The Iso-phone is a telecommunications concept providing a service that can be described simply as a meeting of the telephone and the isolation tank. By blocking out peripheral sensory stimulation and distraction, the Iso-phone creates a telephonic space of heightened purity and focus.
The user wears a helmet that blocks out all unnecessary sensory input whilst maintaining the head above the surface of the water. This water is heated to body temperature thus blurring the boundaries between the user’s body and the external physical environment. In combination, a space is created providing a pure, distraction free environment for making a telephone call. The only sensory stimulus presented is a two-way voice connection to another person using the same apparatus in another location. The recent boom in mobile telephone usage has led to telecommunication being practiced in an efficient rather than a qualitative manner. Wireless technologies have brought about profound changes in the way interact. The cultural assimilation of the mobile is now at a point where its ubiquity permits function with little contextual discrimination and it’s portable nature has led to a blurring of the real world with the telephonic. This techno-schizophrenic existence conflicts with the very distinctions that make communication necessary and expressive. The aim of this project was firstly to offer an alternative take on the telephonic experience and secondly to generate discussion with a wide audience on how emerging technologies affect culture and human behaviour and experience.
Reference: Auger, J., Loizeau, J., Agamanolis, S. 2003 Iso-phone: a total submersion telephonic experience
