RESEARCH - Example of interaction
04/11/19
Wushu Project - Moritz Waldemeyer
This piece is really interesting and highly memorable. And the fact that you should move the LED light to reveal this pattern of writings makes the work extremely exciting and immersive.
The optical effect is really similar to the ones that the trails of sparklers or car lights create:
RESEARCH - Example of interaction
04/11/19
Studio Roosegaarde - Sustainable Dance Floor
This dance floor generates energy from the movements of people dancing on it. I find it very engaging as it stimulates people to dance and it is a great alternative to the usual polluting disco lights.
RESEARCH - Example of interaction
04/11/19
Cinimod Studio - Beacon
The beacon lights of this installation follow the visitor's movements creating a very ludic environment. The work plays on the concept of being tracked or being the centre of attention. Participants can approach it by trying to trick the lights to escape the controlling environment or being perfectly at ease with the situation.
RESEARCH - Example of interaction
04/11/19
Frank Müller, Rob Meek - Meek.FM
I find this work brilliant as it gives the opportunity to associate letters with sounds different from the standard ones, widening the view on words' sounds. It flips the normal correlation between music and words, as is not the lyrics which is adapted to the track, but it is the track that is originated from the lyrics.
RESEARCH - Example of interaction
04/11/19
Design I/O - Vinyl Workout
The installation is based on the appreciation of the effort of repeating an action. And the song highlights the whole idea of repetition too. It can be a mean to stimulate people to workout as the same concept can be applied to treadmills.
RESEARCH - Example of interaction
04/11/19
Silke Hilsing - Impress_Flexible Display_
The element that makes the piece memorable is the tactile experience. It allows the user to totally immerse in the action of modelling the surface rendering the experience very relaxing.
I think that this work can be connected to the representation of the curvature of space-time's notion present in Einstein's relativity theory:
For instance, the hand can be considered as the mass that modifies the space-time, which is the surface.
RESEARCH - Example of interaction
04/11/19
Studio Roosegaarde - Lotus 7.0
The wall is made of smart foils which open and close as people walk past the installation. That gives the impression of interacting with a "living entity".
It reminded me of a game I used to play with my friends when I was little, the Fortune Teller Fish:
This little fish folded when it was put on someone's hand as it reacted with its heat. The foils of which the installation is made could possibly follow the same principle.
RESEARCH - Example of interaction
04/11/19
"Parole Da Salvare" project:
Zanichelli is a famous brand of dictionaries in Italy that started a project called "Words To Save". They decided to display in the most important cities of Italy an interactive Italian dictionary that contains all the words that risk to disappear from the language. The user should tap on the touchscreen and choose the word at risk that he wants to adopt. I believe that is a brilliant initiative that encourages people to explore vocabularies and their different meanings.
RESEARCH - Example of interaction
Felix Gonzalez-Torres - Portrait of Ross (Up on the left)
I believe that his simple method of communication was really powerful. The use of candies to deliver a serious concept as AIDS simplifies the idea without taking away its strong meaning and it amplifies the impact of the work on visitors. As candies are considered the symbol of innocence and childish happiness, but acquire profound and moving connotations when put in a context like the loss of someone important.
Felix Gonzalez-Torres - Untitled (Public Opinion)
When I visited the Guggenheim Museum in New York few years ago, I had the chance to interact with one of his works. I remember that at first I was a bit confused by this "carpet" of candies, I didn't know what to do, if I was supposed to take one of them. And the aesthetic of these liquorice pieces really interested me, since they looked more like bullets or little missiles than candies. Which created a very dark atmosphere around the piece. In fact, the artwork alludes to American culture's militaristic outlook and also referred to the pervasive censorship in that country and the lack of public information. I remember leaving the room being very impressed by the communicating power of the work.
CONTEXTUAL PRACTICE
04/11/19
Starting from the sentence:"As you make your bed so you must lie upon it" we began thinking about the various types of beds and the different types of comforts they give. While doing that we focused on the essential and how, sometimes, it is put in contrast with comfortableness. An example of that could be homeless people's beds. While confronting with another pair we were suggested to make an installation that could have been based on an escalation of steps towards homelessness, in order to bring the homeless world to the general public so people could appreciate more their privileged lifestyle and maybe start donating to charities. So we came out with the idea of letting people make their "homeless beds" with the same materials that a homeless person have access to. After the experiment we perfected our idea of installation changing its location from putting it on the street to setting it up in a building so it could look out of context and stand out more. We also thought that could be appropriate to start a conversation with people on how the experience of making the bed using only few materials changed their view on their lifestyle and inform them about charity associations and, as the tutor suggested, statistics and facts about homelessness. Overall I believe that the concept is strong and that has potentials that can be developed during the realisation of the project.
RESEARCH
04/11/19
Tracey Emin - My Bed
As Daisy and I were talking about our concept this image popped into my mind since it reminds me of the homeless people's beds. I believe that this work is a great representation of hitting rock-bottom which connects to our topic because homelessness can be considered as one of the darkest periods of a person's life.
CONTEXTUAL PRACTICE
05/11/19
The discussion with the tutor helped us to improve our concept even more, especially the set up and the aesthetic of it. She expressed the concern that maybe using only the materials a homeless person has access to could have been a bit problematic as it would have delivered the wrong message. Such as that the passers by should have felt somehow guilty of having privileges which homeless people don't. So in order to avoid misunderstandings we opted for giving people the chance to choose between a range of random objects (including both the useful and the purposeless ones). And when they will finish making their beds we will reveal to each of them the project's aim and the connection between it and homelessness. We also contacted one of the associations we found during our researches following the tutor's suggestion. And we will give to the passers by cards with the association's website and our project's quote written on them.
RESEARCH
05/11/19
This is the latest release of rough sleeping statistics in England. It shows that the number of people rough sleeping in London largely increased since last year. The region of London had the highest percentage of the total number of people sleeping rough by region in 2018. It also informs us that the number of people sleeping rough who were UK nationals in London was down by 9% since 2017. Similarly did the number of people sleeping rough in London who were from outside the EU and the UK, that was down by 27%. On the other hand, the number of EU (non-UK) nationals sleeping rough in London increased of the 87% and they form the majority (48%) of rough sleepers in London.
RESERACH
05/11/19
Homeless Charities:
CONTEXTUAL PRACTICE
06/11/19
The works from the presentation represent multiple different approaches to interaction. For instance, the "Construct me!" project of Droog Design shows how the use of interaction in design can help people, creating useful pieces that have also the function of amusing people. Differently, Arakawa & Gins' work "Bioscleave House" shows how this interaction can be used to challenge people limiting the functionality of the space that surrounds them. However, these examples of two different approaches have a point in common: the entertainment of the audience. This entertainment can be an end in itself or it can be a mean to deliver thoughtful messages, like in Neil Beloufa's work "Global Agreement" and in "Me, Myself and You" by Droog Design.
Though the visualisation of our idea could have been represented better, I believe that at the time of the presentation the concept was easily understood by everyone. I think the visualisation and pitch task for us was more like a confirmation of how the project will be carried out. And it was the experiment with our peers that helped us developing the concept more.
RESEARCH
06/11/19
Daniel Eatock - One + One
Daniel Eatock - Pen Challenge
Both of these projects are related to our work as they include the creation of strange interactions between random objects. Which is what passers by will be put in the position to do in order to make their beds.
RESERACH
06/11/19
Arakawa & Gins - Bioscleave House
This work focuses on challenging people to interact with an unusual space which has a really ludic atmosphere to it. I believe it connects with our project as one of our aims is to challenge people approach the theme of rough sleeping in a playful way.
RESEARCH
06/11/19
Droog Design - Me, Myself and You
I like the idea of inverting the purpose of the fence, using it to create connections instead of separation. We would like to deliver the same message through our project letting passers by approach the homelessness, by facing similar difficulties that rough sleepers face. This experience should knock down the barriers that separate the two lifestyles.
RESEARCH
04/11/19
Oglivy & Mather Paris - Water For Africa
I was very impressed by this image not only because it delivers a very strong message, but also for the way it has been delivered. As they highlighted the concept putting it in a different context. I think that displaying a documentary, addressing the same issue, showing how African women get clean water everyday would not have had the same impact as unexpectedly seeing a woman walking a marathon with a tank of water over her head. It captures viewers' attention shocking people, and at the same time, creating curiosity. We also would like to make our work stand out taking it out of context, setting it up not in the street, but in a building, trying to make it as inviting as possible. And we will not reveal that the project is based on the topic of homelessness until the passers by will be done making their beds, so they will be surprised by the correlation between this theme and our work.