Nearness

By on 15 September 2009 in Interaction design, Research, Visual design

One of the essential properties of Near Field Communication is nearness, but this is set against one of the paradoxes of touch-based interaction where, in fact, nothing needs to touch. In a very short film made with BERG, we explore nearness in interactive technologies.

Hat tip towards The way things go, that Honda commercial and Pythagora Switch.

Some photos.

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37 Responses to Nearness

  1. Rahul Sen 15 September 2009 at 13:54 #

    Awesome stuff Timo! Really inspiring as always… :)

  2. gari 16 September 2009 at 11:23 #

    wow! I really love it…

  3. stan wiechers 16 September 2009 at 19:52 #

    nice one, now we need a full feature 90 minute version;)

  4. Yacoub 18 September 2009 at 15:42 #

    How could u send txt msgs from phone and read them on the other phone?

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. Tweets that mention Nearness -- Topsy.com - 15 September 2009

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by timo arnall. timo arnall said: New work: Nearness: http://www.nearfield.org/2009/09/nearness [...]
  2. Nearness « Adam Greenfield’s Speedbird - 15 September 2009

    [...] frisson is provided by Timo Arnall and Jack Schulze, who’ve between them put together this exquisite film illustrating near-field communication (NFC) interactions in the style of Weiss and Fischli’s [...]
  3. Rube-Goldberg-Maschine mittels RFID-Technologie | Studio B12 Blog - 15 September 2009

    [...] neues vom Touch-Projekt. Mit Hilfe der RFID wurde eine Rube-Goldberg-Maschine entwickelt. Diese Art der Nonsense-Maschinen [...]
  4. Nearness | Bootlog - 16 September 2009

    [...] via I Love Social BookmarkingSubscribeDiggdel.icio.usFacebookRedditStumbleUpon Tags: [...]
  5. Rube Goldberg-esque Video Shows Off Non-Touch Tech | GeekStream Gadgets - 16 September 2009

    [...] becoming antiquated. Why bother touching something when you can just almost touch something? The folks at NearField.org, in conjunction with design consultancy BERG, designed the Rube Goldberg-like machine above in [...]
  6. the heap: Just another WordPress weblog - 16 September 2009

    [...] Last.fm Vimeo Nearness Nearness explores interacting without touching. More here nearfield.org/2009/09/nearness and here berglondon.com/blog/2009/09/15/nearness/ Cast: timo, schulze Warning: [...]
  7. Sobre Tecnologia » Blog Archive » Nearness, interacción sin contacto - 17 September 2009

    [...] Nearness, “explora la interacción sin contacto”. [...]
  8. Nearness, interacción sin contacto : Blogografia - 17 September 2009

    [...] Nearness, “explora la interacción sin contacto”. [...]
  9. Máquina de Rube Goldberg con tecnología inalámbrica | en SOY GIK - 17 September 2009

    [...] + Info | Nearness [...]
  10. Nearness, interacción sin contacto | Moova! News on the Move - 17 September 2009

    [...] from timo on Vimeo. Nearness, “explora la interacción sin [...]
  11. Responses to ‘Nearness’ - 17 September 2009

    [...] Touch Interaction with RFID and NFC Skip to content HomeProjectsMediaPublicationsPeopleAbout & contact « Nearness [...]
  12. Grad Project» Blog Archive » Nearness - 18 September 2009

    [...] Nearness. [...]
  13. Nearness – Nähe vs. Berührung durch NFC » Johannes Kleske - tautoko weblog - 18 September 2009

    [...] gewohnten Muster hinterfragen. Mit diesem Thema haben sich Timo Arnall und Jack Schulze für Touch beschäftigt. Unter anderem inspiriert von dem bekannten Toyota-Werbespot ist ein Clip [...]
  14. Mobile networks « learn4kicks - 24 September 2009

    [...] RFID & NFC, RFID & interference,  RFID vs NFC project in Bath, a recent brilliant 2 min video on Nearness from Timo Arnall and Jack Schultz, from last [...]
  15. Nearness « Physical Computing - 25 September 2009

    [...] pm Filed under: Inspiration Nearness is a project about interaction made by people at BERG and Touch . The project shows how interaction between objects can be done without touching each other. RFID [...]
  16. Interaction Is Goes Beyond Touch | blog.bernardr.com - 25 September 2009

    [...] has continually done some amazing things. One of the coolest things going right now is Nearness, a gorgeously shot experiment in interaction without [...]
  17. socks-studio » Blog Archive » Nearness - 26 September 2009

    [...] 2009 Nearness Source: vimeo.com Nearness explores interacting without touching. More here http://www.nearfield.org/2009/09/nearness and here http://berglondon.com/blog/2009/09/15/nearness/     Rfid Rube Goldberg [...]
  18. Nearness: Interactivity Without Touching | INTERNET PARTY - 27 September 2009

    [...] in the technology. Here we play with the problems of invisibility and the magic of being close. The Nearness By [...]
  19. DATADAYLIFE » The Way Things Go - 27 September 2009

    [...] their Nearness project they put together a nice short video in collaboration with BERG which illustrates some of [...]
  20. Immaterials: the ghost in the field - 12 October 2009

    [...] the success of Oyster, Suica and Octopus cards). But there is also the ‘magic’ of nearness one of the most compelling experiential aspects of [...]
  21. Interacting without Touching | rekeeb - 25 October 2009

    [...] Webb, Availabot) and Touch (Timo Arnall et al) on near field communication and interactive objects. This article explains some of the thinking. Even more interesting are the responses on the film by others from [...]
  22. Nearness | Bootlog - 21 December 2009

    [...] via [...]
  23. The Way Things Go…Near Field Communication - 25 January 2010

    [...] http://www.nearfield.org/2009/09/nearness [...]
  24. Nearness « levlev . ideas that inspire me - 18 February 2010

    [...] nearfield swfobject.embedSWF("http://www.vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf", "vvq-261-vimeo-1", "470", "300", "9", [...]
  25. Mohammad Irshaid - Making radio tangible - 5 March 2010

    [...] is something we went on to explore in much more detail in the filmNearness, where the relationship between proximity and physical interaction is explored in [...]
  26. The Nearness of Technology | STARWORKS - 11 March 2010

    [...] interaction” — where the irony is nothing needs to touch. Read more at Touch [...]
  27. Designing with film - 6 April 2010

    [...] that map and visualise the interactive phenomena of RFID. Many of the visual/cinematic concepts for Nearness and Immaterials were invented by exploring and experimenting with [...]
  28. Snapper - Newsroom - 15 September 2010

    [...] The Touch project is amazing in how it explores the limits of these technologies and how they fit into people’s everyday understanding of the world. Check out this video on how they use contactless technology to perform their variant of a classic action sequence. [...]
  29. Interacting Without Touching | www.interactivedesign.it - 15 September 2010

    [...] a catena, credo li abbiamo visti tutti e dei più svariati tipi. Questo video realizzato da Jack Schulze e Timo Arnall vince in originalità. Tutto il sistema di reazioni gioca sul concetto di interazione senza bisogno [...]
  30. Can the mobile wallet beat the hype? | Teehan+Lax - 22 March 2011

    [...] look like when an NFC chip and reader are in proximity. They’ve been able to tease apart the nuances in the simple interactions involved in waving your device over a [...]
  31. Nearness « NarNoLin - 27 July 2011

    [...] Nearness por Touch [...]
  32. Touch at MoMA, NYC | Touch - 2 September 2011

    [...] two projects, Immaterials and Nearness, both produced with BERG, are featured as films. Both of these projects translate obscure and often [...]
  33. Nearness « POEMAS ELECTRODOMESTICOS - 26 November 2011

    [...] Touch Share this:TwitterFacebookLike this:LikeBe the first to like this post. [...]

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