For our group research project, we had to create an interactive artifact that could exist in the universe of a short fiction story. The idea that our group focused on was based on The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin. “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” is a short story by Ursula K. Le Guin that presents a seemingly idyllic city, Omelas, whose happiness is predicated on the suffering of a single child locked in a basement. The story explores the morality of sacrificing one life for the happiness of many and the consequences of living in a society that accepts such a sacrifice. It ends with some individuals choosing to leave Omelas, unable to reconcile the child’s suffering with the city’s apparent utopia. Our project resembles a dream projector. Since the story focuses on this constant happiness that the Omelas experience, the dream projector could show them dreams they’ve had that might not be so happy. The interaction aspect of it is that you need to put on the dream projector helmet, and you imagine that you really see these different dreams.
Throughout our sketching process, we didn’t encounter any failures or major obstacles. Our only obstacle was probably thinking of an idea since we all had various thoughts and plans to make it work. I specifically suggested making this dream projector in a helmet style. We made the cardboard cutout, and then I suggested we tape it onto my hockey helmet so the project could sit comfortably and be steady. Our group worked well together. Everyone had a set role where two people would cut, one person would design, I would tape the cutout cardboard together and onto the helmet, and another person would assist me.
The performance that was my favorite from another group was the team that included Angela and Riley Susser. Their performance was based on the story The Plague by Yan Leisheng. “The Plague” is a science fiction story set in a future where a virus has wiped out most of humanity, leaving only a small number of survivors. The story follows a group of survivors who live in a heavily fortified building and must constantly deal with the threat of infection and attacks from other survivors. As they struggle to stay alive, they begin to question if their own survival is worth the cost. The group did a machine project that takes out your emotions and helps you make difficult decisions with no emotions. They showed this by having a character’s brother contract the plague, and then one of the teammates uses this machine to remove the sister’s emotions so she can kill her infected brother without thinking about it. This project is relevant to the story because it can help the survivors make difficult decisions without emotional bias. These decisions can help survival and even determine life or death in the story. The design of the device is very interesting and interactive. The performance was the best part of the entire project and it helped me understand what the point of the project was about.
Our team worked well together. We didn’t have a script, and we agreed that we’d improvise with our project. Whoever put on this dream projector helmet would say aloud, for example, “I’m dreaming I’m playing basketball,” and the rest of the team would act out these actions. We had a lot of fun saying random scenarios, and overall, we had good team chemistry.
