This set of studies explores the relationship that we as user have with digital devices. Currently, we are forced to be quite delicate with digital devices for a variety of reasons. Mostly, this is due to the fact that the devices are fragile and expensive. But I’m interested in wondering what would happen if this wasn’t the case. What if you could interact with things in an emotional way? What if the physical manifestation of an emotional outburst caused a meaningful response from a device or system? I’ve explored this elimination of the preciousness associated with a device within the 3 studies in the video above and listed below.
1: Punching: Signal from the Noise.
A nostalgic exploration referencing a time when you could punch a television or radio in order to improve reception.
2: Throwing: Force as Instrument
An experiential exploration that looks at the force of throwing as musical instrument.
3: Shaking: Directional Nudge
The most specific of the scenarios, the shaking interface uses a mobile phone to look at ways in which provocative messages could be sent directly (and anonymously) from one device to another through the use of proximity and a sharp, scolding directional gesture.
This idea of the distance a food has traveled is good but we’ve quickly realized that knowing this once you are in the kitchen is not very valuable since you’ve already bought it and brought it home. It needs to happen earlier in the process, before a purchase has been made.
Farm Coop with Dynamic Recipe Options
The idea here is that initial pink block knows what is in your bag from the farm coop. Once placed on the counter, recipes would be displayed and filtered based on what items from the bag are selected by placing them near the block.
We liked this idea of a system in which recipes are presented based on what you have available. However, as evidenced by my small apartment counter top, counter space is incredibly valuable during cooking. Updated displays need to exist as a different model that remains flexible and reactive to the cooking process.
This is a series of gesture and networking possibilities that we are exploring with some object forms that we discovered on a research trip. We were engaged by these 12 identical pieces and curious as to what inspiration we could draw from their form. What opportunities are presented when holding, stacking, resting or combining many objects with this form?
The continuation, in physical + interactive form, of these earlier material explorations [01][02][03]
This is an exploration of interactions rooted in the results of the physical manifestations of emotional outburst initially inspired by a material intended for use in situations where protection and shock absorption are required. The explorations moved into a space that begins to ask questions about how we interact with technology and the ways that we treat the digital things around us with care. The visual forms are influenced by the forms of the material, developed for function but formally, are very engaging. The sounds are displayed live from within the object that is being smashed. The signal is affected and amplified in real time to create a more engaging sense of the internal results of the action inflicted upon the object.
The resulting interactions was found to be pleasing by many of the users. Some described it as fun and others said that the action and response was therapeutic for them.
This project looks at how unhelpful a great deal of information will be when associated with mundane objects as corporations look to infuse every act with a chance for communication. Consider this inline with the today’s quality of search results and data aggregation. If unchecked or under-considered by designers, it is easy to imagine how our world will continue to present us with information that is of little or no value.
Daniel Lara and I decided to pair our projects together in order to explore how the ridiculous could become even more so. By taping into my sensor data, his system could know what he was touching. By accessing his sensors, I used the information from a person in the space to determine scale and audio volume of the videos so that closer meant larger and louder.
This exploration that I’ve created for the New Ecology of Things (NET) looks at ways in which normal use and gesture can become interface. The parameters of the project are to create a useless network that pokes fun at the idea of the information cloud in some clever or interesting way. This is not that project. This is simply my initial technical sketch to get my wiring correct so that it properly senses the individual touching of multiple objects.
The audio loops being controlled in this demo are some results from my bent keyboard experiment.
The earlier, fruitless version of my sensing setup:
Final Installation in the MDP Wind Tunnel Gallery. 12/01/2009
In his essay “The Art of Noises: A Futurist Manifesto,” Luigi Russolo states that “In the 19th Century, with the invention of machines, Noise was born.” He goes on to reinforce this theory that before the industrial revolution there was not noise, but only sound. It wasn’t until the invention and proliferation of the machine age that we as a culture became bombarded with noise form all types of man made mechanical sources.
With the introduction of digital technology, a new type of noise immersion was created. As I am writing this form my living room table I am “hearing” the laptop in front of me, 2 or 3 hums coming form the kitchen, and thebuzz of the monitor and tower several feet to my left that I can’t even see. (Which I forgot were on and just turned off after having written that sentence.) We barely even notice this anymore. Now that we are not only surrounded by digital technology but the advancements have been such that it has become increasingly portable, an entirely new type of noise has become so pervasive that it is commonplace. But there have also been interesting side affects of these occurrences. One of which is the common nature to encounter one half of a private telephone conversation in public.
Sure, its annoying when a lack of phone etiquette holds up the line at the grocery store or causes confusion in determining just who someone is talking to (thanks small hands-free headsets). But at other times, the voyeuristic temptations to listen in and fill in the other half of the narrative are just too great to avoid.
The reworked rotary phone explores both of these characteristics of digital public noise through the use of a familiar single-user device that caries a sense of direct connection to the communication experience along with a certain nostalgia or celebration for not being assumed to be “always available.” There are 2 aspects to the audio experience created. Both of these experiences are controlled and manipulated through the use of the single rotary dial.
The first is the public display of the performance. Parts of conversations are mixed with ambient, mostly digital, sounds collected from public spaces to create textural compositions reflective of public spaces invaded by these sonic washes and injections. The ambient sounds are given priority in the composition and through the continued manipulation of the rotary dial, the sounds have the ability to deteriorate over time in a manor consistent with the ways that mobile phone conversations break-up and cut-out.
The second is the individual experience of listening to the audio performed through the handset. The original handset speaker was utilized to provide the appropriate texture for the sounds relevant to the device used. The material for the individual display is provided in a way that composes the conversational language and digital ambiance with more priority given to the voice-based narratives. The composition is also reminiscent of attempting to listen to someone who insists on using their phone in a public place.
Through the use and manipulation of the rotary dial of the phone, not only is the user affecting the sounds that they hear through the handset, they are also affecting and manipulating the compositions performed publicly which they are able to hear as well. The individual experience is intended to include both the intimate handset audio performance along with the public composition so that they can build upon each other to create new moments of silence and chaos, depending on how the user is interacting with the device.
I’m proposing a space where the performance is no longer a one-way transmission passively absorbed by a gang of viewers. Instead, each person becomes a participant, even if just by their presence, in the creation of an audio/visual experience. In this sense, the performer should be considered to be the algorithm – the system behind the scenes that is collecting, trimming, modifying and presented the content for output. The output, however, is determined by the decisions and actions of the participants within the space.
The first step to get the cover off. Let me also say that I love devices made in a time where things could be taken apart. In order to disassemble this phone, all I needed was a couple different screw drivers. I didn’t have to break any seams or destroy any chemical glue bonds in order to get into the case. I just had to deal with a few decades of dust, rust and grime.
Once I got the parts separated, laid out, I cleaned off the layers and layers of built up… I’m not sure what it was. Compacted dirt and dust I suppose. At least that’s what I’m going to tell myself it was just so that I can move forward.
I’m proposing a space where the performance is no longer a one-way transmission passively absorbed by a gang of viewers. Instead, each person becomes a participant, even if just by their presence, in the creation of an audio/visual experience. In this sense, the performer should be considered to be the algorithm – the system behind the scenes that is collecting, trimming, modifying and presented the content for output. The output, however, is determined by the decisions and actions of the participants within the space.
For the final prototype, we worked to address issues with accessing longer stories, further integrating the REader MIX module, and overall use and organizational issues. The “dots” branding was integrated throughout the different stories and sections and the content “filter matrix” was integrated into the “filtered” view in order to demonstrate the functionality of this widget.
Another final refinement for this stage was a slight alteration to how the type is displayed. For this final version the type family used changes based on the source in which the selected story was pulled from. Traditional news agencies are represented in the serif type face while stories collected from online-only sources as well as social media sites is displayed in the sans-serif.
3rd Iteration of Electronic News Reader Home Screen
This round focused on the further refinement of the visual language of a traditional newspaper and how we that visual language can be more integrated within the proposed digital space. This version also contains a more refined system, visually and functionally, for integrating the ‘widgets’ used to filter the presented content and the sources from which it is drawn. We also developed a visual system that utilizes the dots from the world map in order to identify how globally or locally a particularly story is being reported. The more dots associated with the story, the more broadly the story is being reported. As we were working on this phase, we also decided that the REader MIX was engaging enough that we should feature it more prominently within the design. To clarify, here are some descriptions for the features and functionality being proposed:
Location Filter
The “filter-matrix” developed for the eReader allows users to access stories based on a 2 dimensional sorting of where the story itself took place as well as the location of origin of person or agency reporting on the story. This would allow the user to gain a more broad perspective of location, national and global events. For example, one could view news of North America as reported from South Africa. Or read stories about the Middle East as reported from the Middle East. Adjusting the location of the source can demonstrate large disparities and prejudices in the reporting of an event. The location filter gives the reader the tools to broaden their understanding of the stories presented.
Source Type
This slider within the interface allows the user to determine the reputability and type of coverage that they are interested in reading. The “authority” scale gradates from International News Agencies through Opinion and Affiliated Organizations down to Blogs and social media. Using this tool gives the reader access to a more diverse set of information while still putting the priority for stories to be considered (as best as can be assumed by any large media outlet) actual, reported, edited, fact checked, responsible news at the forefront. Each story is then displayed along with the icon for its source so that the reader is constantly kept aware of the origination of the content being displayed. This system does not employ editors of its own. Instead, the system aggregates the content from a variety of sources and organizes for display as major home page stories as well as filterable content.
REader MIX
The REader MIX is an interactive module that exists in the majority of the layouts and contains a collection of words, phrases and sentances that have been added by all users of the GeoReader. When a user finds a particular word or phrase that they are interested in, they can press, hold and drag to highlight the phrase. A contextual link then appears asking them to add it to the REader MIX. Once added, the text becomes part of the dynamic, ever changing narrative presented to all users of the GeoReader. Each entry is color coded to match the section the reader who added it was viewing it in (since many stories will exist under multiple filters) and is a link back to the original story from which it was extracted. This offers users a new way of accessing and finding content they they may be interested in. Headlines don’t tell the whole story. Summaries don’t get to the heart of the story quickly enough. But if someone finds one particular phrase to be compelling, then someone else might too and follow that phrase to read a story they may not have found otherwise.
This video capture demonstrates the first prototype developed to illustrate the movement, organization and function of the electronic news reader that we are proposing. The main features demonstrated in this prototype are the dynamic nature in which content would shift and adjust, the use of filters in place of the traditional “one-category/section” structure of a traditional newspaper, and the filtering based on the locations of both where the story happened and the original location of the reporting source.
