Wall Parley

Wall Parley is an exploration of the possible dialogue between users and intelligent environments. Based on Gordon Pask’s conversation theory, dialogue is a “pruned and described entailment structure” which establishes a complex but ordered relationship between unrelated ideas or events. (Pask 1975) The project is a series of prototypes which iteratively develop a cognitive system between humans and walls akin to the manner by which humans communicate with one another by receiving information, processing that information, and then responding. This participatory engagement between two entities, human and wall, creates a dialogue, an intentional reciprocal commitment for which the capacity of communication by and with the wall can be evaluated. The mechanism of the wall is programmed using a Java and C-based language to demarcate identified gestures and trigger specific panel rotations. Collectively, the panels create perceivable configurations on the surface of the wall which result in a tangible interface.

Pask, Gordon. 1975. Conversation, cognition and learning: A cybernetic theory and methodology. Amsterdam: Elsevier.