The Gen XY Lifestyle

Street Furniture Will Come to Life This Weekend

By Justin Choo | October 7, 2015 0 Comments

From 10 to 18 October, you might find something a little different about the lamp posts you come across, and you may never look at street furniture the same way ever again.

Hello Lamp Post is one of the exhibits featured in FutureEverything Singapore, as part of the upcoming Festival of Tech organised by the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore. FutureEverything is an international art and digital innovation festival that celebrates the arts, music and digital culture.

Hello Lamp Post is a fully-working, what-if demonstration of man-machine relationships that are possible in the future. Strike up conversations with lamp posts, fire hydrants, post office boxes, bus stops, and even the Merlion, by SMS-ing them. Ask them anything on your mind, and you’ll be surprised by how well it’ll hold its own; it’ll even bring up previous conversations with others too. The video below, of the same project done in Austin, illustrates the concept.

FutureEverything is an offbeat approach by IDA to raise awareness about the Smart Nation initiative. It seeks to capture the public’s imagination, and spark conversation about future technology and its potential by framing it in the context of our daily lives.

The Chronarium, for example, addresses a very familiar issue and problem in today’s fast paced world – sleep. It’s often something we give up in favour of making time for other things that are more important, be it work or personal commitments.

Exploring the role of public space as a shared resource for health and well-being, The Chronarium functions as a public sleep “laboratory.” It’s deliberately placed in a busy shopping mall – The Cathay – to question conventional wisdom as to what are optimum sleeping conditions, and offers an interesting alternative through an immersive audio-visual environment.

As you relax inside a hanging quaternary net that gently rocks and moves inside a textile-based space, you will experience different environmental stimuli designed to reset your internal circadian rhythm for a more harmonious sleep: as you get cozy, a cyclical audio-visual programme comprising of pink noise and a wash of coloured light facilitates deep relaxation and rest over a 15 minute period. Is this the catnap of the future?

To learn more about FutureEverything Singapore, the Festival of Tech, as well as its activities and various updates, go to www.FestivalofTech.sg.