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Quietly carrying a secret. Bottled up. Not because one wants to be alone with it, but because one has no way to tell it. Perhaps for fear of environmental retaliation, embarrassment, being ostra- cized by family or friends or colleagues, wrath of others, risk of being misunder- stood leading to greater isolation, fear of causing someone else to be misunderstood Many people in our culture are in this predicament. Victims of domestic violence, outcast children, "normal" people, addicts, people ending a relationship, outcast adults, the "familiar stranger" with whom you take the bus everyday but with whom you have never spoken a word, manic- depressives, postal workers, people living with disease, your sister-in-law. This pro- posal offers a design to allow the private somethings to be uttered, spoken, shared, put out into the public space of the city in which we live together, by the people harboring inner states of anything, anytime.

 

2. Mediated communication in public places:

While mediated communication technolo- gies have brought people at a distance "closer together," they have simul- taneously brought people physically ad- jacent further apart. (I am certain the gentleman at the bus stop this morning did not intend to nearly poke out my eye with his umbrella - wildly gesturing and screa- ming into his cell phone, he was com- pletely unconcerned with me, the space, or the rain.) This art and design thesis project aims to promote active social responsability, offering a way to respond to others without the intimi- dation of face-to-face contact. This is the form of personal contact that we have grown away from perhaps partially as a side effect of communication technologies."

(Kelly Dobson)