Here is our scripts:
Role:
Robot: Smile
1st stage: free to move - Sarah
2nd stage: only upper body can move - Jessie
3rd stage: only head - Chaoyue
4th stage: only eyes - Andy
5th stage: completely solidified - Jason
Stage1
Robot: diii….Virus infection detected. Target Identified. bibi..silicon Percentage:5%. body status:free to move. No service needed.
1st: freestyle* (Oh my God! I can’t believe…)
Stage2
Robot: diii…Virus infection detected. Target Identified. bibi..silicon percentage:30% . body status: legs parralyzed. What can I do for you?
2nd: Give me the tissue! Give me the tissue! (shout and command verbally then lastly point to a tissue)
Robot: Bii
(receive instruction)
Robot: You want the tissue. Option 1- bring you the object; Option 2: bring you to the object
2nd: (show 1 with finger)
Robot: Roger! (Hand 2nd the tissue) Mission completed.
Stage3
Robot: diii… Virus infection detected. Target Identified. bibi..silicon percentage:70%, body status: paralyzed from shoulder down. What can I do for you?
3rd: command verbally then turn your head and look at the window
Robot: (Action Identified) Would you like to be transported to the window?
Yes, nod your head. No, shake your head.
3rd: nod yes
Robot: (transport 3rd to the window) Roger. Mission Completed.
Stage 4
Robot: Dii…virus infection detected. Target Identified. Bibi..silicon percentage:98%, body status: only eyes can move. What can I do for you?
4nd: (Move eyes to the left for 10 sec)
Robot: Eyes looking toward left more than 10 seconds. Would you like to be transported to the left? Yes- blink once, no- blink twice.
4nd: blinks once
Robot: Roger. Mission Completed.
Stage 5
Robot: Dii. Virus infection detected. Target Identified. Bibibibibibi. body status: completely solidified. (Grabs the 5th)
5th: (grabbed by the robot and moves to the assigned place.)
Robot: Transferring to the petrifaction community. Mission Completed. See you.
THE END.
Step1: Brainstorming
We met at Oct. 2 night on Zoom to brainstorm together. We firstly clarified the requirements and restrictions. The documents require us to build mostly with cardboard without electricity and combine with our performance to illustrate an interactive design to one of the science fictions. With none of us thought our designs in task2 implementable, Chaoyue posted a photo of a cleaning machine in our chatgroup and suggested that we could build a cleaning machine.
We discussed the possible situation when cleaning machine functions. I suggested that we could align the cleaning machine to novel2 or novel3, which are the Omelas and Plague.
- Omelas: I proposed that cleaning machine may apply on the road, because I think no happy people are willing to maintain the sanitation of the city and a happy city should be tidy. Andy thought that the cleaning machine may help the child of sin keep tidy. We finally abandoned this idea because we think there might be no difference with the cleaning machine in real life.
- The Plague: I thought that we could apply the cleaning machine to the plague. I thought that the cleaning machine may help move the corpses of infected people to a silicon community, which I will explain later. Others thought the the cleaning machine can be applied to sterilization. I argued that the virus in the Plague is very special, and we should utilize the setting so the cleaning machine wouldn’t be so homogenuous that can be applied to any novels that have virus.
The Silicon Community:
Many of our groupmembers’ inventions about the plague are aimed at facilitating communication between uninfected people and infected people. For example, Andy used two mirrors to exaggerate the movements of petrified people so they can commnicate with other people, and I proposed a medicine to slow normal people’s sense so they can communicate with infected people normally. We want to give the infected people the ability to communicate.
I further thought that maybe petrified people are communicating with each other at a speed just so slow that are not observable to normal people. They are moving. They can move their mouth. They neglect things, waves changing too fast in their time zone, just as normal people. In a word, they step into “a new form of life”. They can experence the world in a distinct perspective.
However, they are fragile in the face of normal people because they cannot move. Normal people can deploy them at free will. So I thought we should separate petrified people from normal people and create a community for petrified people. The ultimate goal is to divide the Earth to two parts, one for carbon life and the other for silicon life. People can control the virus and utilize it. People will think that it’s an opportunity rather a misfortune to be infected and experence the life in a different way.
I put it here because it is how I came up with the functioning situation of the cleaning machine. The cleaning machine will help petrified people moving to the silicon community. The idea wasn’t explicitly in our perform because some limitations.
Design
we then discussed how to create a man-sized cleaning machine and we came up with the idea to let someone perform a robot and Smile volunteered. We planned to make some cardboard to fabricate a robot.
After the brainstorm and before we started fabricating, Andy drew a prototype of our robot.
Step2: Fabricating
We met at AB 826 on Oct.4 afternoon to craft our robot. We planned to create the robot first and then think about our performance and script. We divided our tasks. Andy and I made the helmet of the robot. We designed a slot structure so that we can adjust the size of the helmet to prevent it from falling off. Here are our photos when we are crafting our robots.
Step3: Scripts
After finishing crafting our robots, we spent some time to think of the interactivity and how to illustrate the interactivity in our performance. To emphasize on the interactivity and performative, we abandoned the idea of silicon community, because it was too had to implement and show it by non-narrating performance. Instead, we move the focus of the robot to treate the infected people during the 6 weeks before they finally get petrified.
Performance: Other Group
I want to share some comments on the first group Shining Stone’s (if I remember the name correctly) performance because we base on the same novel. They created a delicate arm-wearing infection detector and a hammer. Their performance has a nerrator to explain the scenarios before acting, which I think is a good idea. They spent more time on plot processing( the effect invention might cause) than showing the functions of their invention, which I think might be a little inbalance. Their design fits in the novel’s setting well and can integrate in the world smoothly, but I think they can be more creative.
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