Category Archives: Projects

Kathleen Wilson, Patricia R. Zablah, Projects, Thesis

Hack It Back

Patricia R. Zablah

A workshop mentoring program focused on teaching media literacy to teenage girls. The girls combat sexist media by creating their own, new media that "hacks it back" and portrays more accurate representations of women.

http://www.hackitback.com

Description

Hack It Back is a program that teaches women and girls to decode sexist media messages through observation and critical analysis of media, its creators and its effects. In the workshops, which range from eight hours to a month, teens are paired with mentors to create their own media. They use digital and analog tools to break stereotypical gender roles. At the end of each workshop, teens strengthen their confidence by presenting their projects to an invited audience. The projects are published online and made available for download, if applicable. Ultimately, Hack It Back fosters a better image of women, becoming a catalyst for participants to see themselves as leaders who can break through societal and cultural barriers imposed on them.

Classes

Thesis

Gabe Barcia-Colombo, Omer Shapira, Projects, Thesis

horizon

Omer Shapira

E. Killing lives in a 4D simulation of the 3D world. It's a recording – everything has already happened. Her device, The Horizon, reconstructs her world in time slices, like a slit-scan camera. She needs to find her way out of the simulator.

http://horizongame.cc

Description

Horizon is a 4D puzzle game. Every scene in it is a pre-recorded 3D physical reality over a period of time. As Killing moves through the game, she uses the Horizon to select a shift in time to solve her problem – From her perspective it just looks like slit imaging, but she's actually forming a 3D physical space. When she spots a brick falling from an abandoned building, E. Killing stretches that point in time, extending her perspective from the brick's drop until impact. She has just created a staircase she can climb. Construction of Horizon required building a new game engine, called the Unruh Engine, which allows rapid recollection of pre-recorded geometry in 4 dimensions onto a coherent 3D scene with all of the usual game mechanics.

Classes

Thesis

Abe Rubenstein, Always On, Always Connected, Projects, Shawn Van Every

Timeout

Abe Rubenstein

Lock yourself out of your Android device for any amount of time you choose.

http://www.aberubenste.in/timeout

Description

TIMEOUT was born of the desire to temporarily escape the condition of ubiquitous computing. Not all people who have smartphones are thrilled about them; however these devices have become necessary tools, especially in cities like New York. TIMEOUT lets you exercise more control over your device by placing it in a lockdown mode in which only phone calls can be received. Self-imposed electronic exile is only a touch away.

Classes

Always On, Always Connected

Gabe Barcia-Colombo, Michelle Cortese, Projects, Thesis

log(me) : vibe calculator

Michelle Cortese

The average human selects 15,000 words to speak each day and lacks a clear concept of their cumulative value; log(me) is a discrete wearable that scans and archives daily speech patterns to visually codify spirit, truth and power.

http://thesis.itp.io/students/mc4562

Description

log(me) falls somewhere between a Nike+ FuelBand for words and a diary for a generation without pens. It's a necklace, small and abstract in design, and an iOS app, discrete and stylish. A reconsideration of the defunct digital diary, log(me) does not wait for written input; instead, it listens for function word patterns and uses their ratios to determine spirit (mood), power (confidence), and truth (honesty). The results live in the app, via three in-app displays: an abstract vibe graph, a stark stats page and an archive. Constantly running, log(me) provides a logarithmic, automated, and chic approach to self reflection.

Classes

Thesis

Heather Greer, Projects, Steve Cordova, Thesis

Tactus – See with your Finger

Steve Cordova

A wearable device that allows people to feel, touch, and identify color

http://thesis.itp.io/students/sbc345

Description

Tactus is a wearable device worn on the wrist that interprets color and sends the user a tactile response. Think of it as braille for color. Using either a smartphone or the embedded sensors on the device, color values are translated to a electromagnetic wave that creates a sensation on the users finger. The device can be used by both visually impaired people and those looking to augment their own senses. It creates a new sensory modality for the user and more importantly the ability to not only see art, but feel it.

Classes

Thesis

Alina Balean, Arielle Hein, Jared Schiffman, Projects, Spatial Media

HIVE

Alina Balean, Arielle Hein

An Interactive Bee Box that reacts to users hand movements.

http://alinabalean.com/hive/

Description

Hive is an interactive spatial experience that reflects the correlation between bee and human behavior. This interactive art display responds to human behaviors by responding with bee behavior. Our inspiration is the ecosystem and social life of honeybees.

Classes

Spatial Media

Gabe Barcia-Colombo, Projects, Thesis, Todd Bryant

Lest We Forget

Todd Bryant

Lest We Forget is a three channel video sculpture depicting real-time climate change data

http://thesis.itp.io/students/tjb387

Description

Lest We Forget is a three channel video sculpture depicting real-time climate change data using a newly developed technique called perspective mapping. The technique exploits the basic property of bare LCD screens which do not show video without a light source due to the layered linear polarizer sheets. Adding light sources behind the screens reveals the content and effectively maps the video content of the screen onto the light source if the observer aligns it correctly with their viewpoint.

Classes

Thesis

Andres Taraciuk, Katherine Dillon, Projects, Thesis

TacTag

Andres Taraciuk

Do you feel that you are not interacting much with your friends when playing video games? Try this physical game that involves a face to face interaction and physical contact.

http://andrest.me/#tactag

Description

TacTag is a physical game that wants to show that technology can be used to create a more direct and interactive game. Instead of only pressing buttons and watching a screen, players have to move, make physical contact and look at each other.

Classes

Thesis

Nancy Hechinger, Negar Behbahani, Projects, Thesis

LifeStrand: A Musical Self-Portrait

Negar Behbahani

If I were an instrument, what kind would it be? How would it be played? What are its tones? Its moods? What would I reveal to a new player or one who played me many times?

Description

My thesis project is a musical sculpture and self-portrait based on my nature, body, memory and background, told through the universal language of a music. The instrument/sculpture's key features are the sound, the screen, and the hair, which has played an important role in all aspects of my life. My instrument connects with the intimate experience of touching my hair, and is a different and new experience, playing and hearing a poetic and feminine instrument.

Classes

Thesis

GJ Lee, Katherine Dillon, Projects, Thesis

BETULARIA

GJ Lee

BETULARIA is a game about hiding.

http://betulariagame.com

Description

BETULARIA uses polarity and hiding to challenge a player's sense of awareness.

The player must adapt to a changing environment by maintaining invisibility both to themselves and their predators.

This game was inspired by the studies conducted of the peppered moth (Biston betularia) over the past two hundred years.

Classes

Thesis