General thoughts and priorities at this stage

  • I’m having persistent thoughts that previous ideas I had are where I should have landed and built on… 
    • Reverting back to a pocketbook as my output and something relating to breath-work to propel its movement or continuity 
    • Part of me is feeling some regret for not continuing CritEx project with Sarah Rothberg on consentful storytelling w/ the dead (how to draw a synapse), even though that is what has led to some of this individualized construction work (relying on self as a hub for iterative knowledge of the self and other) 
    • I also feel pretty moved by the slide projector and layering work.. The box feels like an attempt at combining multiple experiments and maybe it’s not what needs to happen 
  • I’m feeling some burn out and pressure/low self-confidence with ideas that I had
  • Feeling overwhelmed about a one-year program during a really tough year, and combating shame feels important to me here to close

What does a successful / failed thesis look like for me?

  • Successful thesis
    • An experience that has the correct framing without over-reliance on narrative
      • Neuroscience research on memory
      • Islamic research on Shi’a memory construction, 99 Names of Allah, repetitive nature of prayer across tactile prayer beads 
      • Projective hypothesis / auto-fiction research – self as a space for learning and archive generation in the midst of loss, confusion 
    • Something that changes over the course of this month
    • Artifacts that I make with my hands … exist 
    • Interactive and exciting to play with for people across a range of abilities and languages 
    • Something that allows whoever is touching it or interacting with it to leave a mark or instruction of theirs (Maybe on the USB? Maybe through the starting instruction for the next user?)
    • Allows the self to be the source of memory construction and validation 
    • Propels curiosity to create, learn, feel assured in constructed truth or projective truth  
  • Failed thesis
    • Too theoretical
    • Something that requires too much context to be fun or make sense 
    • Confusing in how it connects back to what I am inspired by in the basic idea of constructing small objects that can engage with repeated motion or meditation (pocketbook & prayer beads) 
    • Something I don’t want to keep working on after this program ends 

Discuss your the successful thesis milestones (former KPIs), production timeline and plans for user testing

Things I want Things I don’t want  Things I’m okay with 
To model an entry point to thinking of the self as hub for generative thinking   Tech inclusion out of insecurity  Framing the experience a bit rather than relying on it to tell the full story alone
To create a low pressure experience for users  Tech exclusion out of fear if I think it’s important/could fuel my idea (namely Arduino stuff) Going all the way low-tech
To create a project that can be touched and interacted with physically and allow for repetitive motions/processes  An experience that loses sight of the Islamic tenants and explorations it was born from  Showing a partial project 
To allow for contemplation through multiple modes (audio, touch, passive, active, etc)  My project to discount the heavy weight I’ve put on ancestral transmission, truth-making, and memory construction throughout this program and my research  Focusing in on one part of the connection between research → execution rather than getting bogged down by the weight of articulating all of these ideas (hopefully) 
To lessen the fear and stress of losing or forsaking memories/archives 

 

 

Production Timeline (incl. plans for user testing) 

 

When? What? Notes 
Week of May 23  Restart research & create production plan
Define KPIs and success metrics Blog post 
Download samples and beats for drum machine  Evan’s splice acct 
Week of May 31 Begin 99 Instructions Pocketbook   Spiral-bound – production? 
Evaluate inclusion of code (recode projects, web scraping potential uses, Making Art with AI projects)  Really ??? here – feeling a desire to include some of these things, at least when the metaphor is consistent, not sure what it adds besides a feeling of ITP-ness 

Web scraping (I don’t really know anything about it but Allison’s poetry book sparked curiosity around potential for repetition/truth play stuff I’m exploring here) 

Making Art with AI class also was inspiring w/ “self as a hub for generation” – posenet, body stuff (again, don’t really know much outside that lecture) 

Any arduino stuff? At one point it felt like it could be relevant 
Stop by at the shop and talk through materials for the box  Leaning towards wood with acrylic sheets separating diff sections 
Develop materials for user testing – one cassette tape/drum loop with the slide projector piece – sample instructions from the instructions pocketbook  To happen in class Thursday June 2 
Print and experiment with Arabic text transparencies for slide projector  Allowing the form of the letters to construct different shapes and things with how they’re stacked and played with? 
Determine all of the objects that will be in the box & projected size of box  Spiral-bound pocketbook

Transparencies for projector (1 Tarot deck? 2) Characters in Arabic)

USB stick

Kaleidoscope made of CDs

Paper-based made of recording weavings 

Cassettes (and cassette player or can this be outside of the box?) 

Other objects that embody light/passage of light/fuel shifting meaning making (Kelli Anderson lecture?) 

Any arduino stuff? Hmm.. 
Week of June 6 Continue and finish 99 names instructions pocketbook – find printer for spiral binding  Bestype? Other NYU printer resources for books?  
Mock-up box with all objects in it 
Light experiments – What shifts through light passing through and stacking?  Kelli Anderson’s work 
Finish the soundscapes for the cassettes  Drum Machine + Text-to-speech stuff from Recode/p5.js 
One more round of user testing, this time with different objects in the or different instructions 
Week of June 13  Finish production To be built out in more detail over the next two weeks and what gets done 
Another round of user testing 
Week of June 20  Present work 
Create some sort of light plan for continuing on it if I’m hopefully still inspired by this