REPORT:
We got our idea from the story: The Veldt– Ray Bradbury
“George Hadley walked through the singing glade and picked up something that lay in the comer near where the lions had been. He walked slowly back to his wife. “What is that?” she asked. “An old wallet of mine,” he said. He showed it to her. The smell of hot grass was on it and the smell of a lion. There were drops of saliva on it, it bad been chewed, and there were blood smears on both sides.” (Ray Bradbury, THE VELDT )
In this part of the story, George, the father, found a dirty wallet covered with saliva and blood, which implied the fate of the couple.
Searching the technology that exists, we find two types of technology. One is the AR technology that helps us see what the cultural relics look like thousands of years ago. The other one is the AI technology that helps us see how we look when we are old.
After reading this, we came up with an idea: How about making a camera that can predict what will happen in the future? Isn’t that cool?
But we foresaw some problems of the camera, if everyone can use the camera to see the future, will he or she accept the destiny or try to change it? Is everyone willing to see what life he or she lives in the future?
Decided the function and the model of the camera, we had our first sketch.
Angel drew two sketches of the camera with details, we chose the latter one.
Like common cameras, our camera has flashlight, push button on it. Combined with the characteristics of the Polaroid, the camera can print photos in time after taking photo every time. The unusual point is that the camera can predict what will happen in the future, with three buttons to adjust the predicted time, choosing to predict a year, a day, or an hour, or a minute later. The camera uses some sophisticated algorithm and artificial intelligence to achieve the prediction.
Amelia and Almon made the model of the camera with cardboard.
I did the decorations. I reinforced the structure of the camera with the scrap of colorful cardboards, and the use of black and white makes the camera look simple yet futuristic. I cut the cardboards into small pieces and stuck it a row onto the camera as buttons. To make the camera look better and more realistic, I used silver paper and stuck it in front of the camera lens. Also, I found a black tape in my tool bag, it’s very useful. It has a good stretchability and can be used to fill some small gaps. After two hours working, the decoration step finished!
Rebecca wrote the script of our performance and made power point to illustrate the general process.
Our script:
We played our different roles in the performance. Almon found the camera by chance and showed the strange camera to us. We wanted to figure out the function of the camera, so we decided to take a picture. Almon tried taking a picture of me, and the camera printed a photo of me falling down. And then, after some seconds, I really fell down. Above that, we speculated that the camera could predict the future.
To show the interactive way of the camera, we took the picture of an apple and got an output of a photo of rotten apple after one day. To avoid this happening, we put the apple into the fridge and got a photo of the fresh apple. In the process, the camera interacted with us, the output of it changed our actions.
The fridge and photos prepared:
Discussion & Rehearsal:
Watching other group performance, I’m interested in the automatic machine performed by group 4. The idea of the artifact was inspired by The Plague , written by Yan Leisheng, which tells the story of a civilization that was wiped out by a kind of virus. This automatic cleaning machine can eliminate the virus in human body with ultraviolet rays, and has the function of washing and drying, which can effectively sterilize. The performance is humorous and easy to understand. The function of the machine is directly expressed from the “patient”, which deepened our impression of the performance and broadened our understanding to the artifact. But there still remains shortage, as I haven’t found interactive points in this artifact. It’s like a reactive machine, not interactive machine. If the output of the machine can change the actions of people, for example, the machine can analyze the result of the examination of body and give suggestions to patients, which affects patients behaviors in the future, the artifact will be interactive and better.
The performance of automatic cleaning machine:
This group research project was very interesting. My team members and I collaborated to design and build our works, rehearsed and performed together. We have further discussed and understood the meaning of interactive, and also found new creative ideas from the performances of other groups. I’m looking forward to the next group project!