The Sounds of Togetherness

Abstract

When people live in a home with others, they feel connected through passive, subtle signs of togetherness. Feeling co-present and connected over distance is a challenge, especially when living across different timezones. A key challenge when designing for communication over timezones is the difficulty of arranging synchronous communication, which makes traditional methods like phone conversations or video calls difficult. Additionally, the richness of passive, ambient togetherness is lost through these communication methods. We investigate the role of sounds in passive togetherness in co-located homes, and speculate about their implications for asynchronous design for togetherness over distance.