“The Table of Discomfort” is a context-aware system. The idea is to seat two strangers face to face and ask them to simply look into each other’s eyes. Inspired by The Artist is Present, by Marina Abramović, the project reactivates the table as an instrument of intimacy and discomfort, rather than removing it as an obstacle between bodies. In this forced silence, the system senses and responds through several sensors distributed above and below the table, translating physical discomfort into movement, image and sound. This data is further merged with information gathered in real time from the internet, seismic, solar and marine data, linking the intimate gesture of two strangers to planetary phenomena unfolding, invisibly, on a global scale.