design for an analogue visual telephone, with siegfried miedl and jörg lorenz

As comfortable seating furniture, zwischengesicht (literal translation of interface) provides the opportunity to become engrossed in a cosy, face to face chat. While enjoying a cold drink, one can light-heartedly discuss difficult issues or make an acquaintance in a relaxed context. Additionally, thanks to state-of-the-art mirror technology, one also has the opportunity to talk via analogue visual telephone despite being in the same place. In this era of modern communication one prefers speaking through technological interfaces, even when it is unnecessary. Therefore, zwischengesicht has been developed to make mediated communication possible in situ. The communicating parties, situated in direct proximity to each other at either end of the seating, insert their heads into the casings of the coupling – and can immediately see the communication partner at the other end of the mirror duct and start the conversation. Due to number and sophisticated arrangement of the mirrors, the inversion effect of the reflections is cancelled out. Because of this, one perceives the conversation partner as if gazing directly into his or her eyes – and yet one finds oneself in the virtual space of a communication transmitted by technological means. zwischengesicht therefore excels as a truly advanced means of communication. Appointments for chatting can be arranged directly – face-to-face and in situ; the privacy and the spatially virtual experience of technologically mediated communication are fully guaranteed.