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  Atmosphere presents a large cloud of information on a wide presentation screen that can be manipulated by three handheld devices mounted on plinths within the gallery space. The visitor takes one of the devices and physically moves it within a designated area, thereby manipulating the information presented both on the screen and the larger projection.

All three devices are able to navigate the same information, but each at a different level--macro, medium, and micro. The interface presents not only the discrete information but also an organic ensemble view of the intensity of each project and the workload impact distributed across time. The interface presents an alternative visual format to the folders and windows to which we have become accustomed through computer usage.
Atmosphere was on display at the New York Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), as part of the Workspheres exhibition, from January to April of 2001.

concepts movie about atmosphere

Atmosphere is a collaboration between the MIT Media Lab and Steelcase Inc.

Steelcase: Joe Branc, Fred Failks, Tom Feldpausch, Charlie Forslund, David Gresham, Don Ladner, Mitch Niewiadomski, Jim Rozema, John Schnittker, Dale Stubbs.

MIT Media Lab: Ari Benbasat, Elise Co, Mark Feldmeier, Ben Fry, Megan Galbraith, Omar Khan, John Maeda, Joe Paradiso, Nikita Pashenkov, Allen Rabinovich, Casey Reas, Jared Schiffman, Max Van Kleek, Tom White.

atmosphere demo
requires a fast internet connection and quicktime 4. or view a larger version of overview photo shown above.


     

above: images of the individual stations

close-up screenshots of the handheld devices

images of the sensing technology inside the handheld enclosures