Chris O'Shea

“Talk to Me explores the communication between people and things. All objects contain information that goes well beyond their immediate use or appearance. In some cases, objects like cell phones and computers exist to provide us with access to complex systems and networks, behaving as gateways and interpreters. Whether openly and actively, or in subtle, subliminal ways, things talk to us, and designers help us develop and improvise the dialogue.

The exhibition focuses on objects that involve a direct interaction, such as interfaces, information systems, visualization design, and communication devices, and on projects that establish an emotional, sensual, or intellectual connection with their users. Examples range from a few iconic products of the late 1960s to several projects currently in development—including computer and machine interfaces, websites, video games, devices and tools, furniture and physical products, and extending to installations and whole environments.”

The exhibition runs until Nov 2011 and is well worth a visit.

Sadly I couldn’t make it out to the show due to timing, so if anyone happens to take a photo of Hand from Above at Talk to Me, please do email it in.

Hand from Above @ Tweetakt

coshea — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 21:51:08 +0000

Last week saw the opening of the Tweeakt festival in Utrecht, “Holland’s national theatre festival for youth”. I was invited by Kars Alfrink, the curator of the games section of the festival, to show Hand from Above.

The piece was installed on a temporary screen, view some photos here.

For this screening, I added a magnifying glass in. This was some opening night music, with the Hand running in the background…

And some people playing around…

Launch of Body Swap

coshea — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 00:18:57 +0000

This weekend saw the launch of my latest project called Body Swap.

Commissioned by Barbican Creative Learning for the Barbican Weekender Festival 2011, a big thank you to the whole team.

Announcing Little Magic Stories

coshea — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 16:10:12 +0000

I am very happy to show my latest work Little Magic Stories, bringing the imagination of children to life through storytelling, performance and technology. More to come from this project soon.

There are some making of photos on Flickr too.

Upcoming Tweetakt

coshea — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 09:21:41 +0000

I’ve been invited to show Hand from Above at the Tweetakt festival, Utrecht Netherlands.

Tweetakt is Holland’s national theatre festival for youth.

The big hand will be on show 16th – 27th March.

I’ve also been asked to talk about the making of the project at This happened Utrecht #10, which is an honour after co-founding the event in London, and now getting to visit the event in another city.

Air Guitar coverage

coshea — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 10:53:05 +0000

I received lots of nice emails from people after I published the Air Guitar prototype with Kinect before Christmas. Many people telling me I should create it as a full game for XBox Live Arcade.

Some of the blog coverage included Gizmodo, Joystiq, Kotaku, Neotorama, Make, Crunchgear, TheHeroFeed, PSFK, Creative Review, T3, Techspot, Neurosoftware & Bitrebels to name a few.

Many bloggers asked if this demonstrated the future potential for Guitar Hero. It seems unlikely now as Activision have canned Guitar Hero (and DJ Hero), although no-one is ruling out a comeback. Of course there is still Harmonix (Rock Band / Dance Central creators) in the music genre.

Some print coverage…

An interview in brilliant games magazine Edge, March 2011 issue came out yesterday.

In January UK newspaper the Observer had an article on Kinect Hacks with a mention of Air Guitar. Read article, see photos.

Air Guitar prototype with Kinect

coshea — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 14:53:32 +0000

I have just uploaded this Air Guitar prototype using the XBox Kinect camera.

There are also other experiments in the lab too.

Lecture at AHO

coshea — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 09:27:00 +0000

Yesterday I did a guest lecture at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO), invited by Anthony Rowe. The place was packed, thanks everyone for coming.

A really nice touch for me was that they took the idea of Out of Bounds, to see through the wall with a torch, and used it on the posters around campus. So the poster would see through, showing the image of what was behind the door/walls. Thank you!