Categories
group research project interaction lab

step2&3&4: make, perform & report

Results/processes in terms of script, roles and ideas are reflected in our google doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14zxwJo6eB24SLhWYegINjtrimZ3LWMK9ZRYbWlZN47k/comment 

It would be helpful to look at it when i refer to it. 

The first thing we did when we met for the first time with our group is that we created a google doc where everyone has included what ideas they came up with for the “read” step. After further discussion, we decided to brainstorm two days later, when everyone has gone through all the other’s ideas. 

Next time we met, we spent about an hour going back in forth about what we can do. We all really liked the idea of Douaa’s crime detection device + we came up with the glasses idea, (it perfectly aligns with the environment described by Ray Bradbury “The Veldt”, as it is a very advanced technology and could actually help parents detect that their children are attempting crime against them). 

Then we started to think about the actual performance to further develop what our glasses are going to be doing and how we can show that. 

We agreed that our performance should be entertaining, however kind of educational (in terms of how the glasses work) so that we don’t have to explain much, the show will be sufficient. Plus, we thought it would be relatable to set the scene in the classroom and involve some funny drama that would also make the performance more entertaining. Of course, we needed everyone to have a valuable role in that, so we almost evenly divided the roles (the google doc attached in the beginning of the blogpost has it on the first page).

And then, we remembered the dongles (Luciana said thats American for USB-C adapters). So yeah, we started writing the script and we were done in an hour. We suspected it was too short, but we decided to fix it during our first rehearsal that was happening the next day. We also needed some stuff to be done:

  • signs “The following day”, “Next recitation” for transitions
  • glasses 
  • (we would find out later that we also need a video frame, however at that time we were not planning on doing that as that scene did not exist)

As Zhuang Yi (I am not sure whats her english name) volunteered to be the narrator, so she also volunteered to create and to print out the signs. She had two days and had to bring them to out rehearsal. Spoiler: she has done a wonderful job! plus, apparently, she had to paint the letters herself! i was so amazed by the dedication she showed! (I’m just mentioning that in case she forgot to give herself credit for that in her own blogpost)

Anyway, the rest of the group, including me, gathered up the next day and started cutting out glasses out of the cardboard. At first, i thought that it would be better to cut out some huge glasses so that during the performance it would be extremely obvious that a teacher has put them on and (+ we settled for the idea of creating two glasses so that the second one could be painted red (spoiler: this would change later)) that they turned red when they do. I have created stuff like that:

while I was trying to turn Ricky into a character from Marvel/DC instead of a teacher, Joy decided to shape glasses similarly to the glasses I had with me:

and, that was a great idea as they were the only ones that would actually fit Ricky (not fall down or make him look like Daredevil (Matt Murdock) the last reference to DC i promise). So, we decided to stick with it. The next challenge was that we had to come up with a way to actually show the interaction (the signal coming from the glasses). As I mentioned, the glasses were supposed to turn red. However, we didn’t have anything red that we could paint the glasses with. So we thought that we are going to go to FabLab the next day and hope they let us spray-paint the glasses red.

But everything changed as we thought that we would also like to do something with the non-red glasses as they looked kind of unfinished. And then the rolls of wire caught mine and Douaa’s attention. We had both red and soldering metallic wire there! So we took our chance and wrap the glasses with it. In the beginning, I was doing the soldering-wire, Douaa was doing the red one. However, We changed later as Douaa was struggling with keeping the wire wrapped around the glasses as she was using glue for that and it didn’t really work. I had an idea of using the soldering wire to do that (as it was much more “obedient” in that sense. And it happened! We spent around 15-20 min of that, and it was totally worth it!

So yeah! the glasses were perfect and easy-to-comprehend artifact! And they were complete. 

Moving on to the next day – the rehearsal – we spent some time working on the script as the initial one took place for 2 min only)))) so yeah, we extended the script, added some scenes (including the last one where the authority holds glasses and shows the projection of the video it recorded (the video of the crime). We added a couple of jokes, worked on our performance nuances such as the change of glasses and slow-mo scene and yellow duck to produce the beep sounds (initially the narrator, Zhuang, was supposed to do that)! I believe everyone has done a terrific job being as loud and clear in their speech and, I am proud of our performance and idea. 

Side note: when we came up with the slow-mo scene (the last one) to show how the glasses work exactly, we decided to do this cardboard frame and Zhuang and Ricky went and started working on that, while me, Joy, Luciana and Douaa were finishing up the script! Later I helped Ricky and Zhuang to complete the frame (I glued some pieces together). I believe the frame turned out perfectly fine!

The day of performance we decided to rehearse our quotes once again and gathered up an hour before the class. We were kind of nervous, however dealt with it perfectly by reassuring each other that everything will be fine! 

Performance went great! We were really happy that our invention also attracted some questions later and were very happy to answer them. Of course, there were some minor inconveniences, maybe we could’ve talked a bit louder and things like that, however, if i am being honest, this was the best one we have ever done! No one forgot their quotes or the times they enter the scene, everything was smooth and clear. I am not sure If we are supposed to attach the video here, but I will include it below in the blogpost. 

Speaking of the questions, the following paragraph will describe the artifact that we have presented, including some details that came up during the Q&A:

Our invention was the Crime Detection glasses. This is an invention that perfectly fits into advanced-technologies environment of Ray Bradbury’s “The Veldt” as, besides being very fitting into the high-tech environment, it would also be a very helpful thing to have to detect the crime the children were plotting. Our glasses is basically merge of security cameras (recording), AI (algorithm that can actually record and show the needed footage, “understand” when the crime happens) and Google glasses (shape inspiration). The reason why we chose glasses (not just some sort of camera) is that it is, firstly, looks cooler, the second is that they would be more interactive (with the buttons that show the crime scene and instant reaction: turning red and beeps), and finally, more personalized experience (the person who wears them can control them). It also is more fitting into our understanding of interaction. So yeah, this object was unique, quite comprehensive in the way it works and fun to show to everyone else! 

Again, I am very proud of our team for investing quite a lot of time and energy in brainstorming ideas, creating the artifact and other things for the performance and doing our best showing our invention! We were able to divide tasks efficiently, be creative, improvise and react rapidly to unforeseen circumstances (e.g. the absence the frame)!

the video:

Categories
group research project interaction lab

step1.2: read

The Veldt (Ray Bradbury): 

  • The device I thought of is the automatic windows dimmer that could exist in the “smart home” described in the story. It would react to the sound of hand clapping.

This idea is basically a merge between the dimming windows on some aircrafts (I saw them on one of Etihad airways’s aircrafts https://thepointsguy.com/guide/how-do-those-dimming-dreamliner-windows-work/) and “the clapper” that was first introduced by the google home, but now can be even purchased on Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Clapper-Activated-Detection-Appliances-Technology/dp/B0000CGKLR).

I don’t really see any problem with the invention of this mechanism, except for the idea that people are gonna move less and less and become very lazy. But that is a very long-term and individual-choice issue. 

___________________________________________________________

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas (Ursula K. Le Guin):

  • Device that determines your mood by facial expressions and shows some videos/pictures/anything else to get your mood back up. This device would very much likely fit into this never-ending happiness lifestyle that people of Omelas are trying to preserve. When entering buildings/homes/etc. they could be monitored (as we were/are with the temperature in COVID-19 times) by the face expressions and being advised to visit the “fun room” where you go and watch something funny to you (based on your browsing history/manually found). This would allow the people of Omela track those who are losing their happiness (maybe because of the disturbing thoughts about the suffering child and guilt that comes with it) and help them restore it.

As I have already mentioned, we already have sensors that measure our temperature everywhere (https://www.heimannsensor.com/body-temperature), the establishment seems familiar. I found this paper on the facial recognition technologies (chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://edps.europa.eu/system/files/2021-05/21-05-26_techdispatch-facial-emotion-recognition_ref_en.pdf) that basically says that the data results are still not as accurate as they should, however given the rapid development of biometric recognition technologies over the past years, I would say, give it a year or two and we will have the machine learning algorithms for that. As for the customized “fun”, we already have browsers and social media that adjust out searches based on location/bookmarks/likes/reposts/time/etc (e.g. instagram algorithms https://later.com/blog/how-instagram-algorithm-works/). So there is nothing new here. 

The danger of these kind of technologies is the data that gets exposed to the government/other parties that might be threatening to individuals as anything one does could be tracked and that makes any kind of freedom of expression vanish, which for a lot of people is incompatible with happiness. Moreover, the Omela  society’s strive to prioritize happiness above anything else is itself somewhat problematic (which makes this keeping-a-happy-face invention problematic as well): with constant happiness there is no space or time left for contemplation, no struggles often reflect in a very slow personal/professional growth. At least that is the deal in the real world, maybe the people of Omela are different. 

___________________________________________________________

The Plague (by Yan Leisheng):

  • Device that can completely cuts-out any air to come from the inside to the outside if some bacteria’s certain concentration in the air is reached. I believe that in this utopian reality this invention would very much help to prevent the decease from spreading that fast. As people were trying to isolate to prevent the spread of decease, every house could be provided with sensors that could monitor the concentration of the bacteria (just like the pcr test but touchless and quicker) and if detected near somebody, the whole house would be momentarily “wrapped” by some plastic semicircle (like a tent) that could only get the air in from one place and, only after total purification, the air from the inside could be released back to the atmosphere.

This is the merge between something like the humidity sensor (https://www.epluse.com/products/humidity-instruments/transmitters-for-industrial-applications/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIzZbT-7yv-gIVYdOWCh3-gwgXEAAYASAAEgKuaPD_BwE) and the blood glucose sensors (https://www.palmsens.com/oem/point-of-care/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI4LPvzr2v-gIVlZpmAh3RcAVsEAAYASAAEgKL0_D_BwEjust the different type of measurement. 

I believe that this invention would not harm anyone, except those who were unfortunate enough to catch the decease. Also, of course, there is always some uncertainty to the instrument, so some people people could be even potentially be locked up without any reason. Plus, of course, the limitation of being monitored 24/7, living in constant fear and anticipation that something is going to go wrong. 

Categories
group research project interaction lab

step1.1: research

Interaction, in my opinion, is at its core communication and response to the communicated information, which helps art to achieve its purpose. i believe that without these three elements a piece of art, a game, a furniture, etc. cannot be called interactive as it does not change its state. or even if it changes, it happens not as a response to the events that happened or does not carry any meaning behind it. or both.

INTERACTIVE ART OBJECTS

last year i studied in abu dhabi for two semesters and was fortunate to visit EXPO 2020 about 10-15 times during the fall 2022 semester. one of the reasons i was coming there so often was that a lot of pavilions were extremely interesting and as there were so many, it was hard to stop coming back as something new opens. 

here is the link to some of the most interesting interactive installations that were displayed. Most of them perfectly fit into my description of interactivity as there visitors were able to see, listen, touch and that provoked the installation to change/evolve/stop/appear, etc., while communicating the message (development of the country, their initiatives, etc.)/evoking a feeling (joy, sadness, etc) that installation was supposed to convey. 

https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/expo-2020/

I, myself, would also add Germany’s pavillion as they had this very interesting core scenario to support they pro-green message for the visitors that you were supposed to follow and depending on how you did several interactive tasks, it would show how much electricity you have produced just by touching/turning/tossing things, (it supposedly was to show the importance of sustainability and to portray how small is needed from us to start making a change) this also perfectly fits into my definition of interactivity as it basically action and response format. (here is the link to the description and some info of the German pavilion https://www.expo2020germany.de/en/the-german-pavilion/)

NON-INTERACTIVE ART OBJECTS

one example of non-interactive art objects would be an oil painting “Forest road” by Ivan Shishkin. This painting is a piece of art that doesn’t interact with a viewer, except for the visual part. the only thing a person can do with the painting is to look, look more closely, look from far away and contemplate every time he changes his point of view. it is not to say that works of art like these are less valuable than the interactive ones, however they certainly have rather limited span of use. Forest road, 1892 - Ivan Shishkin - WikiArt.org

https://www.wikiart.org/en/ivan-shishkin/forest-road-1892