This post is all about construction!
Recap
We started out the whole process as a way of furthering a brief exercise we conducted with this simple set-up we presented in class about a month ago. We continued to toy with the perception of seeing double, how we may alter the way this looks, sort of spinning away from and returning to our normal human vision.
Following which, came the idea and design for a set of two vehicles in which two persons could play a game of ‘catch’, but have them perceive their surroundings to the effect we gleaned from the afore-mentioned exercise. These were some rough sketches of the proposed vehicles we had in mind.
Process
We started with nailing together two thick pile wood board together with 4 bed frames that I found when my neighbour was throwing away their bed 3 years ago.
Next, started to create the main body for the vehicles, taking into account that it will have to carry the weight of the average person lain down on the board. We procured sturdy wooden boards and sticks for that purpose. A sort of elevated curved platform was desired so as to afford a comfortable angle for the viewing of the screens. We had to test the height of the head as well as the ideal distance away from our heads so that the phone won’t affect our sight (negative impact on our eyes)
Here are some time lapses of the process:
We started off with the front of the board to construct an elevated height for our heads to rest on. These blocks of wood was bought in a hardware shop near Pioneer MRT. We had to walk 2.5km back to ADM as these 2.6m wooden planks did not allow us to board the bus. We bought a total of 8 wooden planks which cost $2.30 (pretty cheap considering their quality and they are pre cut).
We added this second layer which is kind of like a bridge from the middle of the board to create a support structure for our bodies to rest on.
We extended this plank longer so that users can rest their body easily onto the board instead of having a awkward position with their lower back too bent towards the board.
We added more supports at the sides of the middle bridging so that users can lay on more surfaces rather than just a narrow plank.
We also pasted some duct tape over all the parts which have nails so that they wont be scratched by the nails.
We tired to position ourselves on the board and it feels just about right. We decided to get some yoga mat to cover the ‘laying’ area of the board so that it will be more comfy.
We also tried using wires to create the holder for the screens, as we found the malleability of the material rather useful in the previous Exercise 3.
However we eventually discarded the thought on account that the cold, metallic qualities of the material would prove uninviting for our participants to place their faces in close proximity to it.
We decided to make the chamber supports with the left over wooden planks we have.
Just to point out, we added duct tapes around the sides where there may be splinters to allow our users to ‘paddle’ safely.
Towards the end, we focused ourselves on the task of furnishing the vehicles for comfort. Hence, we affixed yoga mats over the wooden structure, for the participants to lie down on, thus cushioning the contact of their bodies with our vehicles. Also we figured out a way of neatening out the wiring so that no frills of entanglement will affect the usage of the live-camera feeds.
We will be adding the wheels and yoga mat in our next session.