Project Title: Puppet
In “The Future of Design: When you come to a fork in the road, take it”, the author discusses the significance of human-centered design. It requires a deep understanding of people and involves careful observations and analyses to determine needs. When working on the project proposal, I applied the main concept of human-centered design to our project. We first came up with the theme of puppet, which always represents those who are controlled and follow commands. We further developed the theme by extending it to the concept of social image. Based on this theme, we developed our design by thinking about how we can utilize Arduino and Processing to express this idea. We found that the Arduino servo is a perfect choice to control the movement of the marionette, and Processing can be used for the interaction, letting the user control the marionette in an indirect way. We then came up with our further plan and recorded it in the proposal. A miniature stage with stage curtains and lighting will be set, on which we will place a marionette. The marionette will be connected to the Arduino servos on the roof with strings, so that it can change poses. On the wall behind the miniature stage, we will cast the Processing image with a projector. In Processing, we will draw the shadow of the puppet. The users can control the moveable joints of the puppet by the mouse. Data of these gestures would be passed from Processing to Arduino. The real marionette on the stage would first quickly and randomly change a series of postures, and finally end up with the pose set by the user in Processing before. In addition, we will try to enhance the artistic appeal of the installation with music, lighting and so on. The potential challenges include how to accurately pass the data of the puppet’s poses from Processing to Arduino; how to connect servos with the puppet smoothly with the correct mechanism; and how we can convey the heavy topic in an implicit way.
After submitting the proposal, we made a plan to make our tasks clear. From Nov. 21 to Nov. 24, we will first collect general information. We will get a marionette to figure out how the mechanism works and how we can modify it to connect it with servos. In addition, we will make final decisions about how the image in Processing will look like to convey our theme; what else we can do to add aesthetic values; what the materials that may involve are… We will draw a draft of the final work as well. From Nov. 24 to Nov. 30, we will get the code done. During that week, we will also start to prepare the materials (start to do 3D printing). If necessary, we will make some modifications to the original plan. From Dec.1 to Dec. 10, we will assemble all the materials together and add some detailed decorations to enhance the aesthetic values, such as lighting, music, background settings and so on. We will invite some peers and IMA fellows to test our project, and collect suggestions from them to make final modifications.
In my preparatory research and analysis, I wrote my personal definition of a successful interaction experience. In my opinion, the process of interaction should be clear to the users, so that they can get a basic sense of what they should do to interact with the device. Various means of expression can be involved, such as visuals and audios. The experience could be thought-provoking, which may reflect the facts in the real life. Our project aligns with my definition of interaction well. It aims at those who intentionally or compulsively cater to the social roles imposed on them by the forces in the society. The user plays the role of the forces that decide our social images, while the puppet on the stage represents ourselves, who are constrained by the social expectations. The “struggle” that the puppet has before it stops with its final pose represents our mental struggles when pondering whether to meet social expectations. However, we ultimately make the passive or initiative choice that satisfies the forces just as what the puppet does. We expect that the user can be inspired by this artistic installation, gain new thoughts, or have reflection. The marionette on stage may be clownish, but it is more than that. We hope that we can find the balance between entertainment and artistic expression, and finally convey our theme to the audience.
Reference:
“The Future of Design: When you come to a fork in the road, take it”:
https://jnd.org/the_future_of_design_when_you_come_to_a_fork_in_the_road_take_it/