DiverCity

We did lots of work towards our final project these past two weeks!

Visuals

I created photoshopped scenes so that our concept is more visually understandable.

Firstly I made one for the Deepavali theme as this is our main focus, and a relevant event as it occurred just recently. These images are to highlight how people could interact with the projection (by touching the candle) and how the sensors will respond to people walking past (by having a candle follow their path). We have used different places to show that there are lots of options for the client to utilise and decide where to implement this idea.

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Then I created other examples to show the versatility of this project, and how it can be used all year round as it changes for different events. I used Singapore National Day and the Formula 1 as they are also recent events that took place in the city.

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We used scenes to clearly show the event and symbols relevant so there was an aspect in motion too.

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Then Johnathan and I worked together on the video and powerpoint and Tim joined us to do the animation with a friend of his that could help us out!

References for imagery and info:

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Progress

We had a meeting and sorted through the film footage and stills and created a storyboard of how we want the video to go.

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From this we decided which images/video would go where and also produced a script of the different scenes to show which text will be visible on screen as well as give a description as to what the scene aims to communicate.

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As we are trying to create the visual elements for the film, I made the calendar for the final scene to show that our concept will be successful as it can cater to a number of events that are on throughout the year.

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Next we will try to complete al photoshop/visuals so that we can begin putting the film together as a whole piece, as well as look at the film editing and overlaying text/animation.

Dhoby Ghaut Filming

We filmed at Dhoby Ghaut as its a busy interchange station and visited by lots of people. We want to put our project into busy stations and target the larger hubs in order for it to be seen by lots of people.

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We discovered theres lots of empty spaces and plain walls which would be ideal for our projections.

Locations – corridor or horizontal escalator pathway. The corridor is a large open space whereas the escalator is somewhere that requires less walking, less focus and you are almost forced to look at the wall because its so close and you are right there. But would it be visible to those not on the escalator?

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Interaction – how will you know to interact? We could incorporate a hand icon onto the wall to show that you can touch the projections. Or just use a motion sensor so you don’t need to specifically touch, but you can just be close.

Visuals – static background and moving objects in the foreground so its not too busy and still conveys the event.

Class presentation:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1k9HLKK1g6GtRe0zf24_YqgkMQRqiTawsLPCWVAvEJIE/edit#slide=id.g1895c540f3_1_0

Project description

Project name – MRT DiverCity

Paragraph brief – An interactive art installation to enhance peoples experience through the dead spaces in MRT stations, and to inform commuters of the currents events happening in the city.

Survey questions – which space in the station would be most effective? Would you interact with it? What time of day do you use the MRT -morning, midday, afternoon, evening?

Research on similar projects – airports/art/installations

Narrative senario – people walking through MRT station and the wall projection responds to their movement

When its busy – perhaps the motion sensor is turned off during peak times or else the projection wall would get super busy. This may also need to be dependent on which station/busier ones might need to be treated differently to quiet ones. The projection could revert to a default during peak hours e.g. 7-10am and 5-8pm.

Location – give client the option of installing the project into one station (near the festival/events location) and if they grant it successful they can then spread it to stations in the surrounding area/further abroad. This allows for cost challenges and provides a sort of ‘trial’ for our concept.

Dobby Ghaut – interchange, large spaces to occupy, different levels in station, different population during the day,

Enough events on? While there seem to always be things happening in the city we could have a ‘default’ projection of the area of the MRT, bringing the outside in. Visuals could include nature, architecture and aspects that are specific to that area.

  • Janurary  new -years, pongal, singapore art week, thaipusam
  • Febuary – chinese new year
  • March – easter/good friday
  • May – labour day, vesak day
  • June – dragon boat festival
  • July – singapore food festival, hari raya puasa, hungry ghost festival
  • August – national day
  • September – hari raya haji, formula 1
  • October – deepavali, halloween, singapore biennale, tennis tournament
  • December – christmas

 

 

 

Project research

Gamification to improve our world: Yu-kai Chou at TEDx Lausanne

  • Harnessing the world of play
  • Generic demographic – average gamer 35y/o and 50% men/women
  • Gamification – take elements of games into non-game contexts, takes you don’t want to do but have to
  • Games allow you to be more
  • Engaging/boring/exciting
  • Game elements need to motivate and drive

8 Core Drives – We do things based on these influences for extrinsic and intrinsic value

  • epic meaning and calling (part of something bigger than yourself)
  • development and accomplishment (makes you feel like you’re improving)
  • empowerment of creativity and feedback
  • ownership and possession (you want more)
  • social influence and relatedness (what you do based on what others do)
  • scarcity and impatience (wanting something you can’t have)
  • unpredictability and curiosity (you don’t know whats happening next)
  • loss and avoidance (don’t want bad things to happen)

I think the unpredictability and curiosity one is most relevant to our project. It relates to our aim of having people continue to be interested in our project and look at it.

Airport Research– The art/installations in airports and symbolic and used to represent a nation. The examples I have found have been used to fill empty spaces in airports and make an impression on people who wall through the space. Like airports, MRT stations are places that provide people with lots or instructions and directions, therefore these art installations are significant for counteracting the seriousness of the processing through these areas.

Detroit Airport

Bahrain Airport – turning the airport into a state-of-the-art engineering and cultural icon.

“Bahrain Airports Company will have the opportunity to allow the creative team to modify the abstract streaming video to reflect changes in the moment.”

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Denver Airport

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Narita Airport – 385-inch “concave organic EL Panorama Vision” display in the Terminal 1 departures lobby. The display is turned on for the first 30 minutes of every hour from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. daily.

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A sensor detects people who approach the text on the signage. The text then takes the shape of an animal or other animate object to create an original, virtual fantasy world. As its creators explained, “The embodied creations interrelate with each other. A bird approaches a tree, or plants sprout when the rain falls. It constantly recreates the landscape.”

The artwork was announced in 2011 and has toured six countries in Asia, South America and Europe. It has received high international acclaim, having received an award at an international contest and selected to be among the best four works by an online art magazine. It is also the first work of “interactive” digital art created for digital signage at a Japanese airport.

–> I think this example is most like what we are trying to create. Something that responds to peoples movement and takes up the dead space in a public transportation area.

 

Indianapolis Airport

The ceiling of the pedestrian bridge is covered with a field of interactive, computer-controlled dots that display different colors and exhibit a range of intelligent and playful behaviors. The dots can light up exactly over where the passengers stand, and are able to fix on and follow a passenger down the length of the walk. At other times, lines of dots may visually connect two passengers approaching each other over long distances. Designed by Electroland, completed 2008.

 

Other interactive installations

This light installation responds to your voice and movements.

This rain exhibit uses tracking by 3D-depth cameras, so the rain won’t fall on you as you walk inside.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkvazIZx-F0

 

Singapore MRT vs Airports

The airport location allows people to stop and appreciate the experience of installation as they are likely not rushing through the space.

Most MRT users appear to be in a rush and don’t have the luxury of utilising waiting time. Therefore our project will need to motivate people to continue to move through the space- at their own pace perhaps or we could dictate it. By having projections that move with the pedestrians this allows them to watch it while they walk, without distracting them too much.

 

Defining our concept

At our group meeting we discussed the three ideas we had form last class and chose to focus more specifically on utilising the corridor spaces in MRT stations.

Designing on the platforms came a close second as we would be able to tackle a ‘practical’ problem of people waiting in the wrong areas for the train/people getting onto busy carriages when other are not busy… but solutions have already been put in place to solve these issues like the lines of the floor and people working on the platforms telling commuters to move down the platform. Therefore could another solution be effective? And surely its common sense for people to get onto a busy carriage and move down or see its busy and choose another?

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With the corridor spaces we are aiming to address a practical issue – moving people through the space effectively by separating the slow and fast walkers, as well as a more intangible issue of activating the dead space and making people look up from their phones, also making them more aware of their surroundings and perhaps bringing the outside inside in some way?

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After the class feedback we realised our main challenge would be making people want to look at/interact with the installation more than once.

To keep people interested time after time we though about adding a dynamic element to the experience, that motifs/symbols/images would be projected on the wall that follow you as you walk through the space. This also encourages people to continue walking (perhaps also dictates pace?) and not to stop and interrupt others. It means that the projection will always be different also as it will change dependent on the number of people moving through the space.

Then we thought these motifs and symbols could be themed to a particular cultural event or public holiday being celebrated in Singapore in order to add variety and a frequency change of imagery. This would work to make people aware of events without being a blatant advertisement. Singapore prides itself on being multicultural so we thought this would be an excellent platform to showcase this, and celebrate and inform people of the various cultural festivities.

MRT UX

We are looking to improve the experience of MRT users. As we are still deciding on our specific idea we have separated our ideas into the various scenarios we could work around.

Platform – gameplay to fill waiting time – on windows/doors/floors/walls

Stairs – encourage use/gameplay – entice with cheaper fare and swipe halfway up

Corridors – immersive environment, activate space – make empty space enjoyable, keep busy people moving/they won’t stop

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After visiting a few MRT stations during the week…

I’ve realised that the high frequency of trains means that people spend very little time actually waiting at the platform for a train. Therefore its possible that a game projected into this space wouldn’t be used very often.  Also there is an almost constant influx of people getting off the train -from both sides, and this could cause an interruption to the game or even anger people if the game doesn’t position players out of the way from alighting passengers.

I saw that the amount of stairs differs greatly at different stations and that when there aren’t so many some people appear willing to use them. However when there are lots (like Buena Vista) it is very unattractive and I’m not sure even I would tackle them for an incentive!

I observed people walking through stations on their phones, looking down, looking unhappy and pretty bored. People use this space as a method of getting from A to B and consider it nothing more than that.

I think we should attempt to improve this space, even if it is simply for the purpose of getting people to look up from their phones or make people smile. I think majority of people here are going to work/coming home from work/in a rush to get somewhere etc although I’m sure there are a few that would stop and interact with the wall if that option presented itself. Children/students/people not in a rush might have the ability to stop and appreciate the environment more which could also encourage others to join in.

Interactive Environments in Public Spaces

Stockholm Central Station – stepping on coloured circle stickers on the floor activates different musical note sounds.

Passengers paths are traced by LED projections at a Berlin station.

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Sunderland Train Station in the UK – this wall mimics the actions of passengers walking around the platform.

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The Song Board outside Kings Cross Station was able to be manipulated by visitors to create patterns and words.

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Feline installation art exhibited in a Copenhagen station.

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Ottawa LRT station sound & light show coming in summer 2017.

  • “$3-4million show billed as futuristic, interactive and a cornerstone of 2017 tourism”
  • “It will be the world’s first underground multimedia production”
  • “We want to show a more modern, technology image for our city and this is a perfect fit.”

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Xiamen North Railway Station

  • 2,000 square meter multidimensional interactive art exhibition
  • themes will be featured in the exhibition include an Underwater World, a Funny Beach, an Amazing Forest, an Animal World and a Fantasy Sky
  • Visitors can enjoy a new, interactive photo-taking experience
  • They will be able to scan QR codes near the paintings to download software, which will make moving animals such as tigers and dolphins appear in users’ photos
  • Free WiFi is available for visitors

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Week 9 – Project Proposals, refined

Proposal 1

Issue:

  • MRT Payment system
  • Carrying behaviour (Chipchase reading)

Theres so much we have to carry around with us everyday and our phone seems to be the most important of them all with so much stored on it. It would be so much easier if all the items we needed each day could be compressed into one thing or device. App? Wearable wristband?

Myo gesture control armband is used to control your devices through natural gestures which translate to certain commands… but isn’t an attractive product and is just an extra device for us to use.

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Pushing this concept forward, I propose a wrist worn product that responds to the issue we have of carrying so much around. If it could act as our phone, keys and money while also being worn on our wrist it would be harder to forget and easier to manage all these things.

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Paddle is a shape-shifting prototype smart phone. It unfolds for a map, scrolls a list in a circular loop, or flips “pages” for viewing album photos.

The phone/screen could wrap around your wrist? Be removed for use or left on for less intensive uses that don’t need a large screen area.

It could address the following items

  • Keys – be a sensor/swipe access
  • Money – act as a ‘pay wave’ or non-contact type of payment transfer (also for MRT tag on and tag off actions)
  • Phone – have a screen to use apps

Other features

  • Make interaction with the user easier and generally less
  • Programme gestures to be recognised as a command -moving wrist, tensing arm, clicking etc.
  • As the screen would be very small, perhaps a projector function to enlarge the screen and enhance viewing
  • Intuitive device -little learning required as this would put users off

 

Proposal 2

Issue:

  • Long transportation time
  • MRT/stations boring
  • Dead spaces
  • Queueing and waiting

Proposal – bring interactive media and play to mundane MRT stations. This concept can combine advertising/marketing with public installation. It enhances the area and makes people want to interact and enjoy the space, it brings it and the people in it to life while also promoting Future World exhibition (or another current exhibition/product/art). The MRT user experience is improved by being distracted with something to do -play and interact with the space.

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This idea on the MRT trains could also be useful in encouraging interaction with the space as well as others. The journey is usually very boring and people mostly appear to travel alone so why not talk to others there or simply enjoy this time more by playing.

 

Proposal 3

Issue:

  • Language/cultural/knowledge barriers when travelling abroad
  • Getting lost
  • Lack of information

Proposal – an app that uses the camera to recognise your location and provide relevant information

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Uses:

  • provide location information – where you are/whats around/events nearby
  • show cultural information relevant to place – how to behave/recommendations
  • translate languages/find definitions
  • mapping – see route in front of you/guide is more understandable

I considered having a transparent glass phone, but what functions would this allow that a camera does not?