The project of our group is mainly about designing a memopal which can change the messages of the host leaves for visitors of different identities when the host is not at home automatically. For the performance, we designed it by assigning each of our group members as a different identity and walks towards the memopal to check messages. The person who acts as a memopal will change the meesage cardboards according who we are. The host will say “I will meet you at the gate of the neighborhood. Let’s go shopping today!” and close the door. The delivery man will put the delivery in front of the door after seeing the message. The mother will read out messages on it after checking the memopal. The stranger will act like interested in what memopal is and open it to see the message. The friend will find out that the host and mother both are at home and knock at the door. Here is the video that records how we practice our performance. During this period, the team member who acts as the memopal has something to do so I just acts for him for the practice.
The working concept of this memopal is based on the signs attached in front of the house to show whether the people living in this house is infected with virus in the third story. We expect this memopal to show the status of the house which can make more fun and provide convenience for the users when the host is not at home but meanwhile we do not want it to leak hosts’ personal information. Therefore, we chose to use the box as the memopal to protect it from rains and design a specific card for strangers which only shows sentences like “Have a nice day!”. During the entire process, we first discussed about how to design the project. After deciding to make a memopal, we separated the assignments and I was responsible for cutting bigger cards which show different messages left by the hosts and smaller cards which show different identities of the visitors. I also checked the details of the designing of the memopal box and I found that it needs a card slot for visitors to swipe their cards. I then designed a card slot which is composed of two triangles and sticked these two triangles together. Here is a photo showing how I worked on the cardboards.
For me in the designing part, I mistook the requirements that we need to make a project which is made without electronic but actually can work if the electricity and technology is provided, I thought that we need to build a project which can work by just using cardboard. Therefore, I thought the idea of creating a memopal as reasonable. Although I discussed with my team members about the designing carefully, I misunderstood that requirement because of my cursoriness. However, as our group worked further on building the project, I finally realized that but since we already made parts of it and the time is not enough for creating a new one, I just kept on doing it. From my perspective, although our project presents enough interaction with users and has practical applications in daily life, I consider our designing lack of imaginary from the art perspective. Because this kind of technology already existed in our current world and the project itself does not demonstrate too much reflections on society or arts. For future development, I think adding the function that can scan visitors’ faces regardless of whether their faces are included in the system and say hello to them can make the project more interesting.
I also found performances from other groups excellent. Among all the groups, I think the performance from the fourth group is quite interesting because they express the idea of sacrificing less numbers of people for the happiness of larger numbers of other people by making an equipment that can make the person stand in the center feel hurt if other people circle around his or her push the button. However, if these people do not push the button, they will feel hurt. The designing philosophy of this project is based on the second story named “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”. I think the story itself also presents the similar idea by telling that a person was prisoned in a small room to make other people satisfied about their life in Omelas. Therefore, I consider that their project is relevant to this story and simplify it into an interesting equipment. Their project takes the idea from fictional stories and use cardboards and other materials to make fascinating designs, which meets the criteria of the assignment. However, I consider the project itself is not that imaginary. Because our current technology can also have the similar functions but may be not in the form of this project. In general, I think the design of project is quite attractive and has deep meanings. During the performance, the designers show how the project works by asking questions with each other and presenting the feelings when they touched on the buttons , which demonstrate how can viewers explore the project by themselves because I felt a little bit confused about the project when it first appeared on the stage. For improvements of the project, I think that adding more possibilities when the button is pushing down or some participants pushed others did not, can diversify the project.