Zenchronous

Zenchronous “禅調” is a personal and shared space for honest and ephemeral messages. Users are able to communicate with each other by drawing with the rake and placing rocks to show remote presence. Instead of focusing on increasing the speed and quantity of information delivered as done with our current communication improvements, we focus on delivering the emotions and gestures with a broad scope of visual representations i.e. drawings, symbols and text, thereby recovering the nuances that are lost with texting and emailing. Zenchronous has the affordance to deliver messages with gestures of face-to-face communication: drawing accents and subtle meanings from the speed and depth of strokes, which embody the users’ intent and thoughtfulness towards the receiver. It invites people to step away from more hectic digital communication into an inherently more focused and relaxed medium.

Our concept borrows from that of the zen garden, which is to create the sense of water without its physical presence. We create a deep sense of connectedness even when one cannot physically be there for his/her loved ones. The synchronicity and reflectiveness are at the core of our interaction.

MAS.834 Tangible Interfaces | 2014
MIT Media Lab
Instructor: Hiroshi Ishii

Collaborators Xavi Benavides, Paola Mariselli, Ana Torres, and Luke Vink