Stephen Willats
Meta Filter , 1973-1975
Meta Filter (1973–75) is an interactive learning system allowing two people, who may or may not know each other, to build an intangible model of society – a model society – through mutual agreement. Seated on opposite sides of a console that can be installed in any public venue, both operators encounter the same sequence of problems. These are formulated in the Problem Book and visualised in sixty slides of a group of eight people reflecting five kinds of group behaviour: ‘reference’, ‘social provision’, ‘survival’, ‘projectional’ and ‘institutional’. The problems are organised into twelve areas of increasing complexity; in addition, each problem is accompanied by statements from two different reference groups who were consulted during the construction of the work.