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Triggering Unity
Today we narrowed down our ideas and finally came to one that we liked. We went through our ideas that we particularly liked which were:
- Creating BCT Connections
- Tracking flow (Chinese whisper concept)
- Character Mapping
- Road blocks (Transport network – Walking network)
We wrote down a list of the positive and negative of each of the ideas. We also found out that another group had the same idea as us. I personally think that it doesn’t matter since we will all come up with different ways to execute our concept anyway. As we discussed our ideas we finally came to a conclusion that we liked the idea of moving from one network to another. Taking the concepts from each one of the ideas we liked originally, we finally came to a concept of Triggering unity.
Triggering Unity is basically us creating a catalyst that would unite people and get them to create a network because of the catalyst. Usually for a clique of people they come together because they have something in common. That can be seen as a catalyst. But the idea we have is creating a big catalyst that is able to connect a variety of people together despite their differences. There are other various forms of triggers such as terror, authority and a common goal. We want to see if we can trigger our own centralised networks and transform another network such as a distributed network and turn it into a centralised network.
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2012 - Semester 1 - Networks.
The new brief we received today asks us to explore the ‘concept, theories and technologies of networks’. When I first saw the brief I figured that although we’d have heaps to explore, it didn’t capture my interest. Our group consisted of Jenna, Jim and Marty. We’ve never worked together as a group before so we figured that it could be interesting and that we could potentially come up with new ideas and new inspirations.
At first we didn’t know where to start since it was so broad. We brainstormed what came to us and these were the ideas we have so far:
- Connecting BCT students together
- 6 degrees of separation (2 degrees in NZ)
- Transport network à Traffic Lights à Public networks
- Underground Networks (networks that we don’t see on the surface )
- Forestation
- Food networks (where do they go/come from?)
- Pay it forward concept
- Films (character networks, what makes a good story?)
- Religious networks
We figured that Connecting BCT students were probably the most relevant and it would easy to gather information for it. I found it rather hard to go anywhere with our ideas. I felt rather uninspired with this project, perhaps I’m still yet to get into the idea of such a broad brief
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Un-Reality II
Ryan came up with the group name ‘Penguin’. I don’t particularly know why but oh well…
Yesterday we had a bit of a shock when Maggie told us to rethink our idea and rather then focusing on the theme and the idea, focus on the experience we want them to feel first. She suggested that we take a walk around the boundary to see what we can potential experience and use in our ‘journey’.
When we came back, we wrote down some movies that had alternate reality themes within it and some were:
- Inception a dream within a dream and not knowing which one is real. Perhaps even getting lost within the dream.
- Matrix Real world vs a fake one. What is real?
- Narnia A completely different world.
- Shutter Island A conspiracy, creating a live play and changing the environment in order to heal someone who believes something to be true when it wasn’t. Completely replicating the made up story.
I wrote down all the interests and themes that we wanted in our journey and we had plenty to work with. Today we went outside since it was such a sunny day and we came up with potential concepts. We decided to use Audio as our main form of control since it is one of our main senses. If we took complete control of it they are forced to listen to what we have to say. We figured that the only way we would be able to properly ‘take control’ of ones sense of hearing would be if we had authority which brought us to the government. Through this I thought of creating a world of dystopia using the audio and Sam came up of the idea of using a social commentary. Perhaps even using 2 perspectives of a government and rebel. I found that we were rather productive today. Maybe it’s because we didn’t have our laptops with us constantly meaning we could actually focus on our work!
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Un-Reality I
Today we were given a new brief - to design an alternate reality journey using multiple media and realms. I found this rather interesting since I have never really considered alternate reality as something that was particularly interesting.
To receive our brief, we were required to experience a form of alternate reality journey in order to find the brief. At that time in the morning I found it rather annoying to have to get up and go up to another level in the building and then come back down again. I guess during that ‘journey’ I experienced irritation rather than a feeling of suspense or curiosity.
We got into a group of 5 and it consisted of Naru, Sam, Marty, Ryan and me. I felt that this group was good to work with since we had a variety of different people with different skills working together.
We discussed ideas that we liked which mainly consisted of a mystery theme. We used Cluedo as a reference for our idea. I felt that it was a pretty good concept since we have plenty of room to work with within the building regardless of the weather. We also discussed having different clues in each room with a static and non-static object. This requires the player to use the non-static object with the static object to figure out the clue. I was in favor of this idea since it actually requires thinking rather than being directed to a clue, the player is forced to figure it out. It could turn into a desperate situation where they are forced to figure out the clue otherwise dire consequence will pursue. This puts the player in a reality of desperation - almost like the Saw movies - minus the gore. I felt that decision making is definitely a good way for players to experience the game and it also allows different experience for each person.
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You the Designer VI
So I used the CNC today to cut out my cd shape in the middle of the blocks. It was definitely easier then sanding it down since it wouldn’t have been exact. Today and yesterday were probably the most frustrating days since I spent majority of my time trying to figure out how to make sure the hinge would work and after a long time of deliberation and constantly trying to persuade myself that it would all work out… I finally changed my design at the last minute - well the last 2 hours before hand-in.
Using the CNC
Final Design
When it’s opened up
Semi opened
Although the final design wasn’t exactly what I wanted, it still had relevance to my original concept of building blocks - but rather than it being interactive, it ended up being more aesthetically pleasing. However, i believe I could have been a lot more neater in my construction but I still felt that it still had relevance to the hand made feel - exactly like the instruments I made. Although i ended up making only one since I changed my design at the very last minute, I am satisfied with the result. I feel that if i had more time to do my trials and errors I could have ended up with a neater work. I think i need to work on my organizational skills a little more but I’m glad i took the risk in testing out the hinges because it allowed me to arrive with this final result. All in all i am pretty satisfied with the result and if i have time i wouldn’t mind finishing the last 4 of my blocks off.
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You the Designer V
So after a couple of days of thoughts, I have changed some of the aspects of my design. Rather than having the whole entire cube change and have the capability of being flexible, I have decided that the bottom 3x3 will be static and not move. The top 2 3x3 will become a lid and be flexible so that the customer would still be able to play around with the aspect of building blocks.
Cutting the blocks.
Gluing it together to create the base where the cd will go.
Smoothed it out.
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You the Designer IV
So, after a week of waiting I was finally able to go up to the 3D lab to start testing out my concepts and prototypes. I started playing around with the hinges:
This is what i hoped to achieve once I’ve screwed in the hinges
The first problem I encountered was that i either had to chisel every single one of the blocks or use a router. Unfortunately with the router it cuts out places I don’t want it to so I decided that even with the lack of time, I’ll chisel them out.
At first it fitted but…
Although this side worked perfectly fine…
It refused to shut properly on the other side. I think i just needed to get new screws and just need to chisel the hole deeper so that it’s able to shut properly.
Another problem I noticed was that it was pretty hard to align the blocks properly especially after I’ve chiseled them and drilled them. This is probably the biggest issue I’ve had at the moment but I really wish to achieve my original plan of having a hinge on pretty much all the blocks just so that it really places emphasis on the ‘building’ and interactive factor.
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You the Designer III
So far, I’ve hardly done any work in the break since I am unable to test out some of my ideas. The prototypes aren’t giving me the exact feeling i want from it. I’m finding it difficult to create various holes for the cds since the cubes are so random.
I have been testing out various forms and hinge connections with dices and tapes but since the tapes are so flimsy it’s not giving me the exact look or feel I want to achieve. Since a lot of my ideas require actual prototype making, I need to wait till the 3d lab opens up. That’s when I can trial and error my processes. But so far all i can do is come up with potential ideas as to where I want the hinges to connect.
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You the Designer II
I decided to test out some of my concepts today.
This is how the cd packaging would stand on the shelves. It looks like a rather ambiguous cube. I thought that this was effective because it’s particularly simple and eye catching since it’s just a cube which makes it a rather curious object.
The cube is able to open up. I thought that it would be interesting if the cd case was flexible whilst relating to the concept. The cd itself would be place in the 3x3 cubes (haven’t quite decided what side).
Because the cd case is flexible, the customer would be able to play around with the cd packaging as they play the cd. It is like the toy building blocks that kids play with. They are able to play around with the cubes and depending on their mood they’re able to create a ‘city’ or create one and destroy it out of ‘anger’.
This is the various kinds of positions the cd case is capable of while the cd is being played.
Another position.
I have thought about creating various places for the cd itself so that when the cube is being played around, the cd case will always have a place for the cd regardless of how the cd case is being played around. I thought the materials that would be good for this would be wood which places emphasis on construction and same as hinges which I though would give the cube a home made look since we hand made out instruments in the previous project.
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You the Designer I
We were given our new project which was designing a cd packaging with relation to our audio project (aural terrain) from before. Creating a cd packaging that has relevance to our previous project sounding exciting enough but personally I would prefer creating a cd packaging for something else since the aural terrain project wasn’t one I particularly enjoyed. However, since there is no limitation or restriction to this cd packaging I was rather excited for it with the exception that we aren’t able to access the 3d lab (tech room) till a week before it’s due. This is kind of ridiculous since I don’t think there is enough time because we need to make 5 to (in a sense) prove that we are able to manufacture it. I came up with some interesting conceptual drawing for this project.
For Aural Terrain, our audio focused on the society and how we perceive it and the emotions we gather from it. It also focuses on how the city is built and what creates the city and what feelings we evoke from it. I wanted to use the idea of building blocks to create my cd packaging and not limit myself to just a skinny packaging. Even though knowingly, for both economical and convenience the cd packaging itself should be lightweight, I wanted to explore outside the box and see if i could come up with some alternatives.
