Creating Local Community Space With ‘Yellow Chair’

London-based designers/artists Anab Jain and Tom Jenkins are looking for two households with Wi-Fi for an art project called Yellow Chair. The project is all about how domestic wireless networks can be built to create a lively community space.

The duo are to install their Yellow Chair at ISEA San Jose in August. Here’s how the project would go: the attention-grabbing yellow chair is placed on the street and advertises an open Wi-Fi network from which people can access a “yellow chair” website.  Anab had tried it outside her London home last year. Passers-by who dare sit on the yellow chair can gain access to the shared folder on Anab’s computer with new and enticing offers or services daily. The San Jose version will recreate the same community space but with wider range of interaction – sharing, ideas, questions, answers, recipes, music, etc., both around that chair and with another yellow chair community in another neighbourhood across town.

Anab recounts her first yellow chair experience:

At the start of the experience I was frustrated and ready to give up. Many people in the neighbourhood and passers-by were cynical and unfriendly. I was jokingly told by one neighbour, that because of this activity, the real estate prices of the building would crash, as no one would want to live near such crazy neighbours. However, as people began to sit on the chair and engage in conversations, the situation began to change. Over the next few days I became identified as “the girl with the yellow chair”. People passing by would stop to ask how I was getting on and I began to enjoy the experience. Immediate feedback from people gave me the opportunity and flexibility to constantly improvise. The idea of placing “offers” attracted more people and I realised how the design of a service can grow and develop in a short span of time. Importantly, I got to know my neighbours, and met some of the people who had been “stealing” my wireless network.

London-based designers/artists Anab Jain and Tom Jenkins are looking for two households with Wi-Fi for an art project called Yellow Chair. The project is all about how domestic wireless networks can be built to create a lively community space.

The duo are to install their Yellow Chair at ISEA San Jose in August. Here’s how the project would go: the attention-grabbing yellow chair is placed on the street and advertises an open Wi-Fi network from which people can access a “yellow chair” website.  Anab had tried it outside her London home last year. Passers-by who dare sit on the yellow chair can gain access to the shared folder on Anab’s computer with new and enticing offers or services daily. The San Jose version will recreate the same community space but with wider range of interaction – sharing, ideas, questions, answers, recipes, music, etc., both around that chair and with another yellow chair community in another neighbourhood across town.

Anab recounts her first yellow chair experience:

At the start of the experience I was frustrated and ready to give up. Many people in the neighbourhood and passers-by were cynical and unfriendly. I was jokingly told by one neighbour, that because of this activity, the real estate prices of the building would crash, as no one would want to live near such crazy neighbours. However, as people began to sit on the chair and engage in conversations, the situation began to change. Over the next few days I became identified as “the girl with the yellow chair”. People passing by would stop to ask how I was getting on and I began to enjoy the experience. Immediate feedback from people gave me the opportunity and flexibility to constantly improvise. The idea of placing “offers” attracted more people and I realised how the design of a service can grow and develop in a short span of time. Importantly, I got to know my neighbours, and met some of the people who had been “stealing” my wireless network.