Hyper Essay Two: lan_mo_shu

This Season Finale live-broadcast was the culmination of a three week performance on Insta-stories via our @lan_mo_shu account.

Initially , we only had 2 crew members to help out, but there were quite a few others who joined in spontaneously on the actual day. The broadcast was done in a single take, with little to no rehearsals. Hence it was amazing to see everyone finding their place in the broadcast, helping with the setting up and the props. Our cameraman was not directed by us, but he was constantly shooting in a way that the tricks looked ‘real’ to the Third Space audience. Everyone was experiencing the event first-hand, even us, the performers.

Concept

Lan Mo Shu seeks to create illusion and plausibility for audience in the Third Space who are bounded by the lens of the broadcasting device and to encourage collaboration in the First Space to perform the acts.

We began thinking of the project to be a social broadcasting event in a similar vein as Videofreex (1969 to 1978) to start conversations. It also, unexpectedly, shaped itself into a daily commitment, although not as extensive as Jenny Cam. At first, we were performing these tricks as just two people who were, in no way whatsoever, professional magicians. Very soon, however, a spontaneous community began to grow around this simple idea. People started giving suggestions and even offering assistance in performing the tricks. We accepted their challenge to make this a daily ritual. Past a certain time of day, we would receive reminders  via the First and Third Spaces that we had not posted that day’s video. We really made these things as far as possible in the spirit of Do-It-With-Others, because that energy just kept us going.

One interesting observation to highlight would be how audience in the Third Space refuse to learn of the solutions to the tricks they saw. Similarly, the audiences in the First Space were also trying to help make the tricks convincing for those seeing them through the broadcasting lens. We found this rather motivational for us as performers and yet absurd in the sense that why would people want to help cover-up the lies of these ‘lousy magic tricks’? It seemed like plausibility of the magic was important to them, rather than the quality of the skill in execution.

Kaboom! Concept development and prototyping (Fabian and Zhou Yang)

Project description:

The idea is inspired by the traditional game catching. The game will consists of two teams preferably equal number of people on both sides. Each side will be wearing slippers with LED lights of different colors to differentiate from the other team. (Red and Blue) The objective of the game is to turn the LED lights of the opposite team into the other color. (Red to blue or vice versa.) They can do it by attempting to position their LED light in front of the light sensors placed at the back of the slippers players are all wearing. The game ends when one side of the team had all their members’ LED light changed color.

Areas of changes/improvements in concept:

Since the start of the development process we had make the following changes /improvements to the prototype:

  1. We had changed the medium from shoes to slippers to create a more comical image of our prototype since it is designed for a game.
  2. Change in the sensors was also made as we realized the player catching another player has the tendency to “kill” himself/herself if he/she stomps his/her feet as it might trigger his/her own LED light. Therefore, light sensors are used instead of the players.
  3. The format of the game is changed as well. Before this, the game consisted of catch, healer and the rest of the players. However, we realized the structure of the game is not workable. For example, what if the catcher catch another player and he/she turns into the catcher. Does that particular person start catching people? If so how does the healer “heal” him/her. The conflict in gameplay caused us to change the gameplay into two teams of players. The two teams will try to change the color of the LED light of the opposite team.
  4. There will be a timing the led lights can be lighted up. It will be triggered preferably by a button the player can operate. It will have a cool down period. Therefore, the player needs to time when he/she wants to light his/her LED light when approaching a player from the opposite team. If time incorrectly, he/she will be at a vulnerable position to be “attacked” by a player(s) from the opposite team.

Process:

Testing out the blue and red LED lights.

Fixing the LED lights onto the slippers for testing.

Assembling the arduino set up on the slippers.

Major issues:

We faced the following problems while prototyping:

1. The LED lights were unstable. They were showing random colors and blinking in random manners.

2. The LED lights were not responsive when we interacted with it.

These are some of the issues we faced while building our prototype. After troubleshooting, we realized most of the problems were solved after we change some of the parts as they are aging and thus malfunctioning.

3. Due to time constraints and our lack of knowledge and practice in Arduino we could not get the light sensors to work. In the end, we created a button function for the set up to mimic the triggering of the LED lights when the light sensor is activated.

References:

https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Control-an-RGB-LED-Strip-Arduino-Tutorial/

https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/gol73/innovation-lab-5-push-button-rgb-led-color-change-6f4453

Our code:

Project testing:

From the video, the LED lights are changing colors through the press of buttons to mimic the triggering of light sensors which will result in color change. However, we are having difficulty to make the LED lights response in a consistent manner.

Kaboom! Concept and further refinement (Fabian and Zhou Yang)

Kaboom!

Initial idea and sketch

The idea is inspired by the traditional game catching. The catcher will wear shoes with red LED lights. The healer will wear shoes with yellow LED lights. The rest of the players will wear shoes with orange LED lights. All the shoes will have sound sensors attached to them. The catcher upon getting close to a player will stomp his/her shoes. If the shoes of the catcher and his/her victim are close enough, the sound sensors will be triggered. The LED lights of the victim will change. The healer can change the players that are caught through stomping his/her shoes near the affected players to “save” him/her.

Further development

After discussion, we decided to use slippers instead of shoes. We feel the use of slippers produces a more comical effect as compared to shoes. It adds to the fun in our proposed game. At the same time, we also decided to use light sensors instead of sound sensors to trigger the change in color of the LED lights. We realized if sound sensors are used there is a possibility of the catcher “committing suicide” by stomping his/her slippers near his/her victim. The sound he/she produced with his/her slippers will also trigger his/her own slippers. Therefore, we decided to use light sensors instead.

LED Strips Idea Generation (Fabian and Zhou Yang)

Team members: Zhou Yang and Fabian

We were tasked to generate ideas to explore the possibilities we can create with LED strip.

The following are the ideas we generated:

Idea 1:

The LED strip is used as markers on a table to indicate that a seat is taken by someone. The inspiration comes from people using tissue paper packs to indicate a seat is taken. We feel it will be interesting to use LED strips to indicate instead.

Idea 2:

This is a game concept with players playing tug of war with the heartbeat. There will be sensors recording the player’s heart rate through the pulse and it will be reflected on the LED strip. The higher heart rate, the more LED lights it will occupy to the opposite direction. Both sides will compete who has the higher heart rate. Once either side has his/her LED lights representing the heart rate reaching the other end, he/she is the winner. In order for the heart rate to increase, the pair can perform activities such as watching a horror movie or going for a jog.

Idea 3:

We got inspiration from the magic wands of Harry Potter. The LED strips will be on the magic wands of the players indicating their life points. A library of words will be loaded on the Arduino program and into the LED strip set up on the magic wands. The player can attack another player through shouting words in the working band loaded on the Arduino set up. The set up will consist of sound sensors to detect the sounds produced by the players. The lights on the LED strips will be activated by the sound produced by players. The more difficult a word is the more damage it will “inflict” on other players. A player “dies” once all his/her lights on the LED strip is lighted up.

Idea 4:

The idea consists of installations with flashlight equipped with sensors. Once the sensors detect people walking past them, the flashlight will be activated and produce flashes on the passing people. The idea is inspired by traffic camera catching speeding vehicles.

Idea 5:

The idea is inspired by the traditional game catching. The catcher will wear shoes with red LED lights. The healer will wear shoes with yellow LED lights. The rest of the players will wear shoes with orange LED lights. All the shoes will have sound sensors attached to them. The catcher upon getting close to a player will stomp his/her shoes. If the shoes of the catcher and his/her victim are close enough, the sound sensors will be triggered. The LED lights of the victim will change. The healer can change the players that are caught through stomping his/her shoes near the affected players to “save” him/her.

Narratives for Interaction Sharing: Firewatch

Firewatch is an indie adventure game developed by Campo Santo. You took on the role of Henry who decided to take on the job as a fire lookout in the woods to get away from the hectic city life after his wife passed away. His only contact with the rest of the world is Delilah, his supervisor. Strange things begin to happen during his work which forced him to investigate. Throughout the investigations, he will account various challenges, and you must make decisions based on his interpretation of the situation. 

I feel that one of the reasons that draw me to Firewatch is its game environment. I love the art style of the gaming environment. The natural surroundings that you are in are well crafted and feel immersive. The realism in the surrounding light during a different time of the day is an impressive part of the game. The sounds of nature such as the sound of running water, birds chirping, wind howling and the rustling of leaves all add on to the realistic and inviting feel of the game. It makes you feel that you are in the wild interacting with nature. The attention to details and the effort put in creating the overall immersive gaming environment engage you. It makes you want to explore the places around you and discover new things. The game brings joy in seeing new places and gives many incentives for you to set into the unknown.

Henry’s relationship with Delilah is also another area of the game that interests me. I feel that the use of walkie-talkie as the primary form of communication between the two characters is refreshing. Through their conversation over the walkie-talkie, they slowly and patiently build up their trust and understanding with each other. The lack of face to face communication did not affect their relationship which I feel is very intriguing. The conversions between them are also personal and down to earth. It also allows you to build a personal understanding and connection with them. Over time, it makes you feel that they are people you know. The sentimental values created by the human conversations will trigger the emotional side of you.

Overall I feel Firewatch is a great first person adventure game. It prompts you to explore and discover new territories through creating meaningful interactions with the gaming world. The character development is fantastic. With merely the communication over the walkie-talkie, it allows you to feel engage in the connection between Henry and Delilah. It is a game worth playing and spending your time on.

Narratives for Interaction Sharing: The Train

The train is a simple yet interesting text based interactive web story. The story is about you having a date with a girl, and you have to find your way home. In the beginning, the girl you have a date with will take to you to destiny. When she leaves, you have to find your way home through making a series of choices in which will affects the outcome of the ending. There is a total of ten different endings for the players to explore. This interactive project showcases the power of storytelling. Through using purely text, it can engage the player to go the entire flow of the story. It also creates curiosity within the players which make them replay the interactive story to discover the other different endings. 

This is the link for the website:

https://herringblue.github.io/content/train/index.html

Narratives for Interaction: Documentation and Progress XI

PROJECT OCCUPATION

Goh Cher See | Nicholas Makoto | Zhou Yang

These are the scenes for the ending of the game. It will consists of a final event which will provide the player with three choices. Each choice will leads to a different ending. There will be three different endings in total. 

Narratives for Interaction: Documentation and Progress X

PROJECT OCCUPATION

Goh Cher See | Nicholas Makoto | Zhou Yang

*UPDATE*

These are the trial scenes for our game project. These scenes tell the story of how sook ching was being carried out. We want to show the fear and uncertainties it created during that period. It also shows the moral dilemma the main character had to go through when faced with people he had a personal connection with.

 

Max Assignment 5: Lozano-Hemmer’s Shadow Boxes + cv.jit.centroids Documentation

For the Lozano-Hemmer’s Shadow Boxes patch, I played around with the values to create different effects for the visual output. I combined a cv.jit.centroids patch with it to add sound effect to the overall patch. The following is the documentation for the combined patch. Enjoy! 😀

The cv.jit.centroids patch can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4F34FL8BN4

Max Assignment 4: Face Tracker Video Documentation (With Video Velocity)

For the face tracking patch, I learnt how to map the face of Will Smith on top of my face for visual output. I added the video velocity effect with cv.jit.HSflow to see how it will work out with the face tracking patch. It managed to create some beautiful  and interactive effects. The following is the documentation for the combined patch. Enjoy! 😀

The patch for the effect can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBOwZVyQG7o