Pathfinder is one out of four artifacts created as part of the the Teleflirt project, which explored alternative methods of interpersonal communication at a distance. The work was based on the paper All You Need is Love: Current Strategies of Mediating Intimate Relationships through Technology (Hassenzahl et al., 2012). The authors identify six strategies for creating relatedness through technology. The design and construction of the artifact were done by Marina Schwarz, while I handled the technological aspects (hardware and software).

The artifact enables two people to communicate through a shared pixel-based drawing and search game. First, Person A creates a drawing for Person B by coloring pixels on their device. Then, Person B searches for the drawing on their own device by moving a pen across the pixel grid. When the pen hovers over a colored pixel, it vibrates. Person B can then color in that pixel, gradually revealing the drawing one step at a time.

Pathfinder unifies three of Hassenzahl et al.’s described strategies for accomplishing relatedness: Gift Giving (one person dedicates a drawing to another), Expressivity (they can create their own visual language), and Memories (they can keep the drawings as memories).