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Brand messages are pervasive in contemporary culture and create a language of symbols and ideas attached to commodities.  Often in the public sphere, our belongings signify our identity more than words, but this product-based communication is only tacitly understood.

‘Branded!’ is a satirical web application that subverts this “semiotics of stuff.” Ostensibly backed by the expertise of  “consumerologists,” it asks the user questions about his/her personal tastes and consumption habits. The user is then “branded” with a personal barcode depicting the ratio of stereotypes (e.g. yuppie, hipster, etc.) present in her consumer personality. She is also labeled with a sarcastic description of her perceived identity and given product suggestions based on her taste.

This project employs satire along with the pop-culture allure of the personality quiz to create a unique interactive experience that provokes the user to consider how her belongings define her. It was my thesis for my BFA in Design and Technology, and can be viewed here.

Night of Lights was a group solution to the challenge of creating a design intervention in a public space. We chose to use the circular pool in Madison Square Park to stage our interactive event, and took advantage of the pool’s constant circular motion to create the dynamics of the interaction. One evening, we set out hundreds of tea lights in small floating containers around the pool. People passing by could stop, light a candle, and place it among the group of floating candles. The event was a huge success; passersby were attracted to the elemental and spiritual quality of the floating candles, and we even had a few local artists come and play music to accompany the event.

Heidi is a prototype for a collection of interactive jewelry featuring RFID technology. Each piece carries an embedded RFID tag which holds the user’s profile information, and can be viewed and edited through a Flash interface. The concept was to allow the user to imbue the jewelry with aspects of her identity and to change it dynamically, in the same way that she might update her facebook page. Users can view each other’s profiles in passing via accompanying RFID readers, and ideally through RFID-enabled mobile phones. The result is a product-based social network that lives in both the physical and the virtual realm.

Flink was a group project with the goal of facilitating interaction in a public space. We conceived of a “flink,” which is a small thought or expression that provokes discussion or contemplation. Then, we posted stickers of various “flinks” in the subway and on the street. From reading the stickers, users could interact with the piece by posting their own flinks on our website or by texting their flinks to a phone number which were subsequently published to the website. Finally, we had a physical installation on 11th St. and Avenue B, in which passersby could write their “flinks” on small plaques and arrange them within the installation on a chain link fence. People were eager to participate, and the installation grew as a dynamic representation of  collective human expression.

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