Koert van Mensvoort,

NL

In the morning paper, I can read the weather report as well as the stock quotes. But when I look out of my window I only get a weather report update and no stock exchange info. Could someone please fix this bug in my environmental system? Thanks. :)

With who or what do we have contact the most in our daily life routines? Our family, our bed pillow, doorknobs maybe? The answer is probably: Display. We are increasingly surrounded by screens. Think television sets, mobile phone displays, outdoor led displays, computer screens, and so on. They are made to inform us, but all too often these busy flickering noisy screens are also a source of distraction. They demand our attention, thus creating a nervous and restless environment.

CALM TECHNOLOGY

Is information technology putting us constantly under pressure or could it also have a calming effect? There are many examples of technologies that bring us comfort. There is no less technology involved in a comfortable pair of shoes or in a fine writing pen, than in a computer display. Good technology isn't experienced as technology at all. Could this also be realized in the world of displays?

In natural situations the availability of information is often very well regulated. Consider the weather as an example. During the day you are more or less aware of the state of the weather. Before you go out you explicitly decide if you need an umbrella. Implicitly, you already knew whether the umbrella question was relevant. Imagine that you were completely unaware of the weather and had to check a website to find out if you need an umbrella when you leave your house. Sounds absurd? Still, this is the model in which information is often presented to us. Some data you continuously want to have available in your environment. Not in the centre, but rather at the border of your attention focus.

A FOUNTAIN AS AN INFORMATION DISPLAY

I am fascinated with fountains, as a phenomenon. You find them on squares, in gardens, or even indoors on tabletops. Usually a fountain is placed in a space for aesthetic reasons. Despite of the fact that they are artificially made, people associate fountains with a sense of naturalness, I find this intriguing. A fountain is perceived as a source of quietude, not stress. People experience a fountain as a pleasant object in their environment. This quality makes it a suitable object for 'calm' technology.

The goal of the datafountain project is to re-think fountains as information displays. We equip fountains with a control that can vary the height of the water jet. Through an Ethernet connection and a frequency modulator the fountain pumps are controlled. The fountain will function as a calm display. It can display the latest trafficnews, remote weatherconditions, train departure times, the amount of people waiting in line at a postoffice, etc. Or, depending on the context in which the fountain is placed, more personal data like the amount of email in your inbox or the distance between yourself and your lover.

Of course fountains that vary their spouting pattern already exist. The waterballet is well known. But always, an emotional value of some sort (often music) is translated into the emotional value of the fountain. The notion of displaying 'explicit' information onto the fountain is new. The aesthetic value of the fountain display is a huge benefit in information design. Its presence won't bother people who are not interested in the data; information decoration, instead of information push.

OUR PROTOTYPE

We've constructed a mobile fountain measuring 5x4x3 meter and connected it to realtime money currency rates. Of course, the relation between money and water is evident. On our prototype we display the Yen, Euro and Dollar (¥€$). Currency rates are closely interconnected; their interdependence is visible in water. The design of the casing was kept as minimal as possible. The water is the thing to look at and listen to.

OUR GOAL

When I see a fountain in public space, I can't help wondering what its spraying pattern can tell me. It is our future goal to design more contextual datafountains and also to re-think existing fountains as information displays. I think in the future, it will be considered rude to place a fountain in public space that has nothing to say. The information displayed on the fountain will become part of a discussion about the design of public space. The context plays an important role in the communicational value; a fountain in front of a metro station will probably means something different than a fountain in front of a stock exchange. Whose fountain is it? What will be displayed? Whose space is it?

"In the park next to my home is a fountain. I can see it from my window. Day in day out it sprays its water in the same boring fashion, no information in there. I connected this fountain to the cell phone of my secret lover. The fountain now sprays high when she's in neighborhood and low when she's far away. It sprays wild when she is receiving many phone calls. Not spraying at all when her phone is off. People in the neighborhood think it's just a randomly programmed fountain, but they are not into ambient information like I am."

datafountain website