Final Project: Essay

PROJECT TITLE

Glows as Flows

PROJECT STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

My project is focused on Water, which is common but essential to humans and often neglected by us. As we all know, water is the origin of our lives and 70% of the human body consists of water. No doubt water plays an important part in our lives. However, there are few people who pay attention to our interaction with water. More importantly, the interaction between water and human casts light on human’s social and cultural life.

My original idea is inspired by an interactive artifact in Maker Faire in Shanghai as the following video shows. By putting hands into the different bowls, fancy sound effects are generated.

An article written by Franz Krause and Veronica Strang, titled “Thinking Relationships Through Water”, shows an explicitly relational study of water in society. Water is “an element, a flow, a means of transport, a life-sustaining substance, and a life-threatening force, the subject, object, and often the very means of social and cultural activity (Hahn, Cless, and Soentgen 2012; Krause and Strang 2013), water inspires novel ways of thinking about key aspects of social relations, including exchange, circulation, power, community, and knowledge. ”

I was also inspired by the interactive installation in Montréal by Jérôme Delapierre
Sound by Navid Navab. The visual and sound effects are vivid and the interaction is attractive.

I would my project to be a reminder and inspiration for users to think and reflect on our relationship with nature and also further users’ understandings of the human and nonhuman aspects of their production.

PROJECT PLAN

My project can be divided into two parts: Ardunio as the input and Processing as the output. The project consists of multiple plastic containers filled with water. I will use capacitive sensors to detect whether users touch the water. Then, the data will be transferred to Processing. There will be water waves and sound effects triggered by the interaction.

Project plan:

11.27 Idea and Sensor Test
11.29 Test Multiple Sensors and Test connection between Arduino and Processing
12.1 Laser Cutting and Build the Circuits
12.3 Processing Sound and Visual Effects Coding
12.4 Test and Collect Feedback
12.6 Improve the project

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE

My research basically involves researches about the concept of water as a topic and the interaction between users and water. They both inspire my thoughts and provide me with feasible solutions to carry out my project. The interaction between water and humans highly aligns with my interpretation of interaction gained throughout the whole semester, which is the communication with each other between two actors. In the process of interacting with my project, users can feel that water as their friends and they can communicate with each other, both sending and receiving information.

The most unique part of my project is the usage of water. Water is often neglected by us and we tend to take it for granted that it’s difficult to make a project using water. Also, it is not something directly taught in class. My project has a wide intended audience, which I wish to be everyone. It can teach children what water looks like and they can feel the water with their hands interactively. For teenagers, they can think through our relationship with water and nature. Maybe adults can have a better understanding of the social relations within our society showed through the water.

Reference:

Franz Krause and Veronica Strang. “Thinking Relationships Through Water.” Taylor & Francis Online, 16 Mar. 2016, www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08941920.2016.1151714.

Interactive Swimming pool – Digital Water