Ekkomaten: - Exploring the Echo as a Design Fiction Concept

This article addresses how the notion of the echo has worked as a design fiction concept in the crafting of the interactive installation, Ekkomaten. Ekkomaten is an affectively engaging listening machine that lets people probe the narrative potential of Store Torv, in Aarhus, Denmark. Through its physical manifestation and conceptual framing, Ekkomaten offers an auditory and situated experience of the 18th century through six site-specific echoes that engage its users as protagonists in the exploration of an imagined narrative space emerging from the intersection of fact and fiction and the infra- and extraordinary. As an electronic design object, Ekkomaten points both back and forward in time, questioning our current understanding of the 18th century, science fiction's previous visions of the future, and current ideas about possible post-digital futures.