Experiment - Interactive Design 112

My First Experiment

I experimented with light through creating a little box that lit up with switches. I bought small finger lights from a cheap store to use as the light factor. I made a triangular prism out of cardboard around the lights with the switches at the back and the squares in the front as seen in the pic below...

With this experiment I wanted to play around with sight so I made a light box that distorted your perception of the colour expected.

Through placing contradicting coloured stickers below the squares to the actual lights colour, you would expect that colour to shine through instead you receive a different colour as shown in the first pic where you can see the lights colour.


I placed a cover over the switch so you would not see the colour of the light until you switch it on.


I really liked this idea, but I would find it too difficult to manipulate to what I want it to do unfortunately.

Function vs Fun - Interactive Design 112

Function and Fun Items

We were told to bring 2 items into class. One item had to be an interactive functional object and the other item to be an interactive object that is used for recreational purpose. So I brought a pill cutter for the functional item and a mini magnetic snakes and ladders game for the recreational item. I chose the pill cutter because it is something I use every single day and it serves a very useful purpose for me as I am unable to swallow large tablets. I chose the snakes and ladders game because it is a lot of fun to play and easy to take along with you, especially on holidays and road-trips as it is so small. I always take it along with me when I go away and everyone loves playing it as normal cards can get boring after a while. Again it was interesting to see what everyone else brought along for their items. After we had all discussed our items we sorted them into different groups when certain items related to each other. Then in pairs we chose four of the few groups and we noted down the relationship that that group had to each of the 5 senses.


The groups of items...

Exploration - Interactive Design 112

The Exploration into the senses:

After our introduction into the project we were told to bring 5 items that represented each one of the senses. So I brought along my hairbrush for touch, my highlighters for smell, my bracelets for sound (hearing), jelly crystals for taste and bubbles for sight. I chose these specific items because I thought that these items best showed the 5 different senses best to me. The hairbrush gave an interesting sensation when you run your hand or fingers over it, but gave a different sensation against your scalp when you are brushing your hair. I chose my smelly highlighters for smell because you don't expect a highlighter to smell usually and I think that some of the smells you would expect from that colour highlighter is actually a different smell. I brought along some of my bracelets for sound due to the fact that I love the sound they make when you just move around and with depending on the material of the bracelet it creates interesting sounds, for example the clinging of metal bracelets. For taste I brought along jelly crystals as I always seem to eat some of the crystals before actually making the jelly because they just taste too good. Lastly for sight I brought along bubbles because I'm fascinated with that short moment when the bubble bursts or pops and you see something and the then the next moment its gone. Other peoples items were very interesting and seeing what their perception was on an item that connected to a certain sense. 


Then we split up into groups and made brainstorms  for one of the 5 senses that we were interested in. I was the only one interested in sight so I came up with this...

The Beginning - Interactive Design 112

The Beginning:

In our tutor groups we discussed the brief for project 1 and were introduced to what we will be doing through previous student experiments. One of these experiments were that we would see a cup filled with red liquid and a censor thing that smelled like sweet fruity chap-stick as you lifted the cup to take a sip. Instead of tasting something sweet and fruity you tasted something sour. This experiment confused your senses into thinking it was one thing but really it was something different. I think that this class will be lots of fun and that this project will be quite a fun project.

Development, Code and Iterations

Developing My Code

I added in more variables rather than digits. I also changed the background to white because our display boards are black and I wanted my designs to stand out on the black.

Code + 25 Iterations

Code...

25 Final Iterations

I made around 50 iterations and these 25 iterations best showed the process of changes that developed through out changing the variables. I mainly played around with the width and height as those gave the best iterations that was still symmetrical as I wanted to develop the essence of shape. I also used the stoke feature as it gave me quite interesting perspectives to the shape, it changed the way you would perceive the shape. I worked in both positive and negative digits to maximize the possibilities that could come out of my shape. Overall I am happy with what I achieved with my shape. I found it fun experimenting with all  the different possibilities even though I struggled a lot with trying to center my shape when I changed the variables, but I finally found a way that worked for me in the end.

Conceptual Thinking

Conceptual Ideas and Experimenting

First Go...

I made 3 ellipses overlapping each other. However when I tried changing the variables in order to get different iterations of this it did not work the way I wanted it to.

New inspiration:

http://www.openprocessing.org/sketch/66040

I turned my inspiration into more that of a rectangular concept rather than curvilinear forms.

Second Go...

This time it worked better, but I still did not get the result that I wanted. So I continued trying.

New Concept (Final Concept):

First Code for Image. It was very long. It was mainly made out of lines.

Looking at Simple Forms

Simple Forms and their Attributes + Variables

Starting to write coding...

Entering in the co-ordinates (variables) for a shape through drawing lines.