et dukkehjem

'et dukkehjem' is a hybrid art and design installation by http://www.rootoftwo.com/ that utilizes sensor-controlled digital media embedded in custom designed pieces of furniture. The starting point of this work is a re-reading of Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House" to explore user-object relationships. The piece seeks to question the function, identity and authority of objects. Objects are often anthropomorphized and in this case a stool, an armchair, a coffee table and a lamp each represent a character from the play. By inviting the audience to interact in various ways with these domestic objects we hope to remove them from the taken for granted and create multiple possible readings of this work.

There is a photocell embedded in the seat of the armchair 'Torvald'. This sends a message when it registers darkness. The webcam then takes an image. There is an accelerometer in the rocking stool 'Nora'. When she is rocked this triggers a randomly selected line of her dialogue to be played as audio. A line of text from the play is also uploaded to the website via Twitter. There is a passive infrared sensor on the underside of the table 'Krogstad'. As the table is approached the sensor triggers a randomly selected line of his dialogue to be played as audio. And the lamp 'Mrs. Linde' changes color from white to red.