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Open Kinetics: Move, Play, Lean

Nathaniel Padgett

Open Kinetics are low cost kits that inspire learners of all ages to explore programming and electronics through movement-based play. The aim of Open Kinetics is to create an affordable, accessible, engaging platform that teachers can easily bring into their classrooms to foster technological agency in their students.

https://itp.nyu.edu/thesis/journal2018/stefani/author/ngp249/

Description

An exciting aspect of the rapid proliferation of technology over the past decade is that much of it is open and remixable by anyone with access to a computer and the internet. This has created unprecedented opportunities for anyone to contribute to and use these technologies for research, to start businesses, or to make art.

But despite these advances, access to technology is still largely concentrated in the wealthiest communities. A major reason for this digital divide is cost. Open Kinetics addresses this problem with engaging DIY technology kits designed to be affordable and accessible. Students learn programming, electronics, and design by making a simple motion controller used to play free movement-based games that they can also remix and build themselves. Through building these kits, they learn to use technology for their own creative ends, developing technological agency and preparing them for careers of the future.

By pairing hardware with games, Open Kinetics kits give context to what students can do once they have built their controller. Open Kinetics give students a virtually endless array of experiences to choose from, whether moving a character, playing virtual tennis, or making kinetic art. Because these games are movement-based, they engage students in active, physical participation that facilitates learning. Built for kids ages 8-16 but great for all ages, Open Kinetics turn players into makers and empowers students to contribute to rather than simply consume technology.

One simple project for Open Kinetics is a twist on the Atari classic Pong. In this game has players move paddles up and down the screen to deflect a puck and prevent their opponent from scoring. Rather than using joysticks or buttons, players use the Open Kinetics motion controller they build to move the paddles with their arm movements, making a sedentary game into an active one.

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Ojo Oro – Thesis

Ari Melenciano

In applying emerging technologies to analog inventions, and developing human-centric, visceral business strategies, what are the possibilities for an experimental neo-retro camera company?<br />

www.ariciano.com/ojooro

Description

I am interested in exploring the art, philosophy and science of business and customer experience along with the possibilities when using design to engineer moments of euphoria by applying emerging technologies to the analog invention of a camera in the form of an experimental neo-retro camera brand.

Ojo Oro (golden eye) is a line of experimental neo-retro cameras. Neo-retro is the coined phrase that was developed in the creation of Ojo Oro, meaning to apply emerging technologies to analog inventions in innovative and explorative forms. The way that Ojo Oro is neo-retro is by its use of augmentation of the analog/film camera experience in a digital setting.

The way that the camera works is by using digital mechanics to take a photo, that is then immediately and randomly altered to appear as if it has been taken with a film camera. To further mimic the film experience, there is no screen on the camera, forcing the photo to be “developed” in the “cloud” and sent to the user's paired app.

This is both a hardware and software business.

The strategy of the business is to organically start from inward, out. What is the core mission of Ojo Oro? To allow users to explore their artistry (golden eye – Ojo Oro) in an intentional and well-designed holistic and immersive experience.

My audience are recreational photographers (people that enjoy photography as a hobby) between the ages of 15-30 years. These consumers also value design and style within products and their branding.

The camera will be used recreationally. Once the user has turned on their camera, they can begin exploring the different settings and taking photos. They eventually move to the app, where the photos have been “developed” and ready for view. These photos have all sorts of spontaneous film-like distortions on to the photos, whether it is a few light burns, or intense film grain. The photos can be immediately shared to social media. The user can also scroll through the app to discover photos taken by other Ojo Oro owners – building a community.

The key features of the Ojo Oro camera line include a product design of high aesthetics (intricate camera design), seamless communication between the camera and paired app, a neo-retro approach to film photography by means of digital, interchangeable lenses, innovative e-commerce opportunities within film, eventual personalization of camera design, and more.

In my first semester of ITP, during Pcomp, I was able to build the experiamera. I intend to return to the work I began then and further develop the prototype camera into an entire camera business.

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Thesis

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Invisible Sculptures

Yeseul Song

Invisible Sculptures is an experiment that challenges human perception with sculptures that can only be “seen” by senses other than vision. The audience will incorporate different sensory abilities and activate their imagination to interact with the sculptures made of sound, temperature, and smell.

http://yeseul.com/Invisible-Sculptures

Description

There are five identical display plinths. Each holds an invisible sculpture.

Sculpture I is a solid 3d form made of sound. To experience the work, move your hand over the plinth. Concentrate all of your senses to find the connection between what you touch and what you hear. You will soon find yourself in the land of synesthesia. Once you are aware of the shape, try to recreate the form using a handful of clay that will be handed to you.

Sculpture II is an obscure pattern floating on top of the second plinth. Move your hand over the plinth to hear and experience the sculpture. Is it rough or soft? Is it dense or light? Is it spiky?

Sculpture III is made of heat. The sculpture accompanies a real time thermal camera feed of the audience interacting with the piece.

Sculpture IV is made of cold air.

Sculpture V is stinky… You might not want to get too close to this one!

(See User Scenario below.)

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Commodity Fetishism

Miao Tian

The purpose of this project is to create an emotional linkage between overconsumption due to our social mentality and its harmful effect .

Description

Consumption is inevitable. It is in our nature and it is part of the whole ecosystem. However, excessive consumption is a social mentality. In our recent past, overconsumption was viewed as greed, a moral vice. In our current time however, greed is viewed rather differently. Living in our current economic society, we as consumers become further and further away from the production and waste department. Because of that consumption seems independent from the guilt of wasting someone’s hard work or polluting a piece of land somewhere. Consumers enjoy an exhilarating sensation by satisfying their greed.

For the project, instead of announcing statistic numbers of overconsumption and its effect, I’d like to have audiences experience it directly. I hope to generate an emotional linkage between our daily consumption life and the amount of waste we produce.

There are three players to participate three parts of this project: a shopper to a commercial shopping website; a consumer to a trash can controller device; a receiver to an interactive VR film. The shopping website represents the drive that pushes us to shop more and more. The trash can symbolizes the end of a product’s commercial life and the start of its waste life. The VR film visualizes waste that we don’t see. The shopper “buys” products and corresponding waste will show up in VR for the receiver. The consumer will step on a physical trash can and release the trash in VR. The receiver will endure the outcome, then the players can rotate and experience each other’s action.

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Climate Change Twister

Brandon Newberg, Jiyao Zhang

A game of twister, in the year 2100.

http://zhangjiyao.me/itp/spring2018/process-of-climate-change-twister/

Description

A game of twister, adapted to be about a research paper 'carbon as a metric for the human'. The message of the project is that our lives will change because of climate change – we don’t know what will happen as the climate changes

but we’ll be living differently either because we mitigated it or because we didn’t. Modified from a traditional twister game, we try to use the way of twisting bodies to demonstrate the idea of us human making adaptions to this new world.

There are four rounds of the game. For each round, two players will be given a random scenario of the year 2100 and a question will be asked. Responding to the scenario and the question, both of the players need to choose an answer using a body part. After four rounds, they will finish choosing answers for four questions (how do they commute in 2100; how do they entertain themselves in 2100; what food do they eat in 2100 and what job do they have in 2100). Based on all the answers they choose, the game will generate a more detailed world and what kind of life they will be living in this world.

Classes

Playful Communication of Serious Research

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Search Divides Us

Anthony Bui, Asha Veeraswamy, Katherine Wu, Keerthana Pareddy

Our project, Search Divides Us, is an exploration of the hidden bias that can exist within search engines.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1B0tKF0oEAEe67IPsKnQjqqs6w2ZDT7GRJqD12p-qfNk/edit?usp=sharing

Description

The current architecture of the web encourages categorization. However, this categorization can negatively affect real world outcomes. In our exhibition, we would examine the pre-existing, technical, & emergent bias of web traffic segregation.

Classes

Homemade Hardware, Playful Communication of Serious Research, Subtraction, Tangible Interaction Workshop, Teaching as Art

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Expressive Tactile Controls

Hayeon Hwang

What if physical controls such as buttons, dials and sliders had more expressive personalities? How could this inform and deepen our interaction with them? ‘Expressive Tactile Controls’ is a series of reactive tactile controls designed to react to their user in a variety of ways. This is a playful investigation into pushing the limits of our controls.

http://hhayeon.com/Expressive-Tactile-Controls

Description

Push buttons, sliders, switches and dials—we use such controls everyday, and yet we barely notice them. ‘Expressive Tactile Controls’ is a series of playful research experiments that ask: how could our relationship to tactile controls be augmented by giving these controls more personality? How would buttons that have a stronger, more evocative personality affect and improve our relationship with the applications they are built into? How would people react to buttons that ‘talk back?’

This question was approached by constructing and testing a series of experimental pushbutton prototypes able to express themselves with various tactile and kinesthetic feedback (vibration, tension, and movement), according to the user’s touch or environment.

The first series included controls designed to feel Stubborn, Sensitive/Impatient, Lazy, Timid, Spontaneous, Resolute, and Excited. These ‘personality-enriched’ buttons were then used to provide users with a more intuitive tactile feedback, in accordance with the application they were serving.

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Thesis