Kuo Zhong-kuan's Sharing the Meal is technologically clever. The piece consists of an (interactive lazy Susan) covered with dishes of Chinese food molded from plastic. When the dishes are touched by the viewer, animated images automatically appear and run across the table. Technologically, the work is perfect, but what often happens with high-tech art is that the focus is on the wizardry of the gadgetry rather than any deeper message. So touching the acrylic-glazed fish will cause a pixilated fish to wiggle and jiggle, but the absence of metaphors leaves the viewer with little to ponder.
moJo iCuisine is the firstly realized (interactive restaurant) in Taiwan. With creative western food, fusion and molecular gastronomy, moJo iCuisine approaches the fascinating dining experience with interactive service design. Each dining table in the restaurant is overlaid with interactive interfaces for restaurant consumers to browse menu, order dishes/drinks, play little games while waiting for the meals, viewing advertisements, fill out opinion forms, and checking/paying the bills. The colorful and flourishing landscape composed of these interactive dining tables is also a catalyst to empower a joyful experience in the restaurant.
In this project, we have not only designed the visual system for moJo iCuisine, including entrance image, name cards, and the delightful graphic interface of the interactive dining table, but also implemented a database system following the notion of service design. The interactive dining table which connected to the database, offers an opportunity to record and trace consumers’ preferences, and compiled statistics for the commercial operations of the restaurant.
moJo iCuisine's (Interactive Dining Table) is a modular table unit equipped with touch sensors. Each table can be seated with two diners. The visual interface is projected from the top installation, and is specially designed to be viewed and interacted with on two opposite orientations. Diners could touch and toss the circular menu to select dishes to see introduction of each.
SoniCoumn is an interactive sound installation that can be played by a person’s touch. The installation takes the form of a column-like cylinder, of a height that does not quite reach the ceiling but just high enough for one’s reach. Grids of LEDs installed inside the column light themselves on by the users’ touch and emit unique sounds. When a user cranks the handle, the column slowly rotates itself and plays the light patterns of the user’s touch.
SoniColumn is one of my series of works, The MusicBox Project, the reproduction of my experience with a small music box that I happened to play a long time ago. The lucid sounds coming from a simple play mechanism stirred me up with my old memory echoed with them. I am pleasantly and cautiously reproducing this happy experience with a small toy which was not sublime nor mysterious, but simple and easy.
