Interstitial Space Helmet
"Interstitial Space Helmet" (2004) is a work by James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau (UK).
ISH
The Interstitial Space Helmet (ISH) is an experiential comment on contemporary communication as mediated by technology. The ISH looks at the rise of digital mediation of human representation and how this challenges normative ideas of image, personality and communication.
Whilst placed in front of the screen, interacting with others via web cams and artificial personas, the modern computer user might run into problems dealing with real people in physical interactions. The concept blurs these two worlds, taking elements of the virtual into the physical.
A product for the Otaku generation, it acknowledges the fact that the Internet has created new forms of social interaction that enable new modes of behavior. Online chat rooms, games and virtual worlds such as Second Life, in which we can be whoever we choose to be, exemplify this. Normative modes of behavior and rules do not exist and for some, these places are more comfortable than the physical world.
The Interstitial Space Helmet consists of two standard vacuum formed halves of A.B.S. These are individually fitted to the user with an acoustic internal padding to ensure a comfortable and sound proof fit. The ISH in the standard form has one A/V output, an internal LCD screen at a distance of 17.5 cm from the eye, and an internal microphone.
