The Drift Table

The Drift Table is an electronic coffee table that allows people to float slowly over the British landscape from the comfort of their own home. The surface of the table is sensitive to the weight of objects placed on it and uses this as an input to control the slow scroll of aerial photographs visible through a central viewport. Adding objects causes the table to speed up and ‘descend’ towards the landscape below. Progress is slow – travelling from London to Devon may take days. The current location is shown on a small screen on the side of the table. Designed long before Google Maps was available on everyone’s phone, the Drift Table creates a kind of crack in the enclosure of the home, that promotes daydreaming and imagination. It isn’t ‘for’ anything in a utilitarian sense: it provides a resource that people can use or play with as they wish.

Click here for a conference paper about the project.

Date: 2003

A photograph of the Drift Table's side view showing the small place name display
A photograph of a participant looking down into the viewport of the Drift Table
A photograph of the internal structure of the Drift Table
A photograph of a model of the Drift Table
A photograph of a participant looking down into the viewport of the Drift Table in their living room
A photograph of a card prototype of the Drift Table