Gregory P. Garvey: The Smart Stall

Artist(s):

Gregory P. Garvey

Title:

The Smart Stall

Exhibition:

SIGGRAPH 1996: The Bridge

Creation Year:

1996

Artist Statement:

The Smart Stall challenges the aims of ubiquitous computing with the question: Will com?puters be with us no matter where we are? If consumers have told the talking car to shut up, who will tolerate the user?friendly bathroom fixture cheer?fully ma king suggestions or worse interrogating the user? What could be more inappropri?ate than a bathroom stall doing double duty as a telecommunica?tions interface where the user can look down into the bowl, see another user (looking as well), and hold a conversation across a local area network? Is no aspect of the human condition safe from the gratuitous intrusion of technological improvements?

Operation
Motion sensors detect potential users passing by, and a bureau?cratic voice announces: “STAND IN LINE! SINGLE FILE AND NO TALKING!” Once a user walks into the stall and closes the latch, the deafening roar of a stadium-sized crowd fills the environment. A?shrill voice commands the user to lift the seat and barks additional instructions. The docile user looks down into the toilet bowl and sees another user through CU?SeeMe technology. The user can talk, or, if graffiti-minded, write on the white board section of the?enclosure to post messages. When there is no other user, the head of a famous politician appears grafted onto a body of a fly and is video-projected onto the water in the toilet bowl squealing “HELP ME! HELP ME!” (In homage to the movie “The Fly”). When the user exits the stall, a status check is performed and a female voice admonishes the user to “PUT DOWN THE TOILET SEAT!”