‘Nora & Torvald’
By rootoftwo (John Marshall and Cezanne Charles)
Birch plywood, Arduino micro-controllers, sensors, speakers, audio.
‘Nora & Torvald’ embeds sensor-controlled digital media in custom-designed pieces of furniture. The starting point of this work is a re-reading of Henrik Ibsen’s play “A Doll’s House” (1879) to explore user-object relationships.

There is a photocell embedded in the seat of the armchair ‘Torvald’. This sends a message when it registers darkness (i.e. when someone sits down). This triggers a randomly selected line of dialogue (one of ten) from the play to be played as audio. There is an accelerometer in the rocking stool ‘Nora’. When she is rocked this triggers a randomly selected line of her dialogue (also one of ten) to be played as audio.

A&D 5th Annual Faculty Exhibition, Slusser Gallery, 2000 Bonisteel Blvd. 1st floor.

‘Nora’ and ‘Torvald’ both use the Adafruit Wave Shield for Arduino Kit.

Sample dialogue (when 2 people are sitting):

T: This time I needn’t sit here and be dull all alone. You have just come at a fortunate moment.
N: It’s wonderful! Wonderful things don’t happen every day. Take this armchair; I will sit here in the rocking-chair.
T: Has anyone been here?
N: What a thoughtless creature I am, chattering away like this.
T: You can depend on me.
N: It will make me so happy to be of some use to you.
T: Don’t disturb me. Look straight at me.
N: I am in a silly mood today. Come and sit down here, and I will show you something.
T: How unreasonable and how ungrateful you are. What sort of madness is this! Can you not understand your place in your own home?
N: What do you want of me? Have you been sitting here waiting for me?
T: I may as well tell you plainly, we were once on very intimate terms with one another.
N: You don’t understand me, and I have never understood you either.
T: Explain yourself better. I don’t understand you. Can I never be anything more than a stranger to you?
N: You must simply listen to what I say. I have existed merely to perform tricks for you.
T: You are right, it has affected us both. Something ugly has come between us. Where are you going?
N: Isn’t there one thing that strikes you as strange in our sitting here like this.
T: Here you shall stay and give me an explanation.
N: Does it not occur to you that this is the first time we two… have had a serious conversation?
T: On the contrary, I feel extraordinarily lively. And you? You really look both tired and sleepy.

There is a little photocell embedded in the seat of the armchair ‘Torvald‘. This sends a message when it registers darkness. The webcam then takes an image. There is an accelerometer in the rocking stool ‘Nora‘. When she is rocked this triggers a randomly selected line of her dialogue to be played as audio. A line of text from the play is also uploaded to the website via Twitter. There is a passive infrared sensor on the underside of the table ‘Krogstad‘. As the table is approached the sensor triggers a randomly selected line of his dialogue to be played as audio. And the lamp ‘Mrs. Linde‘ changes color from white to red.

Thanks to PLY Architecture and Metropolitan Architecture Practice for collaborating with us and designing ‘Mrs. Linde’ and ‘Krogstad’. Thanks also to Michael Rodemer and Sherman Finch for help with coding and electronics. We are also grateful to Trust for Mutual Understanding for supporting our travel to Macedonia and everyone at Line in Skopje for all the help.

This is a video made from some of the images captured by Torvald during the Chain Reaction festival 11-14 September, 2008, Skopje, Macedonia.

The project website was projected opposite the work:

Even when the work was turned off, people still made use of it:

There is a little photocell embedded in the seat of the armchair ‘Torvald’. This sends a message when it registers darkness. The webcam then takes an image. There is an accelerometer in the rocking stool ‘Nora’. When she is rocked this triggers a randomly selected line of her dialogue to be played as audio. A line of text from the play is also uploaded to the website via Twitter. There is a passive infrared sensor on the underside of the table ‘Krogstad’. As the table is approached the sensor triggers a randomly selected line of his dialogue to be played as audio. And the lamp ‘Mrs. Linde’ changes color from white to red. We plan to make the Arduino code, circuit diagrams and CAD files for ‘Torvald’ and ‘Nora’ available on the website.

Thanks to PLY Architecture and Metropolitan Architecture Practice for collaborating with us and designing ‘Mrs. Linde’ and ‘Krogstad’. Thanks also to Michael Rodemer and Sherman Finch for help with coding and electronics. We are also grateful to Trust for Mutual Understanding for supporting our travel to Macedonia and everyone at Line in Skopje for all the help.

Setting up was not plain sailing. We had to improvise and install our own power. So there are more extension cords visible than I am happy with. Also, we fried 2 electrical transformers and ended up using locally bought speakers that don’t sound as good as the ones we brought. Anyway, the site is online and you can see updates from Nora and Torvald there: http://www.etdukkehjem.net/

This is Krogstad talking. He is speaking selected lines from the character of Nora (Helmer from the Henrik Ibsen play ‘A Doll’s House’). The project uses the Arduino Wave Shield from Adafruit Industries. The table will get a custom-designed top that will hide most of the gubbings. The next step is to hook the motion sensor into this set up…

This version is hooked up with a passive infrared sensor – this might change for the final version.

Et Dukkehjem Audio Test from John Marshall on Vimeo.

This is Krogstad (with a temporary cardboard top) talking. He is speaking selected lines from the character of Nora Helmer from the Henrik Ibsen play ‘A Doll’s House’. The project uses the Arduino Wave Shield from Adafruit Industries. The next step is to add the PIR sensor back into this set up…

Torvald and Nora are now complete. We are now working on the electronics for the piece and on Dr. Rank.

Roger and Kyle have been working on Krogstad:

Karl has been working on Mrs. Linde:

Here is a picture of a test of the electronics for Krogstad:

This version is hooked up with a passive infrared sensor – this might change for the final version.