MIME

Project made in collaboration with Melissa Guenet and Max Mollon

MIME, THE RELATIONSHIP ENTERTAINER
Have you ever changed job, changed city or country?
Had enough of losing touch with your friends, lover, family?
Say hello to Mime!
Mime is a character that you share exclusively with someone who is close to you. He lives in a light bulb. His mission?
To serve as go-between to maintain your relationship “over time”, to remind you of the presence of the person who is dear to you.

Problematic
How could we bring back a close one’s presence in the home, in a futile and quotidian way? Using a calm technology, integrated to our routines and everyday object? And how could we entertain this relationship “over time”?

Existing equipments and routines
It integrates into your environment. This new-generation light bulb will fit any spotlight-type bedside lamp. It contains an LCD partly obstructing the light and projecting Mime’s silhouette. Its 3D recognition cameras allows it to interact with all kind of surfaces.
Thanks to the X10 protocol—using electric installations to reach the local internet—the bulb connects to your friend’s one and to yourMimeMobile app.

A messenger and an actor

When you leave him a message on your desk—via the MimeMobile WebApp—he’ll come and collect it, understand the mood of the message, then choose how to perform it to your correspondent.

Over time
Usual means of communication are simple tools, they don’t address the main challenge brought by distance: How to keep a distant relationship alive “over time” ?
Mime accompanies your relationship over time:
• He starts acting up if you stop calling on his services—killing time, attracts your attention, reminds you of the good old days.

• He grows in the image of your correspondence, like a relationship avatar: his character, the performances that he knows and his appearance will gradually develop.

• All Mimes start off the same, but they all end up being different.

Interaction project (2012)