On December 19th and 20th, we had a chance to show the HeartWave project at the ITP Winter Show. Though gruelingly exhausting, the show was a rewarding experience. Until you put your object out in the world, you cannot get a feedback about the affordances of your design. You just have to stand back, and watch for the first impression in people’s faces when the ripples start emanating. We were delighted to hear a lot of positive feedback, and unique interactions. Some notes below:
Two presentations over, one to go. I presented the HighLine+Elevate project at the Physical Computing and Computational Media classes last week (see the pdf here, though videos won’t work). The presentations went quite well – I was happy with how the narrative came together, and the feedback I received from teachers and classmates. Below, I detailed some lessons learnt and specific project improvements from where I left it off last week.
The HighLine/Elevate project is evolving day-by-day. Since my progress notes #2, we made quite a bit of headway both in HighLine and Elevate projects. Now, a few days are left to present the work in PComp and ICM, and another ten days for the Urban Experience in Network Age (UXNA) class. This post documents the recent improvements, and highlights key areas to improve in the time we have left.
A few weeks after presenting the HeartWave project as the Media Controller midterm, we managed to create a semi-professional video that captured the designed interaction. We also revised the draft project documentation that I had posted two weeks ago.
So, here is the final documentation for this project, along with the video below. Enjoy! Feedback welcome, as always.
There is quite a bit of progress from where we were with the HighLine project last week. See below.
Only a few weeks are left for presentations in Computational Media (ICM), Physical Computing (PComp) and Urban Experience in the Network Age (UXNA) classes, all of which have a final project component. I decided combine my assignments into a single project rather than trying to lead three separate tracks. From all the ideas I listed last week, I will move forward with the HighLine Project.
The HighLine is a big-scale installation proposal that has both programming and physical computing components, along with tasks related to user research, AfterEffects animation, architectural modeling and more. We have left it off at concept level for the UXNA midterm, and now want to take it to the next level.
Now that midterms are over, I am back to that crucial question: What is an idea worth investing five weeks of my time to? Below are some possible trajectories. Now, I will need to sketch these ideas, share them with people, and make a decision based on which one is the most theoretically compelling, practically viable and technically diverse (i.e. applying multiple physical computing skills). Hmm…
HeartWave is an art object that reads the actor’s heartbeat using touch sensors, and generates synchronized ripples on a small, underlit water pond. It can be interacted with by one or two actors.
