Tree-mounted machines let anyone knock on wood from anywhere in the world
Tree-mounted machines connect to web app to let users knock on wood remotely
Knock On Wood is an internet-connected device that performs the familiar gesture of knocking on wood, letting users follow the superstition remotely when no wood is nearby. Through a web app, a digital button triggers a physical knocker strapped to a tree in real time. Each machine talks to a central server, so someone in a Tokyo café can set off a knocker in New York's Central Park. It's part of the series Machines Responding to Superstitions by designers Shashwath Santosh and Nithin Eluvathingal.
Through a web app, users press a digital button to trigger a physical device that knocks on wood in real time.
- jtickle
This seems exactly like the sort of shenanigan that would piss off rather than appease the wood spirits.
- nkmnz
What’s next? Touch-grass-as-a-Service?
- weirdish
I'd only buy this if it included a subscription-based AI upsell to predict and adapt to my adjusting superstition needs over time
- yetihehe
Knocking on wood was about knocking on unpainted wood, so that you have actual direct physical contact with wood. Remote knocking seems to go in the other direction...
- krunck
There are societies where rather than knocking on wood one turns one's head and spits. For example: "Grandad is looking well after his fall, let's hope that doesn't happen again. Ptew!"
Looking for this in app form.