01
The Flat Surface
Desktop or counter · 13 to 32 in
The presence on a desktop, counter, or web screen. Voice or touch interaction. Best for a first proof, a front desk, a classroom, or a donor preview.
A PastPresence line
Echoes Projects
Every place is full of voices that stopped being heard. Echoes builds public installations in which visitors talk with them: figures from a region's history, labor, folklore, and memory, authored from the record and housed in objects made of the local material. Built for museums, cities, hotels, and libraries.
Status
First commissioned installation in development: Echoes of Indiana. Additional regional concepts are in preliminary planning.
What it is
Echoes lets visitors speak with researched, authored presences from a place's history, folklore, literature, labor, and public memory. The institution defines the place, the archive, and the voices. The visitor asks the questions.
Each installation is a prepared encounter rather than a static exhibit. It pairs a conversational system, period-appropriate voice synthesis, and an expressive avatar layer with a physical object designed for the setting it inhabits.
How a visitor uses it
A visitor walks up. The idle motion resolves, and a menu of voices appears. Depending on the site, the roster holds named historical figures, composite regional archetypes, voices of local lore, and living figures where permission has been granted. The visitor chooses, and the conversation begins.
There is nothing to install and nothing to learn. Speaking is enough, and the figure answers from its own time and its own sources.
Regional concepts
Each Echoes installation is sited. The roster, voice, and material language are drawn from the place itself.
United States, Indiana
Echoes of Indiana
Commissioned, in development
First commissioned installation. An indoor holographic display object and an outdoor monolith in Indiana limestone, with a persona roster drawn from Indiana history.
United States, Springs Valley
Echoes of French Lick / West Baden
Concept
Resort, labor, and Black community voices of the Springs Valley. Indiana limestone and French Lick brick material language.
Forms of apparition
The same presence runs across a ladder of physical forms, from a counter screen to an architectural commission. A venue chooses the shape the apparition takes in the room; the frame, enclosure, material, and idle state are part of the work itself, not packaging around a monitor.
02
The Framed Portrait
Wall-hung · portrait scale
A framed display that reads as a picture until it speaks. The frame and finish are matched to the room. Suited to lobbies, reading rooms, and galleries.
03
The Lit Niche and Vitrine
Cased · tabletop to full height
The presence inside a lit case or alcove, in the furniture language of the museum. The glass and the light are part of the work.
04
The Cabinet
Enclosed object · collection scale
A closed body that holds the presence the way a reliquary holds its object. Built finish, hidden service access, a defined moment of reveal.
05
The Glasses-free Kiosk
Freestanding · 1 to 2 m
A dimensional presence visible to the unaided eye. No headgear, no instructions. A visitor walks up and the figure is simply there.
06
The Monolith
Architectural · 1.5 to 3 m and beyond
The custom architectural object in regional material: Indiana limestone, French Lick brick, or the stone of another region. Permanent commission scale, designed for its site.
07
The Worn Experience
Headset · room scale
Spatial work seen through a headset. The setting itself becomes authored: sculptural animation surrounds the visitor and resolves into a presence.
Idle state: the living object
Between conversations, the installation remains visually alive through regionally authored abstract motion: stone, water, light, pattern, paper, smoke, or other local material cues.
In museum and nonprofit contexts, the idle layer stays purely atmospheric. In commercial hospitality contexts, it can support carefully designed sponsor or partner moments. These are custom authored, not generic digital signage.
Support and graceful failure
Every Echoes installation is scoped with a fallback ladder from the start. If the live conversational system is unavailable, the piece degrades through defined modes rather than going dark.
- 1.
Live mode
Visitor speaks with the authored persona.
- 2.
Degraded conversational mode
Conversation continues at reduced fidelity if part of the primary system is unavailable.
- 3.
Prerecorded persona mode
Short authored monologues or question prompts play locally.
- 4.
Idle art mode
Regionally authored abstract motion continues so the object remains visually alive.
- 5.
Maintenance mode
Clear, dignified message for staff and visitors when the system is offline.
How a partner works with us
- 1.
Exploratory call
Site, audience, and intent. No commitment.
- 2.
Site and context brief
Architectural, historical, and stakeholder context.
- 3.
Persona and archive plan
Roster, sourcing, local review partners.
- 4.
Form factor selection
Tier and material direction matched to venue.
- 5.
Production and installation
Authoring, fabrication, voice work, install.
- 6.
Launch and ongoing support
Public opening. Support and hosting quoted by scope.
Discuss a pilot or commission
For exploratory conversations about an Echoes pilot or a site-specific commission, write to PastPresence directly.
Contact PastPresence