Tag: Experimental Interaction

Final Project Development Drawings

April 21, 2019 / / 0 Comments

DEVELOPMENTAL DRAWINGS

A group project by Jessie and I

Establishing context, Jessie and I chose Option B – Dark Object where we designed and built an object that communicated the emotions of loss, loneliness and self-pity, as mentioned in the brief.

We both came up with a few ideas and realised that we shared one idea in which it had a common denominator, in that they involved the loss of a family member.

Therefore, collectively, we decided to merge this idea and develop it:

BRAINSTORMING IDEAS :

A1: Leaving dirty dishes on the table after a meal that will result in replicating the nagging from mum that has passed on.

A2: Forgetting your towel in the shower and needing your dad to pass it to you. Presented through a disobedient object that'll move in the opposite direction to you as you reach for the towel hanged on it to simulate how dad used to tease you.

A3: Having the mat to trigger a prayer/chant before eating to simulate parents who are always reminding you to say your prayers/grace.

A4: Altar/prayer area activated as you walk pass to keep as a reminder and simulate the presence of a parent/elderly who used to frequent the altar.

A5: Door mat triggering the sound from a child that passed on when someone walks and steps on the doormat in the child's room.

A6: Having an object to simulate a parent waking up the child every morning where the alarm will trigger the motor to roll the blanket out of the bed.

 

A7: Reminder alarm is triggered once the laudnry basket is filled to recreate the nagging from mum when you don't empty the laundry baskets into the washer.

A7

A8: A snack cabinet that triggers the recreating of the nagging of a parent when you reach for a snack.

FINAL CHOSEN IDEA

A9: Family photo frame where when coupled with an associated audio, will trigger it to be knocked down each time a family member passes.

The feedback from this idea was the best from both our classmates and lecturer.

We felt that this idea had the most potential as well.  Jessie and I also felt that we could connect most with this idea.

The next step was to figure out how people would interact with our object and what elements and tools to consider.

Link to our body storming session:  Click here 

 

 

Bodystorming Set-up

Final Project Development Body Storming

March 31, 2019 / / 0 Comments

BODY STORMING SESSION

A group project by Jessie and I

Audio we played to simulate a narrative:

Feedback:

What did you learn from the process?

During the body storming session, we realised:

  1.  Timing and directions are of the essence when it comes to interaction. 

We realised that the interactive experience we need to provide the audience with has to be in correct timing proportions in relation to their reactions. This would provide a more immersive and extensive experience that would provide a better visual and audio association. Basically, it would make more sense if the audio ties in timely with their actions during the experience.

2. It’s all in the details! 

What we found was that the smallest details such as placement of lights that are introduced to our visuals and associative sounds that are universally recognised makes a huge difference in the user experience. It would allow the user to either connect or disconnect with the piece.

3. Connection with users

The user and an observer did mention that our piece did not make them feel things the way we intended to. There was barely any emotional impact. The reason being that they did not feel any emotional connection with the people in the photo since they do not know them.

Therefore, perhaps the suggestions that they introduced could help in improving this experience to allow for a better connection that would resonate with the mass audience.

  • Have the audio of kids playing and laughing in the background throughout as ambience sound
  • Add a visual effect of blood for everyone else but the grandfather (the last person standing)
  • Instead of the image of the grandfather, use a mirror to communicate that the if last person standing was you, how would you feel?
  • Establishing the context of the piece. [Is the participant the sole survivor or is the participant the people who passed on or are they just a third person?
  • Include the audio of the people who died to amplify the feeling of lost, capturing the essence of the person to create a narrative [eg. the recording of kids] –user will form a connection with the kid that would impact them more as they sympathise as they went along
  • Include recording of the grandfather (last man standing) of how he’s lost them or him crying.
  • Include the recording of the kids talking to the grandfather, having the user make the association that they are viewing it from the grandfather’s standpoint and that they’re not replying
  • Include recording of the kids talking to the grandfather but not have him reply [perhaps he doesn’t hear them?]
What surprised you while going through the process?
  • The fact that we did not consider the emotional connection the audience would not have since the photo was with people they were unfamiliar with
  • The unwillingness of some participants to repeat the steps to experience the piece
  • The critical importance of creating ambience to aid our user experience
  • The crucial importance on minute details
How can your apply what you have discovered to the designing of your installation?

We would definitely take into consideration all that we gathered through the following steps:

  • Be sure to add carefully curated ambience sound to allow users to connect with the piece and be emotionally invested
  • Be mindful of the narrative of the piece and consider the point of view of the participant
  • Creating an experience that involve the senses of a typical user that creates association and therefore allow for them to paint a visual in their head of our narrative or an interpretation of our narrative [eg. Have the kids call to the grandfather (user), add sense of smell through baby powder and axe oil]
  • Be critical in our decisions to create an immersive experience that would tug on heartstrings of our users. It has to be a somewhat universally accepted association that the user make to the piece to allow for an emotional connection to be established.

Micro-Project 2 – Crowd-Sourced Art

January 28, 2019 / / 0 Comments

Crowd-Sourced Art was the second Micro-Project that was done in class. We needed to build a quick and interactive experience where we required the participation of others via any social media or online platforms.

What is the content of the work and who is creating it?

My partner, Jessie and I first brainstormed ideas. We both agreed that ADM was filled with weird items lying around. That was where our idea started. A classmate from the previous semester had borrowed a cup from Canteen 2 and haven’t returned it ever since. Therefore, we started with that! We both figured that given the short time span given to complete our project, we had to keep the timing of the responses on polling and the posting of the videos/photos in mind.

In general, people are attracted to things that were revolting (just based on experience). It creates a reaction. Henceforth, our idea was to create an experience for our participants where they get to choose edible items that generally don’t go together but will be placed in our drink. The intensity gets higher as the food items get more and more revolting.

Firstly, we went to find the cup at the Basement floor and took a photo of it and posted it along with a poll. The choice was whether to wash the cup first or just take it for use.

The majority of the voters voted for us to just take it for use. After which, we proceeded to give the option to our participants whether we should use tapwater AKA NEWater or get water from the cooler. As expected, most people voted for the NEWater.

To make it more interesting, we then decided to give the option for participants to virtually add M&Ms or Spicy Chilli Tapioca Chips to our drink. Of course, they picked the Tapioca Chips!

We then included a video for them to watch us add the chips into the water. Safe to say, it wasn’t looking good. You could see the oil separating from the chips and into the water.

The second to last option was whether to add Yoghurt or a Tandoori Chicken sandwich to the drink. The majority of them chose the Yoghurt! Along with that also, we added a video to see the extent of the damage done by their choices.

The last and final option came as a surprise for our participants as we wanted to keep the suspense going, knowing that people would probably be wondering if we were going to consume the drink or not. Hence, we made the participants choose whether they wanted me or Jessie to consume it.

For the final option, we decided to have it Live with our real-life participants who were our lovely classmates and lecturer! Majority voted for Jessie to drink it. So we recorded the live session of Jessie consuming the drink! It was not a fun experience for her but certainly so for the rest of us!

Some challenges:

Originally, we wanted to make it more cost efficient while having a higher intensity by using condiments and seasonings provided in Canteen 2 such as chilli flakes, parmesan, soya sauce, etc. However, given the time limitation, we had to resort to being resourceful in ADM itself. Another challenge was also the fact that it took people quite some time to respond. This could be due to the timing when the stories were posted on Instagram.

Now, to answer the rest of the questions that were intended for this post:

Where does this work take place?

It took place via Instagram and we went around ADM to create this interactive online experience!

How does this work involve social interaction?

As mentioned above, people are very much attracted to things that are revolting and suspense. Therefore, by doing polling on Instagram and creating a mini story-line for our viewers, we were able to attract them to participate in our interactive experience done via polling. Collectively, they were given the option to basically determine what goes into our drink.

How is your crowd-sourced project different from one that is created by a single artist/creator?

Our crowd-sourced project differs from a single artist/creator through the unpredictability, biasness as well as the inclusion of the freedom of choice for the participants. In addition to that, it created a virtual interactive experience for our participants.

In our interactive experience, we gave our participants the freedom to choose between two option. Although it’s not necessarily an ideal number of options, we were limited by the features. Hence, there is still a certain biasness to it given that we dictated the two option. However, it was still an unpredictable outcome as it was collectively controlled by our participants as well.

In contrast, if a project was not crowd-sourced and done by a single artist, that would mean that the project would be a lot more bias as it involves the opinions, thoughts, and decision of the creator. The interaction with the participants would be minimal to none which is basically what crowd-sourced art requires.

Both crowd-sourced and single artist artworks have their strengths and weaknesses. It all depends on the message intended to be conveyed as well as the motive of the artist/creator.

Cut Piece - Source: artnet

Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece

January 16, 2019 / / 0 Comments

Yoko Ono is a Japanese Multimedia Artist whose work also encompasses music, poetry, film, sculpture, installation, paintings and performance art.

Yoko Ono – Source: www.biography.com

Diving into one of her most famous pieces, the Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece have been staged five times. This remained a key piece in the Fluxus* Art Movement. This piece first debuted in Kyoto, Japan,  in 1964 at the Yamaichi Concert Hall.

Yoko Ono provided no context to the performance except providing an outline of the instructions which was to have the audience to cut a piece of her clothing, one by one, in which they could take the pieces they cut, home.

The question that will be addressed here is:

How does it alter the way an artist or designer create the work, when there is an interactive component?

First and foremost, having an interactive component, as one may know, will bring about a lasting impact on the participants. This is because, as shared in class, memories are connected to the emotions. It brings about a neurocognitive change. Every experience is unique. There is no possible recreation of the exact experience. Therefore, the experience of one audience member may vary and differ from the next audience member.

In this case, Yoko’s piece may or may not influence the audience members in choosing an area to cut or how much to cut. The actions of the others may influence the ones that come after to participate in the performance. The reason for this is that every audience member may very well cut a piece of Yoko’s clothing on their own terms, according to what they feel is appropriate or what they would like, etc. However, there are others who may be influenced by the actions of the rest that came before them. This highly depends on individuals.

Therefore, the way the artist create the work with an interactive component may involve the manipulation of resources to play to the advantage of the piece. This means to say that if the artist have a specific message that they may want to portray, their piece can be altered in such a way that it could sway the audiences to prove the artist’s standpoint. However, this also depends on the participants because in a way, everything else could be controlled but the audience is taken to be a variability.

This is very much visible in Yoko’s Cut Piece where in the beginning, the participants were hesitant and cut small pieces of her shirt or skirt. As the performance goes on, they became more daring and start cutting up bigger pieces. There were some participants who cut off the front of her undergarment and straps. Highly likely, this happened because people drew inspiration or seek approval of others during the performance. When they witness someone cutting up a bigger piece or a more risque piece of clothing, that is seen as approval or as the ‘okay’ to test waters and experiment further. In my opinion, this also is dependent on the personalities and values of the individuals on whether to experiment, follow or stay in the safe zone.

Hence, in order to create an interactive art that is effective, impactful and provide a long-lasting memory, this involves a proper understanding of human behaviour and psychology. Observational skills will come in handy! In comparison to creating a still art piece, an interactive art piece needs to be able to grasp the attention span of the audience when it is in motion/action.

*Fluxus was an international, interdisciplinary community of artists, composers, designers and poets during the 1960s and 1970s who engaged in experimental art performances which emphasized the artistic process over the finished product.

Direct Source: Wikipedia

Sources:

https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/yoko-ono-cut-piece-1964/

https://uk.phaidon.com/agenda/art/articles/2015/may/18/yoko-ono-s-cut-piece-explained/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3334843/

Yoko Ono’s “Cut Piece”