Tely: Tele-Absence

Introduction

Tely is a device that orients itself to the motion of a distant person, in a way conveying presence through absence.

Conceptualization

The conceptual process is marked by me transitioning more and more towards abstraction and even absence.

I. Portal

My project started with an exploration of the concept of portal between two rooms and I was interested in capturing a snapshot of the other room (in this case, a point cloud) that could be viewed from the first room.

II. Mediated Presence - Motion Sculpture

Then, rather than viewing the distant space in a detailed, fleshed out way, I thought about a mediated experience, partly inspired by the reading The Thousand Dreams of Stellavista, where the space retains the memory of their users and responds back. So I started exploring the memory of space through virtual sculptures of their motion, projected back to space in augmented reality (this became a separate project in progress).

III. Tele-Absence

Finally, I've decided to push this to the other end of the spectrum where the presence of the distant person is no longer materialized, but passively felt; what I landed on is a device that is very figural, but at the same time it registers the absence of figurality of the distant presence.

I was also referencing this commentary from Elliott Malkin, which attempts to theorize tele-absence. Reading a novel without a certain letter, it actually accentuates it; the absence becomes the presence. For my project, the device moves when there is motion from the distant person, and it stays fairly quiet when they are static - it highlights the absence more than the presence.