As someone who absolutely detests Canadian winters I have a special appreciation for the following undertaking. This Much Depression is a signage and publication project by Sung Lee Design that is dedicated to raising awareness about Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) in Vancouver, British Columbia. While Vancouver is spared the snowfall that most of Canada experiences it does receive about 1.25 meters of precipitation a year and this almost exclusively comes in the form of rain. Most of this occurs during a drizzly season that spans October through March, approximately half the year. The cloud cover associated with that perma-rainfall reduces exposure to natural light and, in turn, influences the emotional well-being of the inhabitants of Vancouver. The Wikipedia link above describes some of the symptoms of SAD as "oversleeping, limited energy, an altered diet and possible depression" - a tangible shift in quality of life directly linked to environmental conditions.

What most interests me about This Much Depression is the two strategies for ambient display pictured above. On the left, a plexiglass container is placed in a public space and captures and directly quantifies rainfall. On the right, a colour gradient decal through which to read the sky and immediately assess its current state in relation to an ideal. I find this image particularly compelling, it takes an ambiguous quality of life metric and tattoos it on a transparent, public surface. This intervention forces viewers to acknowledge their emotional health and perhaps even inspires a brief moment of self-reflection. Each of these strategies creates a viewing machine with which to read the environment as well as life in the city of Vancouver.

Take a look at the project documentation for more photographs of This Much Depression as the book is quite elegant. Perhaps Tourism British Columbia will hire Sung Lee Design for an upcoming campaign. [via Notcot]

So apparently twitter is where I find all my inspiration now. Yesterday Burak Arikan shared a link on an interesting use of said microblogging platform that deserves mention. Andy Stanford-Clark, a "Master Inventor" for IBM has wired his home automation system to post updates to twitter. Earlier this year the net was abuzz with news of pothos the plant that posted to twitter when it was thirsty for water (see the MAKE post on that project) and now we have an example of an object/entity broadcasting information about a variety of states.

As illustrated by the screen capture above, Andy's house posts data about water and power usage, telecommunications and temperature updates and also issues status reports pertaining to lighting and security systems. The architectural implications of this type of ambient intelligence aggregation are quite clear but what really interests me is the idea of objects using the same networks as people to communicate. I wonder if Andy's house ever asks Andy to come home because it is lonely?

Take a look at the twitter account of Andy's house to get better acquainted with this unique undertaking.