In a recent discussion with Jessica, and I came up with this idea for an art project. It is a blood alcohol sensor that comments on the sociological reasons that people drink alcohol. Because of their ease and inexpense, alcohol sensors have been placed on everything from cars to mobile-phones. So far these Breathalyzer uses have only been in an attempt to prevent the alcohol consumer from doing something very stupid, i.e. driving drunk or drunk dialing.
My devise would rather comment on the amount that you have drunk in comparison to the reason that you have been drinking. Let’s say that you want to have a drink before you could effectively socialize with a group of strangers—Alcohol is a social lubricant after all. My Breathalyzer would let you know when you had a sufficient amount of alcohol in your system to have a cheerful and un-self-conscious conversation with the strangers.
What if you want to dance? Well, the devise would let you know when your inhabitations were low enough…
What if you wanted to inappropriately tell someone that you loved him or her? The devise would help you along your way.
This devise would effectively be commenting on how our society treats alcohol, since it would point out the reason that people drink in the first place. “You are know drunk enough to think that public nudity is cool,” my devise would yell, or “You should call an ambulance now!” No longer will we have to subconsciously drink ourselves to a level of appropriate drunkenness the devise will guide us along our way.
Next stop iPhone application!
