Vendmaster is an augmented candy machine that taps into the ubiquitous culture of vending to create an alternative stage, an unusual encounter between a machine and a human user to play a language game in public.

Vendmaster addresses the lack of ability to put ourselves into the perspectives of others. The game highlights the experience of non-native speakers who struggle to speak the language of the other in their everyday.

Vendmaster intends to make a social and political commentary on the use of language in establishing boundaries among people and articulate on the different experiences of language in the city discussed in relation to Bourdieu’s notion of linguistic capital and Wittgenstein's language games.

Exhibition:
Part of ‘Toward the Sentient City’ Open Archive, The Architectural League, NY, September 17 - November 7, 2009.

URL:
Project Site

Documentation:
Quicktime video

Publications
Vendmaster (PDF)
In the proceedings of the "Performative Architecture: Architecture and Stages in the Experience City, International Conference, Aalborg, Denmark, 3-4 September 2009.