This research-design project creates a new application for a tangible interactive device called a “Tilty Table.”  The application enables the collaborative browsing of a database of images of panels of The AIDS Memorial Quilt that have been “virtually stitched together.”

By tilting the tabletop, users can explore the expansive Virtual Quilt.  By twisting the tabletop, users move between levels ranging from an extreme wide-angle view, down to a close-up of a single panel.  When a user rests on one image, additional information about quilt blocks is revealed: names, dates, geographic location.  The size and form of the device encourages collaborative browsing in public venues.

This project demonstrates the notion of a cultural technology that was designed explicitly to the circulate an archive of historical images to a broader, public audience.  Specific innovations include  the creation of a new instance of a public interactive that encourages collaborative browsing of large spatialized images from an extensive database.  The tangible interface involves the users’ body in the interaction with digital material.  The horizon of this project seeks to contribute to our understanding of the way in which mixed-media technologies (digital and tangible) can augment practices of cultural remembrance.

The project is supported by a Digital Start-Up Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and by a Grantfrom  USC’s Fund for the Advancement of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.  The project involves a collaboration with the Names Foundation in Atlanta, Georgia, Onomy Labs in Menlo Park, CA, and The Annenberg Innovation Lab at Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism at USC.