Called “Attachment,” it’s the Internet-of-Things message in a bottle; a “poetic machine” connected to a website that allows you to send messages and media into the air.
Attachment background
“Attachment” is a product of the mind of Swiss designer David Colombini, who came up with the idea as part of his 2014 senior project at ECAL University of Art and Design, Lausanne. It was intended to be a statement against the current use of smart technologies for communication.
In October, 2014, Colombini’s creation won the Migros Culture Percentage grant for Digital Culture.
How Attachment works
On the website, you enter your name and email, then add a message, upload an image, or link a video. Our message? Get your free helium quote here!
The machine, wherever it is at the time, then engraves your message and code into a thin sheet of balsa wood and stuffs it into a small cylinder that is connected to a biodegradable helium balloon. Then the machine releases the helium balloon to the skies.
The hope is that once the helium balloon eventually pops and falls back to earth, someone will find the message and code and report it back to the sender using the attachment.cc website.
Launched and found
Currently, a couple of messages have been found and reported on the global map page. One of the two balloons launched from Zurich, Switzerland on April 16, 2014 was found in Slovakia the next day, the other in Poland on April 18, 2014.
Sources: attachment.cc, davidcolombini.com