Final Project preparation
A. Chronus Exhibition
First, I’ll talk about my experience during our time in the field trip: Chronus exhibition. Different from an ordinary art exhibition, it’s a gallery where IT tech is used in the art work. At the entrance of the gallery, we found a project called Artificial Intuition, which is a sculpture that interacts with human motions. When you walk by it, it’ll block the audience, giving the audience a feeling of life in the machine. Walking into the room, a big device made of some huge frames. It’s called “Rechender Raum”.I saw many components we also use in our project, like smaller Arduino Boards and servos. To be honest, I cannot know the meaning of it and did not see any interactive part in it. Besides that, there are also many other devices, like Genesis, The Form of Becoming, etc.
In all the art projects, the very art that impressed me is called “Beholding the Big Bang” It’s a sculpture made of concrete blocks and gears. A motor drives a series of gears which reduce the speed that it will take 13.82 million years for the final gear to rotate once, which is also the time of the Big Bang. The first gear rotated fast, while the final gear is fixed into concrete. The sculpture gave me a thought into the whole universe and the meaning of ourselves though it seems that there is no interaction part involved. I think the main difference between the tech-involved and none-tech artwork is that the tech-involved ones are just the different forms of artworks and the core thing of it is just the same. Moreover, tech-involved artwork are easier and more interesting to understand compared to the none-tech ones, though it is still hard to get the point without the introduction.
B.Research
The first interactive project I want to talk about is called “Drone Collision Avoid System”(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3l-zJafOncNo.4). The developers used some Ultrasonic distance sensors, an Arduino Board, some servos and motors to build that. When something went near the Drone, 4 Ultrasonic sensors, which are built around the Drone, will detect the object and it will fly away. The reason why I chose this project is that I used the Ultrasonic distance sensor in my mid-term project, and I am familiar with it. However, the Drone seems more interesting than my helmet. Then I thought that it is idea that count much for the project. Also, I noticed that when someone came near to the drone, the drone will tilt a little, then fly away. This small thing told the user that the drone has got the information that someone is near it so that people won’t walk further.
The second less successful interactive project I want to talk about is called DIY Interactive LED Coffee Table(DIY Interactive LED Coffee Table – Arduino Project. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3l-zJafOnc. Accessed 5 Nov. 2019.) It’s made of distance sensors, LEDs, and Arduino boards. When something is on the table, the distance sensor found out and makes the LED light up. It’s also connected to a Bluetooth module so that you can use a phone app to adjust the color of the light. It is an interactive project, however, I find it is just you give the device input, and the LED light up to give you output, and it’s over. The device lack the interaction between the coffee table and users, and if I were the builder, I will make the LED fade when the people comes, and when it’s closer—just like the distance of the object equals to the distance between the table—it will be stable. I think this will give an experience.
C.
First, I defined interaction as an input and an output from the machine. However, I find it no enough for a successful interaction. To make a great interaction, we have to not only contain an interaction, but also a loop of interaction, like give the user the response of the unfinished interaction. In this way, we can create a better experience.
Second, a successful interaction should be just interaction. It has to have some meanings or to be interesting or funny after the experience of the field trip, maybe I’m not able to create such a masterpiece with massive meanings, but I have to inject some meanings to the project.