Interscopic social intervention device. Using a microscope + camera setup, we created a meta microscopic representation of people in a gallery space. Using motion tracking to analyse and capture the motion of people travelling through the space and applying that data to animate a, literally, microscopicprojection onto a specimen slide, only viewable by one user at a time. Interfacing through the apparatus, further elements are revealed to the viewer, ordinarily invisible to the naked eye – creating the opportunity to generate stimulating, and curious, interactions between the micro and macroscopic realms.
With the intention of bringing awareness to the unseen effects of language, I created a physical device that responds to the mood of emails. After several form factor iterations, I decided to go with quite a literal shape of a plant – taking inspiration from the movie ‘E.T.’, whereby a potted plant would mirror E.T.’s state of health.
Similarly, the ITPlant (as this device is named) reflects the mood of the ITP email list. It is subscribed to the email list, via its own gmail address (itp.plant@gmail.com), pulls in the sent emails, analyses them by comparing the words in the message to six categorised word lists (Happy, Calm, Optimistic, Pessimistic, Angry, Sad), and then determines what the over arching sentiment of the email is.
The physical manifestation of the metric analysis is two fold:
1. Representing the Cause: Type of Emotions Evoked = Colour Change
2. Manifesting the Effect: State Change = Drooping/Straightening
To show the state change in the plant, I used a simple mechanism commonly found in animatronics. A type of spine is created, with a spring at its core and acrylic discs at various points along it. A servo motor then pulls on a nylon string which is attached to the first disc, causing the spring to bend. Whereas, when the servo moves in the other direction and releases the tension in the string, the ’spine’ straightens out giving the impression of the plant standing upright and being healthy.
Please see my final presentation below, showing some of the background research, and prototypes created along the way:
As a non-verbal/digital gesture, Sue, Allison, and I made a brooch that conveys the mood, and approachability of the wearer.
Using the three colours to signify the following:
- Green: I feeling happy and open, feel free to approach me
- Yellow: I am somewhere in between, you can talk to me, but make it meaningful …
- Red: Stay away!
We imagine this device being worn in a bar type scenario, as well as a large shared space environment, such as ITP.
As my final project, for this class, I am looking to make a kinetic sculpture that reflects the current ‘mood’ of the ITP email list. By running the live feed from the emails, being sent by ITP students, through metrics – such as the number of positive vs negative words being used, and the originality of the vocabulary – I am generating data that reflects the lists state of mind.
By choosing a physical form to visualise the retrieved data, I am hoping to make the impalpable tangible. Bringing awareness to the power of words, with the view to evoking a positive feedback loop.
In it’s essence, the sculpture resembles a plant. When the overriding tone of the communication, on the list, is ‘positive’ then the plant grows and blooms – however, reversely, when the mood is ‘negative’ then the plant wilts. Below are some sketches of the mechanical structure of the piece – driven by a marble pump a clear plastic tube is either filled or emptied of its marbles (depending on the pumps clockwise/positive or anti-clockwise/negative motion), which represents the spine/stem of the plant.
I have started making a mock-up of the ball pump mechanism with LEGO: Marble Pump
Initially, I am looking to find scenarios that lend themselves to temporary ARTattoos … for obvious reasons. I came across an iPhone application that uses AR markers to have animated girls appear, and dance to any music you select on your phone.
Here is an image from the website:
To test the ARTattoo idea, I used temporary tattoo paper and printed the ARGirl marker on it. I then applied the marker to my skin and used an iPhone to see the animation appear.
“Who Am I” is a silly but fun game for small groups. Most of us have played it at some point, but just to make sure, here are the rules:
Have each person secretly write on a post-it note the name of a famous person. Keeping the name hidden, stick the post-it to another’s forehead. Each person takes turns to ask the group questions to figure out whom the unknown person is.
Have each person secretly write on a post-it note the name of a famous person. Keeping the name hidden, stick the post-it to another’s forehead.Each person takes turns to ask the group questions to figure out whom the unknown person is.
I think temporary ARTattoo could make this game a whole lot more fun – by allowing players to actually see the famous peoples faces augmented onto their friends.
In preparation for next term, I have created a reading list, a reference list, and a list of keywords that relate to the current iteration of my thesis project.
The Door to Your Unconscious invites you to look through its keyhole, to see things repressed in your unconscious – it is an ode to Freud.
By incorporating video, Alex Vessels and I, will be showing some fairly common ‘traumatic childhood experiences’ which, Freud believed, get repressed and lead to the suffering of ‘repetitive distorted emotions’. Our idea being that by literally showing the patient/viewer a reenactment of their traumatic experience, it will bring repressed thoughts and feelings into their consciousness and free them from their struggle – in a more direct, and hence faster, method than psychoanalysis.
N.B. We, of course, don’t take this idea seriously, it is only meant to be a thought provoking art piece – and also a commentary on the way technology is trying to create quick fixes for a lot of our more manual (human) processes.
At the core of my research is the subjectivity of experience – looking at whether there is is an objective reality at all, how perception and context shape our experience, and ultimately whether there is a bigger system that strings everything together beyond the causal reality we perceive.
My investigation started with the quantum theory, looking at how observation effects the behaviour of atomic-scale objects, leading to controversial theories of the collective unconscious and manifestation of intention.
