A Sense Of Energy

ECDC [Energy & Co-Designing Communities]

Energy Babble is a networked audio device designed by the Interaction Research Studio to encourage low-carbon communities to engage with a wide range of voices delivering matters of energy.

The ‘Energy Babble’ is a specially designed, networked audio device that broadcasts environmental and energy related content sourced from the Internet, most notably Twitter, and also allows direct communication among its users. This content is read out by synthetic voices, including messages submitted by the volunteers, giving the entire voices equal weighting but different inflections, to create a kind of energyobsessed, automated talk radio that challenges the listener to consider a variety of viewpoints, accounts and issues associated with energy-demand reduction.

The Interaction Research Studio has deployed a total of 35 Babbles to low carbon communities across the UK as part of its work to understand their energy-demand reduction practices and knowledge. This deployment has provided us with a nuanced understanding of each community and how community members have their own unique focus and interest regarding energy, highlighting, for instance, that matters of energy encompass broader practices of sustainability as well as other entanglements with other aspects of everyday life, such as income, food, and transport.