Couch[ed] Potato by Bradley Silling, Elias Logan & Michael Clapp
Couch (verb): to lie down.

Couch (verb): express (something) in language of a specified style.

Couch[ed] Potato harnesses the energy of its namesake root to express (or couch) caloric consumption that lacks a corresponding exertion. These calories- which we assume to be absorbed rather than burned- are couched topographically, kinetically, and sonically.

The points and paths of 21 individuals within our GSD class- those who engage in eating and drinking but no exercise- create a dataset of ‘couch potatoes’ for mapping. Arranged in rings by their distance and subdivided by the 24 hours of the day, paths were lifted at points of caloric consumption. The resultant temporal and energetic landscape is subsequently ‘read’ by wheeled feelers suspended from an arm which, together with the disc below, recalls the form of a record player. When rotated beneath, the undulating surface forces steel pistons attached to these feelers upwards to contact conductive copper pads. Contact, in turn, closes a circuit wired to both the spud battery and an Arduino digital interface that voices the moments of consumption as a series of tones. In a literal reading of the ‘Rhythmanalysis’, the revolution of the disc creates an auditory metric of the timing of eating and drinking throughout the day; a caloric symphony (or cacophony) in celebration of the gluttony of our ‘couch potatoes’.

Name(s): Bradley Silling, Elias Logan & Michael Clapp
Instagram(s): @bradsilling & @m_clapp
Project name: Couch[ed] Potato
University: Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Course and Year: Mapping: Representation & Speculation – Spring 2017
Tutors: Robert Pietrusko