Please note this website no longer supports the web browser you use.
We recommend upgrading to the latest Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, or Safari.

JA / EN
Back

“RECONFIGURABLE HOUSE: HACKING LOW TECH ARCHITECTURE” [2007]

Adam SOMLAI-FISCHER, Usman HAQUE

“RECONFIGURABLE HOUSE: HACKING LOW TECH ARCHITECTURE”

Outline

There is a “house” that emits light and sound. It is packed with remodeled electronic toys, such as penguin-shaped walkie-talkies and resin-coated cat dolls, hung from the ceiling. A touch screen terminal is installed inside of the house, so that visitors can use it to “reconfigure” the electronic connection between these toys on the software.

In this work, hacking existing low-tech gadgets, new schemes realized by this hacking, and the interactive systems are called “architecture.” What HAQUE and SOMLAI-FISCHER think crucial is not that the elements of the architecture react to visitors but that “the reacting elements are subject to influence and change themselves.” In other words, they aim to achieve an interactivity that is “reconfigurable” to what each user thinks is the best condition. This work is their critique of “smart homes,” where users are not allowed to modify a fully-wired IT environment.

* This work reused the made-in-China sensors and gadgets used in the installation titled “Re:orient,” which was exhibited in the Hungarian Pavilion of the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2006.

During the exhibition period, the project site “Reconfigurable House: Hacking low tech architecture” (http://house.propositions.org.uk/) by Usman HAQUE and Adam SOMLAI-FISCHER showed the details of the space at ICC and live sensor values from ICC (during opening hours), and feeds data of “EnvironmentalXML” by HAQUE.

Artists

Exhibitions

List of Works