Dynamicland: physical computing in shared space
I wrote a couple of days ago about how I’d like to see more making activity out ‘in the real world’ By which I meant, moving beyond the typical makerspace communities. In the same post, I also mentioned thinking with our hands, and in particular, “how can we use handwork to help people explore or express ideas?”
Well, here’s a project that does both of those things.
Our mission is to incubate a humane dynamic medium
whose full power is accessible to all people.
- A communal computer.
No screens, no devices. Just ordinary physical materials — paper and clay, tokens and toy cars — brought to life by technology in the ceiling. Every scrap of paper has the capabilities of a full computer, while remaining a fully-functional scrap of paper.
In Dynamicland, computational media isn’t hidden away in isolated virtual worlds. It’s real stuff that everyone can see and get their hands on.
And everyone gets their hands on everything! You walk by, you see what someone is making, you play with it and trade ideas, you sit down and work on it together. This happens constantly. Everyone learns from everyone, all the time.
Dynamicland is a computer where people literally work together face-to-face, with eye contact and many hands. It’s as multiplayer as the real world.
…
That’s one of their objectives. It looks hugely ambitious, and has clearly been a long time in the making. One to keep an eye on.