What happens when objects seem to think? When we step into their silence and hear it speak back?
Tender Things is an interactive installation exploring our willingness to connect with inanimate objects, especially when they carry symbols of mortality. Three physical light-box characters form a silent trio: Skeleton (dead), Panda (endangered, running out of time), Robot (not alive). Each is built as a glowing pixel sculpture, approximately human-height, standing in a darkened space. The interaction is proximity-based. Move closer to a character, and their unique soundtrack intensifies. Distance becomes an emotional dial. Across the floor between them, words drift in projected light. These aren't dialogue. They're existential murmurs. Each character is pondering their state of being (dead, dying, never-alive), and those thoughts drift between them like a shared consciousness. When you step on a word, you're completing a thought, making their interior monologue audible. It's less about message corruption, more about making the invisible visible. You're literally stepping into their contemplation. You become the conductor. The room becomes a living meditation. Your body completes the circuit between these three figures at different thresholds of being. How it works: Approach a character → their soundscape grows louder Watch the floor → words swim between the figures Step on a word → it illuminates and whispers Move through the space → you activate their interior life with your presence Created for FEED Festival, 2004.
Credits
Created for FEED Festival, 2004. Concept, design, and build Hi-ReS!