Das Körperrauschen is an interactive and sensitive installation in which a sculpture (“the device”) is placed on a 1m tall stand and lighted from the top by a warm light. This sculpture has the dimensions of a bust (ca. H 30cm, W 40cm, L 60 cm) and is made of stag leather, which is flexible and resistent in the same time. It has a generous and wavy shape.

When you get closer, the device reacts with some variation of sounds, lights and heat. You can touch it, brush it, caress it, massage it and even hit it. The device interprets each gesture and it answers accordingly. If you hurt it, it will hurt you, caress it and it will calm down.

Das Körperrauschen comes from the German das Rauschen, which means “small sound”, “murmur” and der Körper, the body. Literally, then, “the murmur of the body”. This installation’s aim is to let us think about our sensitive relationship with devices. The sensitive devices market nowadays is dominated by displays : flat, cold and luminous surfaces without any particular texture. They create gestures mainly intended to (badly) replace a mouse pointer. The touchless interfaces, like the Nintendo Wii or the Microsoft Kinect, break any kind of haptic feedback with the device. Hands are used to create all kinds of interactive scenario, without any contact. However, hands are not only able to move in the space: they also are fitted with a great sensitive sense, that has been forgotten by those new devices…

Das Körperrauschen investigates another point of view than these touchless devices : a backward step to contact, the touch comes back in the center of the interaction. The word “touch” takes into account everything the fingers can feel: global shape, local relief, texture, temperature, material…