Francesco Tacchini, Julinka Ebhardt & Will Yates-Johnson
Video, designer
Location: London (UK)
Space replay is a project designed by Francesco Tacchini, Julinka Ebhardt and Will Yates-Johnson of the Royal College of Art in London. As the title suggests, this device is a floating black sphere that records and plays back ambient sounds after a short delay.
The ultralight balloon is equipped with an Arduino controller with a hacked Adafruit Wave shield and a small speaker to enhance the volume.
While the intention of the designers was to produce “a delayed echo of human activity” in public spaces, many websites have recognized the disturbing character of an object which, in addition to manipulating the space by its intervention acoustics, seems to stalk and threaten people.
The Prisoner.
In the video, the strange presence of the sphere moving slowly but steadily in a metro station. In an elevator and other transition areas, reminiscent of an entity appearing since 1967 on the classic British TV show The Prisoner. There, a floating white ball, called The Rover, was able to coerce or even kill people, namely the inhabitants of the Village. Given that the device only appeared in one episode (“The Schizoid Man”), but was referred to several times throughout the script, it could be seen as a benchmark and inspiration for similar spooky entities. in popular culture, such as the “Smoke Monster” in the “Lost” Saga.
In either case, no special effects were needed to convey a sense of threat to the Magritte through pure forms. The spheres – without intrinsic threatening qualities.
Royal College of Art in London→ https://www.rca.ac.uk/
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