The flash interface of the project is at the bottom of the page. The physical interface is pictured in the photos below, which were taken at the Chelsea Art Museum during the Parsons Design and Technology 10th Annual MFA Thesis Show. This project was also presented at SIGGRAPH 2007.
Did video really kill the radio star? What happens to an existing communication medium when it is supplanted by new technology? Table for Two proposes that old media formats do not die —they evolve.
This project takes comics, traditionally a print-based medium, and reinvents it as a screen-based experience. It combines the page and panel framework of comics, with sound and motion from time-based media, and choice-driven user participation from interactive media. This format is intended to engage the user as a “reader,” a “watcher,” and a “player.” The result is an “animated hypercomic.” The story is a familiar one—boy meets girl, boy wants girl, boy makes an ass of himself ….
Through a series of visually presented choices the user determines whether “boy gets girl” or “boy loses girl”. To further reinforce the concept of blending old and new media, the piece is presented in an old-fashioned penny arcade-style viewing machine, and is intended for display in galleries, interactive museum exhibits, or amusement parks.