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https://first-latency-df1.notion.site/Final-Spring-Blog-Spring-Show-Reflection-9507b8dd547b426687da9930348d2ced

After showing my presentation, I got a lot of encouragement from my classmates, Sarah and guests. I have improved myself both technically and research ability. I also saw many innovative ideas from others. 

My plans for summer semester:

1. Improve the environment: I will create neuron like environment so that the creatures can flying along with the line in the neural network.
2. Finish all emotion creatures: I will finish the behaviour of “wrong view” and “pride” creatures.
3. I will modify and improve the looking of creatures by making more forms of arm and tail. Also I will improve the materials. 
4. I will change or improve the render effect and code in order to improve the efficiency of the thesis.
5. I will add background audio and add different sounds for creatures.
6. I will add VR interaction so that users can somehow control or change the movement of creatures. Maybe I will allow users draw neural network in the environment. 

1. Do more user testing and finalize the rules of the game.
2. Design and produce all the cards and meterials for the game.
3. Design an immersive card playing experience.
   1. Research on projection mapping. The user can project the cards they play on the wall, and maybe interact with it.
   2. Research on AR. The user can use their mobile device to scan the QR code and the card will be visualized on the screen.
   3. Other ideas I haven’t thought about for now.

Here is the link to the trailer video I made for the presentation.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xpdhzz62eDwlrpTVKqTqU9Ba7YVAGg3h/view?usp=sharing

Purpose of this project:

• My enthusiasm in science fiction and the future world.
• I want to explore the possibilities of the future.
• I want to research on how people make decisions about future actions and what kind of future do people want to achieve.
• I want this project to be fun to play with.
• I want to make this project educational.
• I want the users to be able to present or even perform their stories.
• I want to inspire people to think about the present by creating and reflect on their future world.

Where:

• In a physical space.
• In a classroom.
• On and exhibition.

Who:

• School teachers and students.
• People interested in discussing about the future.
• Social groups that want to raise awareness on social/environmental issues.

Inspirations & research:

Share lab studio class.

Earth 2050

Investing in futures

The Sustainable Development Goals

Board game and card games

Yugioh (anime & card game)

Prototyping:

Prototype 1.0:

• Basic rules and design
• 4 categories
• Event cards
• Action cards

Feedbacks & reflections:

• Give players agenda/ goals/ roles
• Not many interactions between players.

Prototype 2.0:

• Add role cards
• Add tell & trade step
• Add more action cards

Feedbacks & reflections:

• Different events are likely to happen at different times in the future.

Prototype 3.0:

• Add 3 different time periods
• Make Chinese version for testing
• Adjust the rules

Feedbacks & reflections:

• Players having hard time playing the roles.
• Visuals help storytelling.

Prototype 4.0:

• Add QR code scanner and visuals
• Card design

Feedbacks & reflections:

• Make the visuals random

 

For summer, I want to:

• Do some quick tests with the PPG heart rate sensor on 2 Muse headsets, where each person’s heart is amplified through its own speaker and see what creates synchrony. Does one heart need to “lead” by being louder? Can they synchronize if they are at an equal volume?

• Transform my sound kit into something noisier and test a “peak” / stimulating biofeedback loop. I’m chatting with Imogen Heap about a noise EEG performance and this would be the first steps towards that. This would also include more intense flashing lights, similar to Ryoji Ikeda.

• I’ve been documenting all my soundbaths and need to make a summary video of this work. This process of making and editing down the video also helps me distill the most important parts, which will help my thesis slides too. I make these videos often, so they don’t take long (1-2 days).

• Update my thesis slides for the final presentation.

I keep journals on one Notion post that way is more organized for me~ Also easier fro multi-media documentation
Here is the LINK

For the presentation, I wanted to show a progress of my work including: what I have been doing, what is my thesis, and how thesis evolves along with my experiments and peers feedbacks!

Since last time we had a rehearsal presentation, so for the final ones I changed the slide’s structure a bit, according the feedbacks I received since last session and focused on iterations of my sketches. Though during the presentation I spent most of the time on reading notes and didn’t go through all of slides I prepared.

One major feedbacks I received was people get confused of what my next step is. I mentioned in the very first several slides saying the final form of delivery will be an interactive performance between dancer and projections. However I think the main issue here is I had not make clear connection between why I am making this sketches and how they are part of thesis research. (But to be honest, thoughts are still scattered  if I dig deep into the reasoning of making, It is not solid…) As I am saying , starting with sketches is only beginning step of getting myself use to the library and informations I could be dealing with… So I am as confused as my audiences, but maybe I should of let them know that.

Few other feedbacks I think are very helpful in the direction of making were:
1. consider live streaming as a form of digital performances – This one is easy to experiment with
2. performances consideration – perspective of viewing, screening or projection? environment/stage design
3. What dance aesthetics that only the performances could bring that video/music will not ?

Those are questions I keep in journal as I am moving forward.

First, I just want to say that my thesis has come along way, every meeting has made me dive deeper and has created a new vision on what my thesis has become. Every feedback that I have gotten over my thesis has been very helpful, I also think that people do see the vision that I want to create with my thesis and are very excited. My steps will be more storyboarding ideas on how the prototype will flow on Figma. Like I said, I want to produce more work rather than research, also doing user testing. Overall the feedback is really helpful and insightful, I can’t wait to see the next steps in my thesis.

Trying not to be negative, but still pretty disappointed with how I presented myself/my project.

I think it was a little all over the place and missing several crucial points, which is good to realize now, before the actual thesis presentation this summer.

I really appreciated a lot of the feedback, I also feel strongly that I need to be more confident and less apologetic (pointed out by several classmates), I was definitely being swallowed by the Zoom awkwardness this time around.

My biggest regret came when the guest artist Heather asked me about my fascination with “voting” as well as my personal background. I honestly was caught off guard and started rambling on things that, on second thought, don’t really represent what I truly think and the intention of the project. I was unnecessarily tieing my personal background into the concept of it, which I don’t think actually makes sense or sincere. I hope to be careful not to say things I don’t truly mean again in the future, when panicking and nervous. One good solution, of course, is to really commit to planning and rehearsal the next time around.

It’s also important to rethink how I carefully choose my words ahead of time next time around, and how I want to frame the work for outside audiences.

For the summer, I am really excited about the classes I am going to take, and how they might inspire me to build something outside of using Miro, while still tied to the same thesis question. My mentor had also invited me to visit him and his program in Hangzhou, to meet some professors and artists who’ve been working on community-based seminars. I’m also meeting up with friends working in art museums in Shanghai, to consider some longer future career plans…Afterall, the political risk of a Taiwanese national in China is very different from what an American national would face, and it’s something I need to consider alone and not something NYU Shanghai can provide actual help with (just look at who they got for commencement speaker this year lol). Overall, I’m really excited, and while the steps are pretty flexible, I feel confident that something interesting will come out of it.

Due to scheduling difficulties, I was finally able to chat with Ziyang, who’s currently based in Hangzhou, China, last Friday. The conversation was so fun, it went from 1 hour to 2 hours, and we’ve agreed to touch base again during the summer session.

It was my first time trying to explain things in Mandarin to an artist who’s experienced in making art in both China and the USA. We spent a lot of time talking about the in-betweeness, the fear of being considered as an opportunist, and my kind of “strength” and “toughness,” which is more like a cotton/sponge rather than toughness in a traditional patriarchal sense.

I also asked him a lot about his honest experiences of censorship in China when it comes to artmaking, and I was able to get a better understanding of what to do and what to be careful of…I won’t go into the details here as I think some of the stuff shared were considered private.

Ziyang resonates with my strong interest in communicating with people and encourages me to think of ways that can bring the idea into a physical space during summer. While we had several different perspectives on political events, I felt understood and respected during our chat, and I hope he felt the same way.