ARS ELECTRONICA ARCHIVE - PRIX

The Prix Ars Electronica Showcase is a collection where all the artist submissions for the Prix since 1987 can be searched and viewed. The winning projects are documented with extensive information and audio-visual media. ALL other submissions are displayed with a basic metadata in list form.

[the next idea] Anerkennung - Honorary Mention 2009

TENKIPAN - Toaster to Understand Today's Weather

Tatsuya Narita

The project examines the question of how objects of daily life can be turned into information carriers. This topic is dealt with in a convincing fashion, especially because it uses the energy anyway consumed in a household to make information available for which we would normally require additional media.
Using a simple, delightful example, Tatsuya Narita (JP) demonstrates how the vision of the ubiquitous provision of information may be turned into ideas that are ready to be produced and marketed immediately: weather forecasts are received via Yahoo RSS feeds and baked onto normal, edible slices of toast—in the form of symbols that are easy to decipher (e.g., an umbrella, the sun). Without consuming extra energy, 64 pixels may be used to depict a wide range of information—turning the latest data into a “natural” component of a computer- free environment.

Links: http://cutarena.com