Interstitial Space Helmet

source: v2nl

The Interstitial Space Helmet (ISH) is an experiential comment on contemporary communication as mediated by technology. The ISH looks at the rise of digital mediation of human representation and how this challenges normative ideas of image, personality and communication.

Whilst placed in front of the screen, interacting with others via web cams and artificial personas, the modern computer user might run into problems dealing with real people in physical interactions. The concept blurs these two worlds, taking elements of the virtual into the physical.

A product for the Otaku generation, it acknowledges the fact that the Internet has created new forms of social interaction that enable new modes of behavior. Online chat rooms, games and virtual worlds such as Second Life, in which we can be whoever we choose to be, exemplify this. Normative modes of behavior and rules do not exist and for some, these places are more comfortable than the physical world.

The Interstitial Space Helmet consists of two standard vacuum formed halves of A.B.S. These are individually fitted to the user with an acoustic internal padding to ensure a comfortable and sound proof fit. The ISH in the standard form has one A/V output, an internal LCD screen at a distance of 17.5 cm from the eye, and an internal microphone.
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source: ounae

Un año después presentaron Interstitial Space Helmet (ISH), un casco muy extraño que encierra la cabeza completa y tiene una pantalla en el frente, donde se proyecta una imagen de la cara del usuario, o cualquier otra cara a elección. La interacción entre los usuarios funciona en el plano digital, indefectiblemente. Aunque estén frente a frente se perciben mediante la utilización de cámaras web, micrófonos, parlantes y pantallas de LEDs. La obra -señalan Auger y Loizeau- es la representación de cómo la mediación digital está en constante aumento, y cómo ese aumento es un desafío para la construcción de la propia imagen, de una identidad. “Hay usuarios de internet que tienen problemas de interacción en el mundo real. Bien, este concepto borra la división entre esos dos mundos, mezcla elementos de lo virtual y lo físico”, resaltan con un dejo de ironía.
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source: kiblixorg

James Auger (b. 1970, Derby, England) and Jimmy Loizeau (b. 1968, St. Asaph, Wales) have been collaborating on projects since the Audio Tooth Implant concept was conceived whilst at the Royal College of Art in 2001. Post R.C.A. they worked at Media Lab Europe in Dublin as research associates. Auger and Loizeau have taken part in group exhibitions in the UK and abroad, including Don’t tempt me (ICA, London; MoMA, New York, 2001), Future products (London, 2002), Mobilise (Dublin, 2003), Open Borders (Lille, 2004), Betes de style (MUDAC, Lausanne, 2006), Philips Design exhibition (Eindhoven, 2007), Design and the Elastic Mind (MoMA, New York, 2008), What If (Dublin, 2009), Action! Design over Time (MoMA, New York, 2010–2012), New Energy in Art and Design (Rotterdam, 2012). They have participated in festivals such as Experimenta (Lisbon, 2003), ISEA (San Jose, 2006), Transmediale (Berlin, 2010) and Tech Fest (Mumbai, 2011) as well as art and design conferences in Basel, Seoul, Berlin and New York. They were awarded Designer of the Year from the Köln School of Design and Top 100 designs of 2002 from Time magazine, and received honorary mention at Ars Electronica (Linz, 2004). Auger and Loizeau are currently based in London and lecture at the Royal College of Art and Goldsmiths University.
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source: auger-loizeau

James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau have been collaborating on projects since the concept of the Audio Tooth Implant was first conceived in October 2000.

[Industrial] Design is mostly concerned with the process of bringing products to market – making them desirable and therefore saleable. By removing the commercial aspect from the development of the [designed] object, it can be given a different agenda, investigating the process that gives birth to it rather than being defined by it. In this way design can comment on consumer culture; the role of products in shaping human behaviour and experience and the role of technology. It becomes a tool for questioning rather than problem solving. Through the development and dissemination of speculative and critical artefacts Auger-Loizeau aim to instigate a broader analysis of what it means to exist in a technology rich environment both today and in the near future. 
Our intention is for this analysis to take place over a broad a spectrum as possible.
Auger-Loizeau projects have been published and exhibited internationally, including MoMA, New York, 21_21, Tokyo, The Science Museum, London, The National Museum of China, Beijing, and the Ars Electronica festival, Linz and are part of the permanent collection at MoMA.

Many of our projects are self-generated and self-funded but we are also available for industry funded research projects, commissions and workshops.