Project 1

Observatory

Bird Observatory Installation

The Concept

I want to focus on my previous project ‘What We Left Behind’ and build upon it. I was more interested in the idea of the birds dying or getting lost in ADM, and I thought there is a lot of potential in requesting for the school and the students to take a stand in helping the wildlife we unintentionally kill everyday.

I think the project background requires some more research and interviews, so maybe I will not focus too much on that as I don’t think there’s time. As such I will focus more on the interaction.

I was also inspired by Siah Armajani’s Sacco and Vanzetti Reading Room #3 in the way that it is a space that is functional to the public, yet makes a statement. To also conclude from what we have learnt from the past few weeks, I wanted to create a space that intervenes through confrontation with meaningful objects, and also to create an environment that can change through movement.

The Setup

The idea is to have a booth facing the window at level 1 lobby area. This provides a view of the Sunken Plaza, which is where many birds enter and get lost in. The space will take up 1 window pane, and it will be covered by framed black cloth so that I can use as little materials as possible so as to save cost and not be overly wasteful.

There will be a bench or few chairs placed inside for visitors to sit on. It will face the window so as to allow them to have a view of the outside while seated. There will also be a platform that works like a table, placed directly in front of the window. There will be a stack of paper and some stickers on top of it.

The paper will be forms for people to write on. The visitors will be prompted to observe birds through the window. If they spot any birds, they will be encouraged to pick a sticker from the sticker pack and paste it on the window. Afterwhich, they shall write on the form with the following information:

  • Date
  • time
  • bird size
  • colours and patterns
  • species (if they recognise)
  • what it is doing or what it did
  • maybe do a small sketch of the bird.
  • whether the bird escaped

This allow visitors to record the information about bird sightings and many information about the bird. If the bird escapes ADM before the visitor leaves the space, the form shall be dropped into a box placed on the side of the table. If the bird did not escape, the visitor shall drop the form on the floor and leave it. The visitor may crush or fold the paper before dropping it.

The Interaction

The Inside

The visitors will interact with the room passively through using it as a common space. The space is designed to provide a good view of the Sunken Plaza, possibly for one to sit and think, or rest.

Another interaction comes in the form of bird-watching, where they find and face entities that do not belong to the space itself. Once they do so, they start to engage in the interaction by putting a sticker and writing a form, before dropping the form off.

Visitors also can engage by picking up the dropped forms to read and find out the kind of birds that visited the Sunken Plaza, and try to find if the birds are still around.

The Outside

From the outside, people can see the booth, especially when it is darker on the outside. However, as the stickers are not placed from the outside, it will not be very visible and the window pane will still be mostly reflective. Thus there is a flaw in this design. However, I will argue that the space is not meant to provide for a functional solution but as a way to track the number of birds that flies into ADM and also as an inspiration for solutions. Stickers can be implemented outside of ADM if the faculty wants to.

The Intention

Originally, I had the idea to have people stay inside the space to leave their mark, either through smudges on the glass, or the hair they drop. However, I find that there is very little link between hair and smudges with birds, even though there are many implied links (for example, smudges = birds that smacked onto the window, or hair = the dead birds that dropped).

I replaced the hair with the forms and the smudges with stickers so people can connect with the idea better. The stickers are also inspired by an actually functional and (more) aesthetically pleasing way to prevent birds from hitting windows as seen here:

Image taken from https://www.heraldextra.com/sanpete-county/seven-tips-to-keep-birds-from-hitting-windows/article_a2e1228a-fab3-5f55-80dc-205a87c3dd2c.html

Overall, the intention of this space is to create a space for people to learn about the issue of birds getting lost in Sunken Plaza through their own observation. The space also provides people with a way to act towards helping the birds — which is also through a totally plausible solution. Lastly, if the space do accumulates a number of forms and stickers, it will also serve as a space for people to ponder about the problem. In its passive state, the space should be a conducive space for people to rest in, or think in.

I’m not sure how successful the installation will be, as it is mostly dependent on the people interacting with it and the bird sightings (which may be very random). This is also dependent on the timing people enter the booth. If there are many birds lost in ADM, but nobody enters the booth, the information will not be recorded. The installation is also somewhat time-based. Eventually, when the slips accumulate, the numbers will become more visible.

Emo Telephone Prototype

Emo Telephone

Group: Joey, Bryan

“I… was always compared to my siblings as a kid. I was never better in my parents’ eyes.”

 

Meaning & Purpose

Tldr; Technology distances us.

This interactive work is a critique on the reduced consciousness we have of ourselves with others due to our everyday communication through technology. For example, we usually send a ‘LOL” text to others in response to something conventionally funny, but our facial expression in real life is actually a mere poker face. We hide behind our phones to communicate with others and slowly become numb to an actual conversation. What is then something that can cause or trigger a genuine reaction in us? To us, even though communication through technology is convenient and common now, this tends to push individuals further apart rather than allowing for a deeper level of connection. Through restricting the spatial dynamics of two participants, both individuals are required to stay intimate through eye contact while engaging in a communicative activity we find desensitised; which in this case would be talking on the phone. As such, participants shall acknowledge and focus on the physical presence of each other while gaining a sense of self-awareness as they engage in an intimate conversation, ultimately feeling vulnerable, but eventually possibly comfortable.

Materials:

  • 3x Cardboard boxes
  • Cutter + Tape (For assembling)
  • 2x plastic cups
  • 1x twine string

How it works

This interactive object will act like two helmets separated by a short fixed distance made by the cardboard boxes. Both participants will wear each helmet, and when they do so, they will be facing each other. The slit in each of their helmets will allow them to have eye contact with one another. There will be a hole at the top of the helmets to allow light to enter, so they can see each other and also have a small sense of external spatial orientation. They both then will use an analog telephone made using the cups and string to communicate. They can then only talk about their own self image and vulnerabilities and nothing else. This experience will go on for 10~15 minutes.

How it should feel

Depending on the type of participants, there will be varied results. The ideal results should be a sense of vulnerability at the beginning as they adjust with each other’s eye contact and conversation. As the conversation go, both participants should feel more empathetic towards the other person, and feel more aware of their own vulnerabilities, and as such feel more comfortable with each other.

Interference of spaces between 2 people + How Location comes into play

We try to restrict the physical space as much as possible so both participants can focus on each other’s presence. The restriction of space between both participants forces them to be aware of each other as well as of their shared experience, which is being trapped in a box with little awareness of what is going on beyond their helmets. Adding on to their experience with how they need to share their private moments and how they will be able to see the behaviour of the other person, it will heighten their 5 senses and make them self-conscious of both themselves and of each other. Both participants should be able to feel the distance between each other, yet seemingly brought closer to each other through the intimacy in their gaze and conversation. Location comes into play when both participants have to move in the same direction, the same way, or in the same location. This creates a mutual experience between both parties, giving the impression that they are both going through the same things i.e. the same hardships. They will “always walk together” and accept each other fully. We hope to find a balance between the push and pull of physical and emotional space.

Testing Phase

We gave both participants a topic: talk about their self image and their weaknesses. We gave them only 2 minutes to talk as we want to speed things up and also felt that we don’t want to put our classmates at a spot (it was pretty awkward).

The first 1 minute was spent trying to figure out how to operate the thing. The next 1 minute, both parties struggled to stay with the objective due to the difficulty of operating the low-fi machine. Both parties only made 2 exchanges about their weaknesses before we had to stop.

Here’s the video footage + the discussion:

Testing: https://youtu.be/OLlLlGz0BcE

Discussion: https://youtu.be/xbvaVNqFL8s

I (Bryan) believe that they talked about weaknesses due to it being the easier topic to talk about. Our plans on making our participants uncomfortable worked but it was more negative due to the short amount of time we give which did not allow the participants to open up enough. I also think that perhaps we have to alter the topics as it seems to be too personal.

During the discussion, Kee Yong also mentioned about how uncomfortable he is physically due to the height difference and the box. He also mentioned how the low-fi telephone did not work well as it is not easy to operate it in a tight space. Thus, overall, it was not a very successful test.

Improvements

What I can think of is:

  1. Change the form of the box. Instead of a solid box, it can be curtains. That will allow more flexibility while performing the same function.
  2. Change the topic. The topic is too personal and can become a negative experience for many people if it is not properly dealt with. The topic should be more open and something that allow each other to have a hearty conversation about. In this sense, we allow both parties to feel the joy of using a telephone rather than dealing with the negative aspects of talking through a telephone.
  3. Use a real phone. As we thought we were going to develop the project further, we intended to switch the low-fi telephone with real phones in future so it eases the entire experience.