Kalte Ecken im Koffer: Unterschied zwischen den Versionen

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'''Software'''
'''Software'''
* Unity based self made windows app for x86_64 environment
* Unity based self made windows app for x86_64 environment
* an arduino sketch running on the panda to send the input via serial to the Unity app
* an Arduino sketch running on the Lattepanda to send the input via serial to the Unity app


== Thought about the haptics of the project ==
== Thought about the haptics of the project ==

Version vom 10. März 2021, 16:00 Uhr

Foto by Laura Alapfy

Project Description

Within 45 to 60 minutes, the participant plays a virtual audio walk through the streets of Berlin, that takes place during GDR times. It can be played anywhere, since all the equipment one needs is to be found in the prepared briefcase, which displays – amongst other things – a digital map on a screen. Like a time capsule, the briefcase invites to immerse oneself in the story of M.W., an informat of the Stasi, who gathered information on three suspects in former East-Berlin, some decades ago.

Following the voice of M.W., the person playing the briefcase steers the onscreen cursor to receive information via sound snippets and thus sets the order in which those are discovered. Each snippet poses a question. How is the participant going to proceed? Telling the truth or lying? Being a spy or rather being spied on? Which storyline will be followed? Focusing on M.W.’s own fateful actions or rather zooming in on the assumed dissident S.R. (codename “Reader”)?

With all the information one receives over time, the question continuously arises: How credible is the gathered intel? Or is it just imaginary stories that “Reader” writes? Looking at the documents through M.W.’s eyes, are the observations manipulated by the Stasi? May “Reader” himself even be an informant to the secret police, spying on M.W.?

With its wethered haptics and interior decoration, the briefcase seems to derive from a parallel universe in which the Stasi possesses today’s technology.

As part of the game “Kalte Ecken im Koffer”, the briefcase is given to the participant in a secret meeting that appears to be a hand-off by an “agent”. Afterwards, the participant has to bring the briefcase back in order to complete the mission successfully.

What's in the suitcase?

Foto by Laura Alapfy

Hardware

  • five BCD switches
  • three CD4021B shift-in register
  • 7” Monitor from waveshare
  • 4 cherry keys
  • 1 single board computer (Lattepanda)
  • anker power bank 26500 mAh
  • an old hacked GDR Walkie-Talkie
  • files, a city map of Berlin, a pen, some blank paper for notes


Software

  • Unity based self made windows app for x86_64 environment
  • an Arduino sketch running on the Lattepanda to send the input via serial to the Unity app

Thought about the haptics of the project

The suitcase should resemble a fictional device the Ministry of State Security(MfS) could have had. Therefore, I actually built in switches used by the military to dial in the codes. The walkie-talkie I used is a modded version of an original one often used by the Stasi. The goal I aimed for was a mix between authenticity and fiction. So I covered the newer tech like the touchscreen and Lattepanda with an old cover from an old Russian mobile television. The keys are cherry keys that have a certain kind of old school feeling by their mechanical feedback and their yellowish lacquer. All the files are weathered too and the pen and paper are original witnesses of the Soviet era. The object itself is the protagonist of the story and I tried to design it to trigger memories through details, textures and appearance in general. I often remember the situation in my childhood where I found specific objects of the GDR and showed them to my parents asking what is that, and they said: it's old GDR stuff. These objects are kind of charged with their long gone past.

Tutorials

How to work with BCD(binary-coded decimal) switch?

How to connect old tech with speakers to bluetooth?