Proposal for 2nd year research and WIP show
Point of research and interests
- Our tactile relationship with our devices – the beginning point.
- Information VS knowledge, explored through physicality and materiality. I am interested in how we view and consume visual media now that we are constantly looking at flat-screened devices. I would like to explore this through visceral materiality, colour research and immersive design.
- Designing surfaces – moving away from the flat. Experiences are now flattened out. I would like to create alternative interactive surfaces. Translating our interactions with devices differently through different surfaces, leading to a collection of different data in the brain.
- The senses – the uncontrollable spontaneity that naturally exists within the senses that are all linked to memory and the self
- Colour research – over the past year through group interactive projects and commercial work I feel that I’ve lost my colour sensitivity through lack of on-going visual research, which is something very important to me that will be a key part of this project. I definitely want to incorporate colour theory into the overall concept in terms of designing something experiential that evokes a mood through colour, lighting, space, sound etc.
- ‘Slowing down technologies’ - meditation being one of these, creating meditative spaces with an emphasis on the importance of solitude for humans to recharge.
“If you don’t teach children to be alone they’ll only ever feel lonely” – Sherry Turkle Good Life Podcast 2016
This disconnection from our devices has lead to a degradation of experiences. We are more disconnected in our day-to-day interaction, which in turn affects our memories of these and our overall quality of experiences with others.
Without face-to-face interactions there’s a loss of spontaneity, online communication creates a ‘fantasy of efficient transactions’, whereas in terms of experiencing something new and learning about you, those experiences cannot be planned.
Along with a loss of empathy, there is a hangover from instant gratification that I feel has been accelerated by our digital lives and is leaking into every aspect of life. Everything we view needs to be a heightened version, a filter, more contrast, edited to feel more intense.
We naturally develop our identity through interaction with the spaces and people around us, where human vulnerability once exists; devices are now there to assert our human values.
The solution is to find a new way of connecting as opposed to focusing on all the negatives of tech in our lives, which will always exist.
Themes
- Identity linked to technology
- Colour theory/colour therapy
- Comfort, protection, self-reflection
- Design for public knowledge/awareness
- Reconnection with the senses
- Audience interaction
Current Questions
How are our choices of media absorption influenced by our devices?
How has our relationship with our senses changed due to the use of screens?
How do flat screens affect our tactile world?
What I will be taking from what I’ve currently learnt in the past year
- Observers project – Learning how to make simple successful interactions, finding identity through daily routines, public identity VS intimate identity
- Using objects, surfaces and materials to create a child-like sense of play through tactility
- Commercial projects – Understanding the design issue of creative interactive work for non-tech clients, the translation between ideas in our mind and applying the idea to the real world that will be meaningful to the audience
- Sound Swing project – humanising an object without visuals
Skills/Attributes of mine I plan to use
- Clean aesthetic designing through colour, form and surfaces
- Design process – a series of material and technical experiments and tests
- Creating relatable work through user’s personal experience – placed meaning/symbolism
Current ideas of how to achieve this
- Jumping off point – I’ve been looking in to highly textural ‘satisfying’ accounts on instagram, plan on projecting these to see the response
- Custom curved screens/making curved glass interactive – could start with a bell jar and placing sensors inside
- Creating an interactive surface that is reactive using colour and light – lots of different variations to consider
- Room of reactive pillows/custom inflatables!
Weekly Plan
Rest of this week – 11/12
Instagram/projector idea
Decisions from Emily tutorial!
Colour research – decisions on how this will influence the WIP piece and what direction to take
Begin documenting everything on online blog
Research in to touch screens – is what I want to do possible?
Week 12/12 - 18/12
Final crit before end of term
Book tutorial with Angus/Ronnie
Week 19/12 – 25/12
Week 26/12 – 1/1
Begin making for WIP show
Week 2/1 – 8/1
Away/out of the country
Week 9/1 – 15/1
Making for WIP show
Week 16/1 – 22/1
Install and show!
