HTTLJ feat. The Voice
Interactive Installation, 2024
Tess Eschebach, Ziwei Li, Lola Obielodan, Tucker Rae-Grant, Helena Williams
(Equal contributions, ordered by last name)
Designed for CMSC 33218: Surveillance Aesthetics
December 2024
Motorized sliders, laser cut wood, Arduino, Raspberry Pi, 3-D printing, Python code, C++ code, speakers, microphone, monitor, sticky note, printed design
HTTLJ feat. The Voice, is an interactive installation that explores the border between ambient noise and private conversations. This piece takes the form of a radio broadcast booth for a fictional station, HTTLJ. As “The Voice,” visitors are encouraged to speak during their “show.”
As a viewer tries to lower the volume on the soundboard by moving the sliders, the system calculates an “isolation” value to determine whether they are trying to listen to a single stream. In order to prevent this isolation, the system forces the altered sliders back to the top. The sixth slider insistently maintains its “off” position.
After 30 seconds, the positions of the sliders invert. At this point, viewers realize that they were being recorded during their “show,” and their voice, filtered out of the cacophony, plays clearly in the booth. The entire interaction session takes about 1 minute to complete.
