Problems:

• transmission of touch was limited to only sitting up and down
• sound was almost non-existent
• distance was too close for much impact

Ideas:

• overhead shelter that doubles up as simple mode of interaction; grid of free-moving leaves above, supported by net-like structure, users can tug on the net either side, like a primitive and limited form of interaction
• a double sided acoustic guitar in the middle, strummable from both sides
• sonification of movement; use of pickups to amplify movement sounds, strategically placed on the undersides of the seating area and cloth
• responsive musical chair; could encourage users to ‘play’ with the seat more, use of fabric sensing grid
• digitalisation of communication cone.

https://www.instructables.com/Balanced-piezo-contact-microphones/

https://www.instructables.com/0-Microphone/

Fabric Sensing grid (https://www.kobakant.at/DIY/?p=7651)

design sketches

possible location

Sync (Longing, connection)

• 2 players sit across each other
• they are connected by touch via the ropes, and can feel each other’s movements
• the string with cone provides audio feedback between players

Night scenario

An illuminated trough of water in the middle that can highlight the movement of the strings.

the seating areas can be slightly illuminated to provide a hint of participants

Take the words you used described when prompted by question “What is the feeling you associate with HOME?” and create a SKETCH of how you might visualise this sensibility.  How has this changed due to Covid-19?

Longing and connection are terms I associate with HOME; people who I enjoy company of, and spending time doing things with. Covid-19 has brought about many changes to our lives, our movement around the island, and our routines.

The way I am thinking of visualising this is to setup a repository of recorded life experiences, a family meal at the table, a hike in the forest with friends, a day at the beach, window shopping at the mall. These experiences will be recorded visually and aurally, and with the help of a homemade projector, and a good set of earphones/speakers, one can setup his/her space(be it indoors or outdoors) and partake in an activity with other people. These experiences will also be location encoded, so a relevant experience can be automatically activated in a certain location; e.g. a forest walk experience in park.

This concept shares similarities to the location-based triggering of audio scapes, with an additional optional visual element.

The visual experiences(take the family meal example) will feature simple setups to mimic the real experience, including steps like meal prep, cooking, serving, then meal time and table chat.

Update: 7 Sep.

An aural landscape can help recreate a scenario quite vividly, even without means of visual cues. Through this, connection to loved ones can be made, albeit fleeting. The participant is presented with a set of sounds. There are a few categories of sounds: ambient environment, people conversation, secondary sfx(like rain, water flowing, etc.)

Depending on the type of scenario the user would like to recreate, he/she can choose the appropriate sounds, adjust each layer’s volume, to tailor his/her aural experience to a specific setting.

Layers of blurred images are mixed procedurally, and projected faintly to a screen in front of user. These images relate to the custom-made aural landscape, and provides a hint of the scenario’s lightscape.

Central Fire Station

Armenian Church

– What is it that is being communicated?

Personally, I think this has been arranged to coincide with the celebration of National Day, and this year it is probably much more significant due to the unprecedented situation of a global pandemic. I think these iconic buildings might have been selected because they represent the important facets of society; religion, life-saving and cultural institutions, world class performing venue(esplanade), etc.

– What might the “curators” have to consider to plan such a transformation?

I think working with a limited palette of mainly red and white, it is not easy to make it obvious and impactful. But I think the subtleness/solemness of the whole ‘experience’ could have been intentional; as a way of urging Singaporeans to keep up the good fight, with perseverance and grit. Also, because of social distancing and a need to avoid public crowds, the ‘design’ of the experience has to be succinct, yet impactful, and not be overly ‘crowd-drawing’. The budget considerations could also be a factor in keeping the experience to a simple lights projection.

Singapore Art Museum

Church of the Good Shepherd

– What alternate ways could YOU imagine transforming these sites to communicate something unique or unknown about Singapore culture?

I think playing religiously-themed music softly could be interesting, especially for people from other cultures. If the place is a historic site like Central Fire Station, perhaps sound bites of historical events could be broadcasted. A virtual audio tour that is triggered on the phone with GPS could be used to allow visitors experience more relevant content.

The projection can be ‘interactive’ if visitors can send in positive messages and have them shown on the projections on these iconic buildings. This is especially great for people to give each other words of encouragement in these trying times.

Chijmes

I have given some thought about the 2-person intervention where each person take turns to try to walk silently without being detected by the other towards the middle, which is the goal.

Here, I have further refined the idea to make it a tad more competitive and primal.

The setting is on a hot sunny day, out in the grass fields. In the middle a temporary tentage is placed, and spectators can hide here. There’s also plenty of water bottles at the tentage for thirst quenching.

The mechanics remains the same:

• both participants sit facing away from each other
• one of them starts first, by turning around with chair in hand, and tries to slowly make his/her way towards the tentage
• if the other manages to catch him/her moving by clapping at that right time, the moving person will clap once, then get seated, and the roles are reversed.
• if not, the catcher will shift his/herself a little further from the tentage, while the roles remain.

The interesting dynamic here, in my opinion, is that as it is a hot day, an implicit time limit is ‘enforced’; both participants will try to get to the middle as efficiently as possible. But doing so will also risk them getting caught faster or more often. And the penalty of moving further away also makes the catcher more attentive to his/her surrounding.

The article talks about a variety of concepts with relation to orientation, scale, spatiality and other units of measurement(distance etc). I found the section about how chosen words can imply certain/specific meanings of particular interest.

Bearing the overwhelming assault of cultures across the globe, via the Internet or New Media, I observe a noticeable change in the way people speak and correspondingly, what they mean. In the 1990s, when someone said ‘Yes I will get it done soon‘, one can expect the ‘soon‘ to mean within a few hours or the day. Fast forward 2020, the same adverb can mean anything from minutes to never.

Similarly, personal encounters have become equally confusing and non-specific. For instance, when someone says to ‘Catch up sometime soon!’, it could mean either of the following:

• he/she expects an invitation soon
• doesn’t expect one, and will not respond even if invited
• will try to avoid invitations with every excuse possible, without being explicitly clear that he/she didn’t meant what was said earlier
• doesn’t really want to catch up, but just to ‘keep in touch‘, for practical or other reasons

Another particularly common example is also seen in political speeches. In statistically driven statements, true numbers are often obscufated with positive tones of ‘significant‘ or ‘upward trend‘, and equally downplayed negative tones of ‘statistically insignificant‘ or ‘temporary decrease‘.

My point, simply being, how the ‘units of measure’ in daily speech has evolved to an subtly complex, indiscernible, and largely superfluous way of authentic communication. Perhaps gone are the good old days of simple, direct language.