A. PROJECT TITLE
Nature Band
B. PROJECT STATEMENT OF PURPOSE *
People living in modern cities are gradually separated from nature by the concretes and artifact neon lights. Because of our distance away from nature, people are unconsciously losing their sense about natural changes. As a result, the Nature Band is designed to arouse people’s awareness of embracing nature. I hope through the visual, auditory, and physical interaction the installation provides, city residents can feel the beauty of nature again, and cultivate selves awareness of protecting environment.
C. PROJECT PLAN *
The specific goal I want to reach is to create a set of instruments in the shape of natural figures, and through physical interaction people can use it to create music of nature. Considering our general musical knowledge, I’ll try to make it accessible to everyone. And following is the plan:
Decide and collect each kind of music I’ll apply to the installation——–by Sun, 11.29
Compose (Processing)———————————————————-by Tue, 12,1
Add physical interaction to each part of the band (Arduino)————–by Thus, 12.3
User test————————————————————————-by Fri, 12.4
Decorate the installation——————————————————-by Tue, 12.8
D. CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE *
In my preparatory research, I drew inspirations from the Piano Staircase by the Fun Theory, and it also inspire me to combined physical interaction with sounds. Because of my concerns about environmental protection, I noticed a set of statistics released by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), which suggests that populations of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish have declined on average by 60 per cent in the past 40 years – and 75 per cent of land has been significantly altered by human activities. But many of us didn’t have a direct sense of how we’re affecting the future. So, I decide to use natural sounds in my design to arouse people’s awareness towards nature. And because the possibilities in how the music will compose by the audience have no limit, so the interaction will be a continuous experience with fun and enjoyment, leaving deeper impression to the audience. And this align with my definition of a success interaction experience, which contains both continuous and fluent physical interaction and constant psychological or emotional inspirations.
The design is targeting city residents, who are expected to enjoy a fresh interaction with the nature band, which inspire them of our fading attention towards the nature world around us. I hope through the mixture experience of visual, auditory and physical interaction, my audience will find out the beauty of natural sounds and scenery. If there’s any chance for further subsequent project, I think making the band a bigger one which allows audience to dance in and use body movement to trigger the auditory interaction will be more impressive, leading us chasing back to the old times when people live closely to nature, singing and dancing with rivers and birds. After all, they’re all about adding more natural color to nowadays cold and colorless city life.