The thesis project by Interactive Design Institute Ivrea laureates Giorgio Olivero and Peggy Thoeny explores design in the realm of social interaction within the context of public space, specifically, a café.

TABLEPORTATION is a local media system designed to fuse mediated and physical space, to experiment and play with social boundaries, to encourage and allow new forms of interplay between people at different tables in the café.

Video cameras monitor the table surfaces, transforming the originally semi-private space into a stage upon which are played out performances of shifting proximities. This unobstusive system ab/uses the technology of surveillance to allow patrons from different tables observe each other, be observed and get in touch.

Interactive light table surfaces enhance, stimulate and provoke self-expression, collective creations and playful communication.

The café becomes a collective playground where the user is participant and producer rather than merely consumer of space and time.