The Dialing Booth

Summary

The Dialing Booth is an interactive experience where participants are invited to meet new people through cone booths.

Concept

The Dialing Booth is an interactive blind dating experience where participants are invited to meet new people through cone booths. By using our dating expert approved system, participants will have the opportunity to focus on building real connections through voice and playful prompts, removing artificial barriers that could prevent them from truly knowing each other such as appearance, real life facts, and criminal records. Note: we are not responsible for the emotional safety of our participants past the initial voice screening experience. Thank you for your participation!

Opportunity

Our project explores the challenge of building real human connection in a time where dating is often shaped by quick swipes, filtered images, and surface-level judgments. Many people feel like they are stuck in a cycle of conversations that never go anywhere or matches that don’t lead to anything meaningful. The opportunity here is to rethink how people meet and get to know each other by focusing on voice, emotion, and conversation instead of artificial factors such as appearances or history of past crimes and other uncomfortable life details.

Prototype Type

Participant-based Interactive installation.

User Experience (UX)

The experience starts when 2 people approach our sculpture. First, they will each look into an end of our life-sized inverted cones structure that converges inwards. Both participants cannot see the other person’s face Through the cone, they will have a certain amount of time (TBD) to get to know each other by asking and answering questions. Throughout the conversation they will repeatedly be interupted by voices with fun facts about each other (true or not!) and pre concieved conceptions that usually go through one’s mind during a date to tense things up and to promote engagement in a playful way. We want the users to feel intrigued and excited, with nothing to rely on but their own voices to create a connection.

Installation Requirements

A physical space for two medium sized connected booths, two 1-meter cones, one blue tooth connected speaker, one laptop for p5.js.

Team Members

Mirette Dahab Shahd Nigim Shamsa Alawadhi Victor Alves Gomes Nadu

For the class “Communication and Technology” with Professor Sara Niroobakhsh.