Hybrid Environments, Rich Interactions
The Concept
First Run at it |The Anthropocene on Migration Equity: Definitions of Home and Place in a Borderless World
- Anthropocene: defined as the ecological epoch where there is absolutely no part of the world left untouched by humans
- How do we talk about the places we are from and the places we are currently at, when the given names and definitions to places are subjectively obsolete?
- Have more empathy towards others, greater self-awareness of the natural world
- “This is the future of place”: a stateless world, (seeing the world where there is no political lens?), a world where place is defined by our comfort in the man-made natural world (the anthropocene)
Some already there elements:
- feels conversational, intimate,
- like a game
- interactivity is in on-the-spot reflection
Question is this: what is the impact I want to have on the visitors? What do I want to teach them?
→ I have a pretty niche topic in terms of the “Anthropocene theme”, but the takeaway should be more than just awareness on this topic
- Inspiration, call to action, call to change
- Learn, and spread the word -> be memorable, rememberable
- It’s like teaching someone a new language
Second Run at it | Places for Refuge, Spaces for Joy
research dump: https://www.are.na/emily-liu-xaqamzvvykq/places-for-refuge-spaces-for-joy
Borderless-ness as utopian way of thought: refuge, escape, salvation
Questioning belonging
Joy and freedom
Final Concept | Remembering places they’ve been at through the natural landscape of that place at that time.
- takeaway is a new worldview
- reconnection to memories → reconnection to nature
Notes from brief:
- temporary exhibition, first floor of Miller ICA
- digital technology to enhance visitor’s experience in ways they are not currently doing
- technology augments content, increase learning, make more interactive
- audience is people in Oakland, cmu students, faculty, staff, those in CFA, interest in art and immersive experiences
To continue considering:
How do materials, lighting, scale, pathways, etc. impact our perception of space?
How does environmental form influence our perception of a place?
What are commonly agreed upon environmental forms and conventions?
What types of interactions enhance learning?
How is digital technology currently being leveraged in museum environments?
Miller ICA Research:
One point I’ve really been sitting on: leaving galleries/museums feels like leaving the movie theatre or the basement of Hunt library. You go like woOoAhhasdjhhhssss because there are so many sudden sensory changes: temperature, lighting (dark to bright, artificial to natural), sound. A lot of these changes are actually in the real of artificial vs. natural, which is expectedly the norm/inevitable.
CMOA&H Research
rest areas change pace. what else does? — spots that make you wonder, spots you have to “solve”, spots you want to interact with
should there be moments where if you don’t interact, you can’t “move on”?
One big takeaway from visiting the Carnegie Museums, similar/an extension to that of visiting the Miller Gallery is the importance of the route, journey, entrance/exit. The exhibits I had to turn around and completely walk back through to exit weren’t as exciting(?); I didn’t enjoy those journeys very much, they felt tedious and like they dragged on? I think these one-way paths/experiences work in some cases and don’t work in others.
Having to re-go through the entire exhibit, but backwards, felt wrong because it took some of the magic out of the exhibit (?) It made me realize the work existed within the exhibit and within my same world/reality, and not just its own. The immediate re-travel through it was like re-experiencing the space without any of the interactions.
I want my exhibit to have a meaningful start and end. How do I want my visitors to feel when they leave?
This Isn’t Real
What makes something believable?
An educational experience must be believable to be accepted, to be learned.
A product must also give its user a sense of agency and autonomy from the product itself, for the user to accept it and want to use it.
“So this is what’s possible. Do you want it?”
Moodboard
There were three themes I wanted to explore with this moodboard: borders, the relationship between light and color, and additional meaning to language. My exhibit is meant to push the meaning of borders, and the wonders and joys of being able to see and live past them. Physical displays of borders also play interesting games with writing, as it breaks up (like poetry) or rearranges to easily have new meaning. The content of the text itself is very important, so I looked for interesting methods that text was placed into the space to aid the meaning of and interaction with it. Most of the spaces in the mood board are illuminated by artificial light; almost all of the content is conveyed through light. I think I want to use light (and the lack of it) to reveal and hide certain content. The colors I’m interested in are high contrast, celestial, futuristic yet nostalgic and natural, as I want to sell the exhibit as both a visual of a possible future as well as a salvation from the anthropocene.
MatSci Thoughts
Interactions should enhance:
- Learning
- Memorability
- Conversation
- Reflection
- Attention to detail -> of natural elements
*on the spot
- Language, vocabularies
- Placement of text adds meaning
https://www.sfmoma.org/read/charles-gaines-in-conversation-with-eungie-joo/ different parts show up when bright vs when dark
https://www.teamlab.art/w/butterflies/saatchi2015/ breaking boundaries, death upon touch
https://www.typeroom.eu/article/are-you-ready-share-your-typographic-love-letter-world
Questioning/Defying borders, Place of Nature vs Human, Sublime & Submission to Nature, New World = Future World, Our languages & vocabularies influence our perceptions
Storyboard
Interactions I’m Interested In:
- text changing
- leaving part of self there
- light to darkness
- interactions requiring more than one person
What is the path? How to establish clear start and end, with vague inbetween?
— How salient is language?
Big Picture Concept, Narrowing it Down:
- Where are you from, No Where are you really from? → visitors individually reflect/remember answers to questions, eventually creates a world “universal” world that is an accumulation of memories of what defines the places we grew up in
- Therefore, where we are ‘“really” from is just Earth
- Tying memories to nature grounds them, re-appreciates nature
Thinking about moving through the space
High level, I have an “inside” and an “outside”.
There is a dome in the middle. You enter the exhibit, but don’t see how/realize the dome can be entered. You are in the Outside. You engage with the walls, floors around you; it is pretty one-directional/linear path and answer reflective questions about your memories of places. Eventually you get to an opening of the dome, enter, you are in the Inside. There is a space to sit down and lean against in the middle, where you can watch the outside. (The dome functions in a way that you can’t see in, but can see out) From inside the dome you watch all the other visitors answering questions as well as a visualization of these answers around them ie.
- “Did you grow up around many trees?”
- “Yes.”
→ You are able to see many trees grow up around them.
Thinking about hybridization of everyday spaces
Technology is integrating more and more into our lives, most often out of convenience factor. I think with the pandemic, technology has been implemented in spaces to reduce human contact (a lot of these technologies still remain, and I don’t know how I feel about this).
A few examples I can think of:
- [smart] home: voice assistants, vacuum cleaners, kitchens (many cooking devices)
- restaurants
- stores
- classrooms
- clinics
- wearables, prosthetics
I think this last example of the hybridization of/through wearables is most intriguing to me. My example of hybridization of a wearable would be like a smart watch; a watch which sentimentally is something precious, like a piece of jewelry, often passed down or sentimental, and in essence very analog is made “intelligent” with internet. I think the addition of internet connectivity to the watch may make it more practical, but could take away the meaning of a watch that makes it worth wearing. To what extent of practicality must a smart watch offer, considering most people with the smart watch would also have a smart phone, to outweigh all the (unquantifiable, intangible) “delight” a family heirloom watch would offer?
Additionally, to what quantity of connection do we want to feel to the Internet? A wearable becomes a constant reminder of this connection to the Internet, and therefore maybe less of a connection to nature and humanity?
When does hybridization “improve” an environment? I think it’s all about context, and possibly therefore only if the hybridization is temporal? Hybridization feels almost special when it is implemented as the near-perfect solution to a problem (like the pandemic), but when the problem resolves the hybridization should as well, before it becomes a trace/remnant of the past.
Designing a hybrid environment is designing futuristically; the greatest takeaway from any futuristic design is how it makes us reflect on the present. A technological simulation will never be as “real” as the real thing, and therefore, technology should not even be trying to replicate reality. Being able to see something amazing created by nature will always feel more magical than seeing it created by technology (by human). So while hybrid spaces could enhance user experience through offering efficiency or practicality, it may be at the expense of deeper and richer emotions such as wonder and memorability.
Technology in my exhibit
- some sort of 3D illusion around the people in the Outside → like how Luna Lovegood could see Nargles
- Interactive type, decision making, along the outside → THE PROBLEM: ways to collect written answers without relying on touch?
Creating Interactions
I’m reading this bit from about “calm technology” and how hybridized environments should never come at the cost of humans and the general natural way of things (like, replace “cost” with “distraction”).
What am I trying to get my technology to connect people to?
I don’t want my technology to even try connecting people to itself/more technology. It should pull you in and guide you and then let you go and it should do this without disrupting your life. So any technology I add should be the start of a means to connect the visitor to:
- other visitors
- themselves (memories? awareness?)
- → the world as a whole
The point about connecting people to the world/reality is important in the scope of this project, because it acts like a call to action.
Start to End: Reflection to Appreciation: Past to Present: Self to World
Reflection = Past Memory. How can senses/sensors be used to trigger memories? (keeping in mind: this is a closed space, there is more than one party inside at one time, what senses does this make it hard to utilize/have changing around?)
Using the space: The content of the questions and answers should be complemented by the space (ie. something about the sky should interact with looking to the ceiling, something about plants should start at the ceiling and maybe grow up the walls)
The Questions (in order):
- What kind of trees did you grow up with in your backyard?
Text location: at corner between wall and floor, tree sprouts of many different types of trees. Pick a sprout, stand in front of it, and it starts growing.
2. What did your walk to primary school sound like?
Text location: on wall, with three different speakers (sound of cars, sound of sprinklers, sound of laughter/siblings) playing if you walk close to it.
3. What does the sky your parent’s live under look like right now?
Text location: on ground, next to: Map on the ground, depending on different area you step on, look up and the color of the sky at that part of the world is projected.
4. How far are you from the place you call home?
This is what I find hard
How do I provide a sense of affirmation (answering the question) without relying on touch, ie providing a grid of the options and asking the visitor to choose the one they’re thinking about like it’s multiple choice.
I think my immediate response to this is to use proximity. But that only works under the assumption that attention = affirmation, which isn’t always true.
I don’t know if there is a way around this. But I think one assumption I am confident in is that I can leave it to the people to learn how to move through the space itself. For them to eventually make it into what they want, the right answers to their questions. Visitors realize that if they move into certain locations, then something specific will happen. And if it is not what they want, they will move and the exhibit’s visual reaction will disappear. And if it is, they will stay and the exhibit will continue changing in that way.
A lot of hybrid interactive exhibits are like this. There are no clear instructions on how to interact with it, but the technology always “works”.
Plan B
Around now, however, I’m thinking about developing a backup. I feel like my concept is valid but maybe this is not the project to execute it.
James Turrell would be fun. I guess I’m fine with that. Good night.
Reflection Assignment: How is the role of an architect and an environments designer different? Be specific when talking about projects, skillsets, tools, approaches, etc.
Architects have the job of making something “objectively” work: making sure it follows the rules, stays upright and safe, is possible. (I’m not sure if this is true) but I think an architect would likely follow through with every step of the making of the physical environment, while the designer would be more involved with prototyping ideas and then approving/critiquing decisions made along the way.
(Simply) I *like* to think the role of the designer is to come up with ideas that fit the creative limitations, which are then passed on to the architect or engineer or other teams to make happen under their financial/legal/technical limitations. I *like* to think that designers should not have to create, wary of these secondary limitations.
But I know this isn’t all really true, and I don’t completely believe it is for the best either. I think designs are elevated when the designer is more aware and involved at every step, because design is about more than what’s tangible, and more than the experience: it is also about people, materials, and policies — maybe not necessarily the “what” of these categories, but definitely at least the criteria of them.
“Even if it can exist, should it?” I think this is the most important question that is specific to the designer. It’s deeper than just saying “less is more” but given that the engineers, architects, remainder of the team are able to execute anything, an actually good design will fall at a “just right”.
Visualizations
I have decided to continue navigating the fog. This is what came out of it.
- shown at eye level
- updated colors
- adjusting shadows and lighting for how it actually looks inside.
The Mechanics:
(citation: https://www.instructables.com/Ultrasonic-Distance-Sensor-Arduino-Tinkercad/)
Proximity sensors with more lights lighting up: emulating how more “image” shows as visitor walks closer → such as with the growing tree interaction
Final:
The Anthropocene, Physical Dissonance, and Language: Finding appreciation for nature and reclaiming sense of place through memory and vernacular
Problem Brief
- [through this exhibit, I hope to highlight the value of] developing an anti-anthropogenic language/vocabulary, specifically in the lens of how we talk about and remember our physical spaces.
- The names we use for places, and the borders that are intact in order for these names to function, carry little meaning to our personal lives. The attachments I have to places in my life are tied to the people, experiences, and memories of these places — rather than the historical, colonially-rooted, identities of the places.
- To adopt an anti-anthropogenic mindset means undoing the historically established, environmentally and contextually irrelevant language for place.
Instead, how can we understand and interpret our place in the world through memories and re-appreciation of the natural landscape of those memories?
And then, how can we use this new understanding to better connect with others as well as the world? How can understanding the ways nature has influenced our past and present make us more empathetic people towards each other?
Self-Reflection Meta-Cognitive Experience :: What motivates you? What distracts you? What keeps you engaged?
I find that what motivates, distracts, and engages me are often the same things. This may be why I am so sad.
I think motivation, distraction, and engagement was the order of mindsets I had going through the project. I was very motivated at the beginning of the project because I decided on the narrative of the exhibition as something that I had previously done a lot of work and research on. I was continuing to work on an idea that I was already thinking about a lot and I felt passionate and excited for. But going deeper into the project, I think I became distracted from the work and execution of it by the story. I got lost in details and concept at points in the project where I was supposed to be thinking more about the physical making and deliverables. But ultimately, what reeled me back into finishing the project was re-engaging with the initial idea.
