Travel Companion

As promised, here is the finished prototype no. 1 of my Travelcompanion:

The core is a skeleton of wood. Just to give some basic structure for its way to move.


Around this a layer of wool, tightly packed with a felting needle.


Then a more fluffy layer of wool to allow manipulation of the surface.


The outside layer is a skin of wax. It gets softer and sticky with heat and hard when it's cold.


The last "layer" it needs, which I've just started working on, is a number of mechanical instruments or tools, that will attach themselves to the wax surface and support different sub-programs. This can be help carrying it, protect fragile imprints, heat it, make signs and traces in it, etc. These can be taken on and off so the Travelcompanion can be modified for specific tasks/walks.

When it's brought along walking through the city it will take shape and impressions from the way it's carried and surfaces it's pressed against or dropped onto. Thus the first purpose of it is to as a registrant the walk.
The second (or perhaps this is in fact the first) purpose is as a medium through which I will start seeing the well known city with new eyes. In other words, help defamiliarize the city as discussed in my posts on the term ostranenie, here and here. And quite possibly, people who see me walking around, carrying this strange object, will also have an experience of defamiliarization. Let's see what will happen.