This project was developed in collaboration with Michael Shorter, Dean Brown, Mike Vanis, Andy Shean, Liliana Piedra and Naho Matsuda. We all work at Northumbria University, but maintain studios across different locations including Newcastle, London and Liverpool.
Connected Shelf is a digitally augmented shelving system developed to explore ambient awareness within distributed design studios. Physical artefacts placed on one shelf are shared with remote studios via a fixed inward-facing camera, foregrounding objects rather than people.
The device operates slowly and peripherally, presenting traces of activity without tracking presence or productivity. Developed through workshops and autobiographical design research within a hybrid university studio context, the project examines how curated material displays can support studio culture across distance.