For my final project, I want to make something using technology that creates a very human experience. I want to explore using technology to enable human connection in a way that is doesn’t seem artificial.

Heartfelt

In one part of the exhibition would be an enclosed, sound-proof space in which would be an old, analog phone. Upon entering the space, participants pick up the phone and are greeted with something like the following:

Hey. Welcome to heartfelt. If you haven’t already listened to this message, I would appreciate it if you would. If you’d like to skip it and go straight to recording a message, please press 1. (pause) Thanks for listening. This project collects meaningful messages from participants. If you’d like to participate in this project, at the end of this introduction, I’d ask that you say something heartfelt. You can say whatever you’d like, and you can talk for as long or as short as you want. I only ask that you’re respectful and that you don’t share identifying information, like last names, phone numbers, or emails. To give you a place to start thinking, some possible examples of a message are: something you’ve always wanted to tell someone but couldn’t, advice that you would like to give to those who will listen, or a special story from your life that you’d like to share. When you are finished speaking, hang up the phone. If you do not want to participate, just hang up before the countdown starts. No worries. All messages will be anonymously sent to www._, a website made especially for this project. There, and at a separate station in this exhibition, people can listen to all the heartfelt messages currently on the website.
However, somewhere else in the exhibition is a button. If this button is pressed, all of the messages currently on the website will be permanently erased.
I’ll give you some time to think about what you want to say. I encourage you not to practice. Once you get an idea, just go for it. I’m sure you’ll do great. When you’re ready to start your message, please press 1. Otherwise if you do not want to share a message, please hang up.

What do you think? Pretty cool, right? It be interesting to know why people press the button. I’m interested to see how often it will be pressed.

Obviously, a lot of planning needs to go into this, and in a few days, I’ll start sketching out how exactly I would enable each of these different components to talk to the website. Also, how I’ll build the website.