gave the keynote address that year for FIGMENT’s public art opening. WSU’s mini-golf hole was chosen from a juried selection. Our…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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.