Part of a project to re-imagine NYC’s street signals, Pop Pop is a ‘living’ pedestrian signal located in New York City that interacts with the street corner. Imbuing the signal with something of a human personality sees pedestrians engage with Pop Pop, which in turn responds, based on real time data at its location. Reacting to its environment, Pop Pop’s mood changes and successively prompts interactions from passers by. The project explores how connected devices (and the Internet of Things) can bring joy to our lives, but ties into the notion of Mediated Reality – referring to the ways in which devices designed to enhance or alter our senses can artificially modify human perception - also explored by Ling Tan’s Reality Mediators project.

The idea of giving the city and the objects within it a personality is an idea that was explored in projects like Hello Lamp Post, and perhaps it means we can look forward to a more interactive, enjoyable commute.