Proposal 1: Our Planet

As from the research Vivien has done for the first stage, she has realized unsustainability/climate change is one of the most vital issues that the United Nations has addressed lately. Vivien would want to work on something that illustrates the outcomes of unsustainability. But in the project, we would also like to show how humans could participate in the process of lessening the harms of unsustainability. Ian is highly interested in doing something that requires collaborations among people. He has proposed an idea of encouraging four people to make some movements simultaneously for the project to function. If only one person participates in the process, the project will not provide an outcome. Thus encourages collaborations among people, even among strangers. We both are highly interested in each other’s ideas. And we have worked together to combine these two ideas into one doable thought. Then we have figured out that we would want to create a project that requires movements among several people to lessen the unsustainable global issue. For the movement part, we want to make it very specific. The participants need to physically use a shovel and plant trees to push back the time of the earth explosion. The faster they plant trees, the longer the earth would stay away from the explosion. However, if the participant chooses to work alone, then there is no way for him to get fast enough to beat the accumulated speed for several people. We would set the number in our codes to be ridiculously high to make sure that no individuals could accomplish this goal by himself. In this project, we want to raise people’s awareness of the harmful outcomes of unsustainability. However, we would like to highlight the positive effect that we can bring forth through the collaboration processes. Our targeted group of the audience would be everyone on this planet. Overall, the earth is everyone’s plant. We all have to take part in helping to solve the unsustainable issue.

References

https://climate.nasa.gov/causes/

Proposal 2: Ourscraft – Creating a World of Ours

       The insight comes from the research Ian did for teamLab Borderless Shanghai and Vivien’s research that emphasize on impact to individuals. Ian went to teamLab last Friday. It is AMAZING. Ian wrote about the notion of “create the world together” in the research. Ian fully experienced it that every action of human movement will make some impact on the whole room. It indeed makes the audience connected with others, including all the human and non-human factors. It is super funny, creative, communicative, and inclusive.

Therefore, we want to build something that can make the participants interact to create their world. Then, a game called “Minecraft” hints at us. The player can use the blocks of material that the game set to build anything they want in the virtue world. How about making a 2D but a multiple user version of that? Here, we also get the inspiration from the “Dance pad” in the arcade and a fun small game called “Tetris.” We think these can be combined to build as an excellent form of interaction. Also, according to Vivien’s research, we believe that the project could also function as a tool for people who have a problem in social relationships to try getting in touch with others non-verbally, which is a significant social impact.

       How it may work: Four participants required. They will stand on each side of the screen. The random piece will appear on the screen. By stepping the bottom in front of them, they can make the shape move towards them a little. They can shake hands with corresponding people to reshape the pattern. Once a piece is confirmed, all four people put their hands together, and the next piece will appear. Therefore, after ten rounds, they may have built an interesting pattern!

       This project will give the audience the opportunity to cooperate to express their creativity. Their minds should not be limited by the project. Random pieces and colors with free choice to reshape and position enable them to free to make their crazy ideas shown on the device. Also, they are connected non-verbally to each other as a way of enhancing cooperation. It should be an enjoyable and creative experience for both the players and the audience.

Proposal 3: Where does your trash go?

       Vivien researched bomb. As described, it addresses a significant social problem that is worth people to pay attention and think. Also, Ian researched the project in PSA which works in response to the environment. However, both of us believe that these projects have a very significant core value but lack the application of interaction. Deriving from that, we start to focus on the issues that are around ourselves and try to figure out an engaging, interactive way to demonstrate it to the general audience by using a technological device. The recent hot topic about the trash sorting policy in Shanghai attracts our attention.

       We researched the existing technology that addresses the issue of trash soring in Shanghai, including the automatic trash-bin and the mini program in WeChat that tells the public how to sort the garbage. (http://tech.163.com/19/0821/22/EN4TIL6H00097U7T.html). However, we think that both of them are practical tools for daily use that do not build a communication environment, nor do they significantly arouse the public’s awareness. Therefore, we are thinking about creating a simple device that impresses the audience to think about a more fundament question: why should I sort the trash?

       How it may work: the audience can put different sample card, which indicates different types of trash into the trash bin. On the screen, it is demonstrating the different ways of dealing with different types of trash. When one trash is thrown into one of the bin, the animation will show the audience how it may impact the environment around them. Multiple motors and lights may be used to create an authentic experience for the audience and leave them a deep impression.

       Since many people in Shanghai do not understand the purpose and the importance of sorting the trash, this project brings impact to the general public by showing them the process and the effect of recycling garbage. It builds the connection between people’s daily lives and the changing environment around them. It may motivate them to reflect on their relationship between their living environment and take action to make themselves live greener with the environment.

1.  “The Epic of Us”
   This idea is to make a two-player game in a model landscape made with cardboards and LEDs. The entire map would be an engaging large one so that people can walk around it. On the model landscape, the scenery would go from primary and backwards to modern and bright. In between the scenery, there is a path, and dozens of LEDs would be place along it to represent steps. Users will then take turns to throw a dice in the processing program, and take the steps forward according to the numbers he/she gets. The two players would be role-playing the leader of two countries, and arriving at certain points will give them weapons that can be used to attack the other user’s kingdom. The users will be told that they win when the other user’s HP gets reduced to 0 to encourage them to bring the other down. And the weapons will evolve from stone knives to swords, then to guns, and finally to something so destructive like hydrogen-bomb as they go along the path to the modern scene. By the time they choose to eliminate the other with such powerful weapons, both the kingdoms will go into ruins, and nobody wins. The idea of this game is to highlight a meaningless arms race between countries, and call upon them to collaborate for the well-being of the whole human race. In the title, the epic of “us” could either be an individual country or the entire world.
2.  “See from inside”
   We want to make a project that involves two people. They will be looking at two different screens with the same processing program on it. On the program, they will be choosing from the pre-drawn eyes, face shapes, hairstyles, noses, and lips to make a portrait of a person, except that one participant is asked to make a self-portrait but the other is told to make a combination that looks like the other participant. They would be selecting with Arduino devices (like a joystick). After they are done from drawing the other person, they will compare the two portraits with each other to see if the self-portraiter sees the same person as the one the other sees in him/her. My partner and I think that in most cases (where people are serious), people would try their best to reveal nice things in another person, and we want the self-portraiter to see how great he/she is in another’s eye. This is supposed to be a project that promotes diverse criteria for beauty and kindness that tells people to care more about being a person that is great inside and don’t be caught up by how you look outside.
3.  Revolution
   My partner and I thought about another two-player game that invites each of them into a space where they can’t see the other player. Then, one of the players will be shown an abstract picture and he will be drawing that out with Arduino and processing, but only with straight lines in a limited time. Then, the other user would be shown the work fo the drawer and choose from four random pictures to tell which one the drawer is depicting. Since the users aren’t seeing each other, and they can only communicate through pictures of straight lines, which represents the limitation of technology, we want the users to get a sense of technology is sometimes making communication harder, for example, if the players are face-to-face and can talk their feelings about this picture to one another, thing would be easier. Therefore, we want to remind the audience to pay attention to in-person interaction in real life, because some emotions are never going to be conveyed through digital channels. We want to get the player to think whether the development of technology is an evolution to us or a step back.