4. blue : lust : rss aggregator
So today’s inspiration was blue lust. Instantly I thought of craigslist missed connections ads. There is something about them that I find so sad, people wanting so badly to connect with these strangers.
So I set up to compile all of the missed connections ads, from 5 major cities: New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago and San Francisco. I created an RSS aggregator that shows only the ads with the word “blue” in them. I then stylized the feed so that it was in a blue color pallet and put it online!
Here is a snapshot of the feed. Click on it to be taken to the actual page.
3. orange : sloth : photo montage
So today’s pick was orange and sloth. I thought a lot about what it means to be lazy and non productive. Part of me identifies with this “sin”, as right now I would love nothing more than just sleeping for days. I started thinking about all the other things I would rather be doing, and it got me to thinking about how nice it would to be on the beach right now. It has just been so cold here!
So alas, my train of thinking brought me to tanning. How I love a nice bronzed glow. But you know what some people love even more than that? An orange one!
I decided to scour the internet for photos of extremely tan individuals and put together this montage using iPhoto. And I have to give some credit to Kenny Chesney, for his amazing song “All I Want For Christmas Is A Real Good Tan”. Without, this project would never have been realized.
real good tan from Adam Scher on Vimeo.
2. red : pride : digital composite
Today I picked red and pride. I had to think for a while about this one. I feel like vanity is very much a manifestation of pride, and vain and vein are homonyms (just trying to explain my train of thought here). So this lead me to think about this project as an exploration of a word “veinity”. I drew my arm and hand with pencil and glued that onto a piece of paper painted black and gold. I then scanned everything in and started to create a digital composite in photoshop.
1. indigo : envy : ink
For the first project I picked indigo and envy. I began thinking about how these two things were related. Envy is wanting something that you don’t have. Indigo is made up of varying amounts of red and blue, lacking the primary color yellow. Thus, indigo is envious of all the colors of the spectrum that have yellow. I was in class all day Friday, so I needed to choose a medium that would allow me the flexibility of moving around a lot and still be able to work. I chose to use markers on paper. The purple lines are restless and in constant motion. There is a frenetic energy about them, as they push up against the solid calm yellow spaces.
7 in 7
So I have been given the task to create 7 projects in 7 days. That’s it…..no guidance other than that. I decided that for my 7 projects I would let chance play a part in the process. I wrote down the 7 colors of the rainbow, cut them up, and put them in an envelope. I did the same thing with the 7 deadly sins and put those in a separate envelope. Each day I will pick a color and a sin at random, and visually represent it however I see fit. AND….I am not allowed to use the same medium twice.
02.05.10 Reading Responses
“The Psychology of Everyday Things”:
About ten minutes after reading this article, I proceeded to walk into a Duane Reed. When exiting the store, I realized that I had entered through the exit door. The word “EXIT” and “ENTRANCE” were clearly labeled on each door, but I had obviously neglected to notice. I had entered through the door that felt most intuitive to use, the wrong one. Shortly after, I was exiting a restaurant. I was in the scaffolded area (between the restaurant and the street) and was pushing on the door to leave, but I could not get the door to open. It seemed that I was pushing on the wrong side of the door, and that is why I couldn’t get out. In a span of 15 minutes I had become consciously aware of how these designs of everyday objects were not in line with the way that I THOUGHT they should be. Even when there are visual cues, an action as simple as opening a door or turning on a light become a cumbersome task. It makes me wonder how often I am “misusing” an object and am not even aware of it.
“Interaction Relabelling and Extreme Characters: Methods for Exploring Aesthetic Interactions”:
I found this particular article really interesting. It brings to mind the importance of thinking outside of the box when generating potential design solutions. I know for me, I find it so much easier to return to a solution that I am both familiar and comfortable with, but this limits any chance of innovation. The concept of interaction relabeling, generating a new physical understanding of how an audience can interact with an item opens up so many possibilities. It allows us to use things in ways in which they were never meant to be, thus discovering counter-intuitive solutions which can be developed into useful applications. However, I found their use of the “extreme character” to be very stereotypical and verging on the point of offensive. I understand their reasoning in designing these characters, but they could have been more creative in developing their personas.
Interaction Relabeling
We had the task of taking an everyday object about thinking about the possible ways in which we could use it. I brought to class a balloon pump which as the name suggests, pumps balloons up with air.
I repurposed this balloon pump as a corporate brander. The bottom of the pump has 8 holes which suck in air. My idea was that you could fill the holes with ink using an eyedropper. You would then place your writs ontop of the brander, pull the pump, which would then “suck” your skin into the holes. This action would place the ink on your skin that had been sucked through, leaving a ring of small circles on your skin.
Domain Map Presentation
On the first day of class we were asked to make a mind map based on our areas of interest. I then further developed the ideas generated in my mind map, for a short presentation on the domains of my studies and interests.
Rapid Prototype
Today in major studio we needed to create a rapid prototype of a Bifocal Display. With the time constraint of 30 minutes, we were to build this prototype based off a prototype created over a decade ago. This prototype is used to show the potential with which computers might be able to create “zoomable” previews of files and documents. Obviously, this technology already exists, introduced most popularly with Apple’s Leopard OS.
So with 30 minutes, some foam board, tape, scissors, an exacto knife, newspaper and some chopsticks……Phill and I made this:
Rapid Prototype from Adam Scher on Vimeo.
This process was really meant to show us the ways in which prototyping is highly beneficial to the design process. It is quick, low cost, and allows you the freedom to create many many iterations. All in all, this assignment was very fun!
Weiser, Winograd, Zimmerman Response
Reading these three articles in chronological order was a fascinating look at the historical trajectory of technology and more specifically “interactive design”. Even though each article touched on specific ideas regarding design and technology, they all emphasized the importance of technology’s roll as a communication tool. Our inherent and intuitive response to using and utilizing is becoming based more around “communication [than] computation” (Winograd).
In his article “From Computing Machinery to Interaction Design”, Winograd actually predicts the emergence of interactive design as a new area of research and application. Written 13 years ago, he postulates this new field will develop out of the need to design “spaces for human communication and interaction [which] will lead to expansion in those aspects of computing that are focused on people, rather than machinery.” (Winograd) At the time, the skills to build technology with such capabilities were held by engineers and computer scientists. Minds that were capable of problem solving in areas regarding communication, psychology, and visual design seemed crucial to this design problem.
Over a decade later, the title “interactive designer” is being used, and not surprisingly is regarded crucial to the design process. The Human-Computer Interaction Institute (HCI) interviewed well regarded interactive designers, to help refine their methodologies and practice of design research. What they found was the integration of interactive designers throughout an entire process, not just at the end, was enriching and beneficial. They note that designers integrate “ideas from art, design, science and engineering, in an attempt to make aesthetically functional interfaces.”(Zimmerman) What I found most interesting in their research was the understanding that designers bring empathy to the process. It is not just about what it looks like or how it works but why and how it’s used. This notion of considering the human connection to design is the future foundation on which we are currently building on.
In Mark Weiser’s essay, “The Computer for the 21st Century”, he writes about the incorporation of “invisible” and integrated technologies are in our everyday lives. He writes, “By pushing computers into the background, embodied virtuality will make individuals more aware of the people on the other ends of their computer links.”(Weiser) By creating and using, what Weiser calls, “ubiquitos computers” individuals can more seamlessly integrate technology, information, and communication into their flow. His ideas of the future involve hundreds of computers ranging from the size of a post-it to a bulletin board.
These reading made me start to think about the direction that I see technology and personal computing traveling in. I agree with all the readings, that personal communication with others is an inherent desire. It is most natural this to shape technology’s growth. There has been such a huge trend in content creation, and lots of the current technologies emphasize the ease with which we can create and disseminate content. It has become second nature, and the fact that anyone can “tweet” from anywhere, really makes the technology seem invisible. I don’t think about the fact that a cell phone was able to run an application which was able to wirelessly send data to online database which I then can access. More simply put, “Successful interaction design requires a shift from seeing the machinery to seeing the lives of the people using it.”(Winograd)
