Final Project Step 1: Preparatory Research and Analysis
Freddie
The first project I would like to research on is Nike Music Shoe created by Daito Manabe which was in the slides of class 17. Those music shoes are each connected to a certain type of instrumental sound such as drum, gong, angle iron, horn, piano and so on. When the participant squeezes or stretches the shoes, they will trigger the sound and change its keys by connecting all of the shoes to a music synthesizer. This function let the user create original music in a unique and easier way. Even without the skill of actually playing all those instruments or only the electronic piano that can imitate all kinds of instruments, a person can create music by wearing on those shoes and stamping their feet, a simple but universal movement when people is listening to music and find it rhythmic. I think the most successful part of this project is that it helps realize people’s most direct willingness to engage in the process of a playing music. It gives users the opportunity to express their inner thoughts by taking part in the production of a unique music themselves. After learning how to make sounds in processing. I really want to try to make cool music stuff. The video impressed me with how strong it creates the physical interaction between the user and the project and how much it has emphasized on user experience of attempts to create musics. One thing I’ve learned from it is that interaction can happen when one project noticed those simple, universal but halfway attempt to engage in various types of arts in our life, such as one often stamps his/her feet or nod their heads when hearing cool and chill rhythms. It would be so exciting when you can actually turn this reaction into a vivid user experience.
The second project I would like to research on is Marble Machine created by Wintergatan, a Swedish Musician. The machine uses 2000 marbles, gears, pipes, a modified bass and a track mechanism to imitate drums, bass and Marimba in order to create a piece of music. The rhythm is determined by the little obstacles put on the surface of the track, which means you can change the rhythm into whatever you want by changing the positions of those little obstacles. The speed of the music is also manual-controlled. There is a handle on the driving gear that the user can control the speed of the music. Also to make more varieties of the music, there are more handles switching the on and off of different parts of the machine band and controlling different sound effects of each instrument. As is mentioned above, I really want to try making something about music so I research on this project. The most exciting point about this marble machine is that it creates different sound effects by using the same unit: marble, which is similar to how computer language uses binary 0 and 1 to create the whole computer world. Also marble is something that was never absent during our childhood. This from-simple-to-complex experience enhances the user experience when playing with the machine. Things I’ve learned from this project is that dividing the project into simple individual process is more effective and sensible than wandering around complex concepts.
The website of this project is shown below:
https://wintergatan.bandcamp.com/track/marble-machine
I think the emphasis putting equally on both the artifact itself and the user is a great contribution to a successful interactive experience. In the article Art, Interaction and Engagement written by Ernest Edmonds, he noted that “Interactive arts systems involve artifacts and audiences equally. The artist sets up situations that develop in ways that are, at least in part, determined by the audience “. What’s more, the attempt to change the user’s habit or have a firm impact on the user rather than only let users show their reaction is a main contribution. Interactive arts should encourage long-term engagement and have a permanent influence on the user, which can make the art sustainable in order to enhance interaction in a dimension of time. Last but not least, the artifact should look attractive, the interaction should be discovered and figured out by the user themselves and certain complexity should be added to the artifact. Ernest Edmonds said that “This is the nature of the experience that audiences have during their engagement with an interactive art system.”
Work cited:
Edmonds, E. Art, Interaction and Engagement.