One of the ideas we had for the interactive installation in the train station, was that a ticket could have an RFID tag embedded within it, so that it was picked up by a sensor when you stand by a certain area of the dome. A small portion of the dome would then display the information for your journey, like the time of departure, platform number, time of arrival at your destination, etc.
So, I'm borrowing Simon's idea of artefact tracing, with the subject being a train ticket!
The ticket is purchased in one of these ways:
- It's bought online, to be picked up at the station from the ticket machine on the day of travel, or posted to the buyer.
- It's bought at the station from the person in the ticket booth.
- It's bought from the ticket machine,
So now we have a ticket, let's see what happens next!
- The ticket usually gets put in a pocket or purse. I usually put mine in my pocket if I'm wearing trousers, and if not I usually put it in an easily accessible area of my bag.
- If my train is in a few minutes from when I bought my ticket, I don't bother to put it away and just keep it in my hand - either way the ticket will remain on the passengers person.
- The passenger might wonder around in the shops for a bit, or even leave the station if they've come to pick up a ticket for a journey that's later in the day.
After wondering around for a bit, the person usually proceeds though the ticket barrier. Maybe this could be the 'check point', the place where the RFID tag reader is in our theoretical installation? Though it might not work if the person is in a hurry - usually when you go past the barrier you're next stop is the platform where your train is. Having people hanging around the barriers is probably a bad idea on second thought.
Then the person usually heads onto their train, or stop to buy a drink from one of the expensive vending machines on the platform. Then they hop onto the train, and travel away into the distance, taking their ticket with them.
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