Project Statement of Purpose:
People are stressed everyday. The 21st century is a tough time to live in for all ages and people end up getting overwhelmed and looking for an exit out of it all. One of the ways people forget their depressed, stressed or maybe even anxiety-driven everyday lives is through escapism- whether its reading a book or playing a painting. Escapism, as described by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary is the “habitual diversion of the mind to purely imaginative activity or entertainment as an escape from reality or routine.”Our project, An Adventure in Sound, aims to indeed, create a short, imaginative diversion in sound and sensory for people, in order to take them away from the potentially cruel reality.
Project Plan:
“An Adventure in Sound” is indeed going to be an adventure in sound. It is going to be an interactive role-playing game with a story where people progress through it with their decisions. A person is going to be able to put on a pair of headphones, and is going to be asked to hold their two hands over two Arduino-connected sensors simultaneously to start the game. The game is going to ask the user a bunch of questions throughout a pre-created and recorded vocal story, which will immerse the user into it by asking him to make choices by continuously choosing which sensor to hold their hand over.
Over the next few weeks, my partner Ali and I are going to write a script, record the vocal lines for the speakers, find all the necessary sounds for the adventure in order to make it immersive (like horse hoofs on the ground and background noise inside of a tavern) and figure out all of the coding in order to make the project work.
Context and Significance:
A large part of my preparatory research came from my Midterm Project. I took a lot of the feedback I was given to heart and found myself extremely lucky to be working with Ali, who likes the idea of creating an interactive video-game like product which will engage an audience and transfer them into another world.
I still want to create a project that is highly interactive and engaging, one which is inspired by the article “What Exactly is Interactivity?”- I want a gave which constantly feels like it listens, takes in the decisions of its player and then gives them an output based on their choice.
I also still wish to draw inspiration from Zach Lieberman’s “Drawn” project, which allows people to draw art on their own, which then moves based on how it was created by them. People’s decisions are important, even more so when interacting with other actors or objects, and this can be seen in role-playing games!
I like to think that the people who this is intended for can be from teenagers to young adults. Anybody who is stressed about life, needs a place to escape to for a short amount of time, and have fun should be considered an audience for “An Adventure in Sound.” If the project succeeds, I would be pleased to progress it further and continue writing a script for those who wish to know what happens next.
Thank you!