Posted on Sat 12 Apr 2025
Meeting Points: What could future interfaces of communication look like?
How might future interfaces of communication shift away from screens to more tactile, present or shared experiences? How have developments in technology influenced how we communicate?
Posted by
Nat Whitney
Nat Whitney is an audio-visual participatory artist working with creative technologies to construct interactive, sensory objects and spaces that invite curiosity and play. Intrigued by social interaction and the interplay between chance and control, their practice delves into how physical computing…Project
Meeting Points: exploring playful futuristic communication systems through tactile multi-sensory beings
Meeting points is an inquiry into how approaches to connecting with ourselves, our surroundings and each other are evolving in the digital age.My first question as part of the Winter residency project is: what could future interfaces of communication look like? I am particularly interested in how they might shift away from screens to more tactile, present or shared experiences.
A core curiosity across all of my work is social interaction and how to facilitate participatory spaces that invite play and co-creation. This particular project and interest in communication systems was sparked during a residency in June 2024 at The Cut, where in exploring the creation of sustainable structures over 9 days, two talking beings were born.
The two interactive sculptural beings emit sounds in various pitches when touched at different points along their soft tubular surface. The closer you place your ear to the end of the tubular shape or mouth of the being, the louder and more intense the sound emitted. The two beings are wireless and stand independent to each other approximately one metre apart and so connection with both simultaneously is possible by either singular or multiple participants.
Interacting with and watching others interact with these beings heightened my interests on what a shift from the screen as a primary source of connection to more human tactile experiences could look like in future?
How art and technology can help us to connect with each other in the same reality is a consistent curiosity and a particular focus of this project. I am beginning the residency by exploring the evolution of communication technologies including the mobile phone, telephone boxes, video calls and tin can acoustic telephones. I am interested in the ways these developments in communication technologies have influenced how we connect with each other.
Before creating the sculptural beings, I imagined and drew out a plan for two playable communication towers of the future. Accompanying the drawing were the words ‘Playable Communication Tower. Visit for [Stranger] Human Connection, Always [Sometimes] Open’. These came from reflecting on my own openess to always communication with new people.
The last three words ‘Always [Sometimes] Open’ are something I keep returning to. They have appeared whilst researching public places and objects of communication, such as the telephone box, and in questioning what happens if you are seeking connection but no one is on the other end of the phone?
Although the core questions I started with are still guiding my research, I’m letting my curiosity lead the way. This has meant following unexpected threads and exploring new areas I hadn’t initially planned for. I'm conscious that I’m stepping into a broad and complex field and so I’m trying to take the time to gain a clearer overview and gradually find out where my main interests lie. I'm hoping that this unconfined research time will help to shape the direction of the work before notes and sketches begin to take physical form through interactive prototypes and experiments.
