Third Object

We dropped the make controller because we thought we could make it work without it. The bad new is, in order for the third object to control the telly – it needs a “brain” So we are back at the make controller.

Charles showed Adam how to write a little program so that the third object would randomly take over the telly. Good thing we had the make controller already figured out in week 3.

The pillows are made just not stuffed yet. They also need a little bit of decoration. I made some paper models for the pattern and then it worked quite alright. It turned out pretty big – but it’ll be nice to hug. The corduroy was tricky to work  with and  it just took forever. But it was fun – I was trying to convince Yuseung that I was making him a turtle -ninja shell.

Testing Testing Texting…

This week, the Text Wall group tested out variations in the visuals and instigation methods.

We tweaked colors to see what was more visually appealing. It seems that most of us are more receptive to either monochromatic schemes or schemes with colors that are close to each other on the color wheel. As makers and designers, we always have to consider minute details such as color, size and speed. We also have to consider the constraints or affordances we have (i.e. budget, time, technology know-how, etc.). These small variables can make or break projects, so it was important for us to test those elements out this week.

We also wanted to see how we could instigate text messaging. On Day 1, we designated an anonymous person to send out random text message questions to each of our phones. On Day 2, we sent out images via email and on Day 3, we did not implant any instigative methods. We wanted to see how people responded to these three ideas. All three methods have been successful in their own ways, and each person who participated in the experiment so far has been interpreting the Text Wall differently.  We will be furthering our understanding of our instigative methods over the next few days and applying the research we conducted last semester on these families to enhance the experience.

What we’ve been learning as we experiment on this Text Wall is that the wall can serve a variety of purposes. It’s a space for such things as storytelling, for rants and raves, for typically missed emotions and connections, and for good jokes and laughter. It’s a space that can provide voice to those that usually don’t have a voice in their home or environment. It’s a space that can cause confusion, but can also allow for clarity. We’re excited to see how the families will utilize this particular project and plan to conduct post interviews to get their opinions on the activity and its impact on the family.

SYSTEM DIAGRAM

TABLE GROUP_ SYSTEM DIAGRAM

Third Object

Today Adam and I went to the FABRIC DISTRICT and picked the final material for the two Objects. Adam originally made some drawings and we imagined patterns. Unfortunately we couldn’t find the perfect fabric to the drawings. So we had to make some compromises, but where able to almost stay in the color scheme.

Here is Adam’s drawing:

HUG:

In the time limit we had, we really couldn’t find bluish/greenish fabric with white hair on it. We bough SUUUUUUUUPER SOOOOOFT bluish/greenish fabric instead. Tomorrow I’ll get yellow gloves (i saw these strange yellow gloves at RIDE-AID the other day. I’ll stop by there tomorrow and maybe I’ll get them, need to check them out again – the idea is to attach them to the pillow to create a pressure-hand-resting-area. Mhhh I was thinking to cut them apart and attach a half on each side, but maybe it would be nice if you could actually slip in with your hands. The pillow also needs to get a head-rest or better a chin-rest and a little sea-horse (this will be our little easter egg)

PUNCH:

This is the rebel one. The tough one. The tom-boy of all TV remote controls. We got cherry-red corduroy instead of yellow fabric. On both ends we will add black leather punch-friendly patches (hot spot indicators). As a final touch we will stitch little yellow flashes on it (just for personal amusement)

Now i just have to make the sewing patterns.

eight, parenthesis

8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)

budget!!

SINK
Sink Handle    $47.63
Cameras    $400.00
Screen    $170.00
Misc Supplies    $200.00
Sensors    $72.73
Other Sensors    $150.00

$1,040.36    TOTAL

CEILING
Book Materials / Printing    $80.00
Project stand materials:     $80.00
Programmer    $990.00
Projector    $0.00
Mac Mini    $0.00
Cables    $0.00
Server    $50.00
Misc    $100.00

$1,300.00    TOTAL

THIRD OBJECT
Second Remote    $10.00
Battery Holder    $5.00
Fabric    $60.00
Previous Purchases    $200.00

$275.00    TOTAL

TABLE
Webcams    $120.00    ($30 x 4)
6″ Screen    $800.00    ($100 x 8)    400 possible
S-Video to RCA Adapter    $56.00    ($9 x
Cooling Fan    $108.00    ($18 x 6)
S-Video Cables    $96.00    ($12 x
RCA Extension Cable    $24.00    ($3 x
Construction (Chandlier)    $550.00
Contact Mic    $12.00
Speakers    $200.00

$1,966.00    TOTAL

DOCUMENTATION
IP Cameras    $450.00
Video Tape    50

$500.00

Over-Estimates

$400.00
$200.00
$80.00
$100.00
$60.00
$200.00
$108.00
$200.00

$1,348.00
$674.00

Sink    $1,040.36
Ceiling    $1,300.00
Third Object    $275.00
Table    $1,966.00
Documentation    $500.00

TOTAL    $5,081.36
(Half over-estimates)    $674.00

FINAL TOTAL    $4,407.36
(with over-estimates
taken into
consideration)

Sinkity Sink Sink

1. DESCRIBE THE RESEARCH you want to pursue. What is the point of your project?

We developed this project within the framework of three bounding terms:

Conversation: The feeds offer the family members a different view of a world they simultaneously share and experience individually. Family members might want to call one another over to view the feeds, which touches upon conversation. The sharing of personal experiences and views of the household creates an alternative means of indirect communication.

Stickiness: In this project, the presence of streaming media is tied to a space normally not associated with streaming media: the kitchen sink. The idea of stickiness is an integral part of this juxtaposition.

Existence Value: While our project does not apply directly to the traditional definition of existence value in terms of place, it does examine the idea of viewing the world differently, through the eyes of other family members. This allows them to, perhaps, reevaluate their understanding of the world in which they live. It plays into the idea of a personal experience and personal voice, of seeing the world through one another’s eyes. Values may be broken apart and analyzed as a result of this activity by coming to the forefront.

We chose the kitchen as the location for this project for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, we wanted the placement to be in an area where there would be guaranteed daily traffic. The kitchen sink is an area where daily activity must take place for cooking, cleaning, washing, etc. We wanted to choose a location that did not have as much traffic as a common gathering area like the living room. We wanted it to be enough out of place for the viewer to have to go a bit out of his or her way to access it. The idea of displacement of family members in the home was addressed. We wanted it to have little or no pre-existing association to any technology or media. Additionally, we wanted to choose a location in the home that is generally, but not always, experienced in solitude. The kitchen sink thus proved the perfect location for this project.

2. WHAT RESEARCH DID YOU CONDUCT that made you decide to do your project? (i.e. looked at last terms findings, found information from a specific probe, researched statistics about domestic life, etc…)

Last term, we placed streaming media in the kitchen using the Chumby device. This elicited several responses from members of the family, particularly the mothers who worked a lot in the kitchen. The traffic cam feed gave the family members a sense of self-awareness, and gave them a sense of simultaneity—they were at home while people were sitting in traffic somewhere else.

In many ways, the sink project is a further exploration of the feeds displayed in the Chumby devices: the panda cam, the freeway cam, and the earthquake cam. One of the main responses we got from these feeds was that they were generally “boring”, and that they wished they could see things in their own lives.

This term, building off of the response from last term, we wanted to go to the next level, and to attach streaming media to an activity, to make the engagement with the streaming media an active motion.
Additionally, a lot of interest was expressed surrounding the idea of allowing family members to create their own streaming media feeds, thus giving them a sense of authorship and voice. Granting family members authorship of their own feeds allows each individual to express his/her voice in a different way, and possibly to explore the overlooked/unexplored aspects of daily life.

This project came out of several research questions that emerged at the end of last term:
• Question of conversation – streaming media as a starting point for family conversation?
• The object as a stickiness point? (Brad’s coffee cup)
• What is ordinary?
• Familiar vs. Unfamiliar?
• How does a third object change the relationship between two things?

3. What is your RESEARCH QUESTION in detail? Sean wanted us to expand on the big question for each of our projects – give me details, adjectives…

• How does attaching streaming media to a given task, one that’s done every day, change their routine behavior? Their conversation? (“I saw this in the sink…”)
• How does being apart of the creation of streaming media change the participant’s perspective of themselves, especially when viewed in the context of the family dynamic?
4. How are you DOCUMENTING your project? (You can just give me the name of the device that you’re using to document)

A webcam will be set up at the sink area to film the activity at the sink. Additionally, the feeds sent from the individual family members’ cameras will be documented as well.

5. What is your MAIN RESEARCH QUESTION? What is/are your SECONDARY QUESTION(S)?

Main research questions:

• Attaching streaming media to a given task, one that’s done every day. Does that change their routine behavior? Their conversation? (“I saw this in the sink…”)
• How does being apart of the creation of streaming media feel, especially when viewed in the context of the family dynamic?

Secondary research questions
• How can we bring unspoken conversations to the foreground through streaming media?
• How can we change family members’ expectations and understanding of one another and their world?

6. Everyone needs to do the INSTRUCTIONS. Write it the way you would write it for them to read.

This project will be delivered in two parts.

Part 1: At the Sink
Materials: LCD screen, sensor, computer
Implementation: Part 1 will be set up in the home by our installation groups.
The LCD will be mounted above the sink, facing the viewer.
The sensor will be installed underneath the sink to detect motion.
The computer will be hooked up to both the sensor, MAKE controller, and LCD to receive input from the sensor, and to output the feeds to the LCD.

Part 2:
Materials: Four webcams, receiver.
Implementation: Part 2 will be given to the families in a packaged box, with instructions.

INSTRUCTIONS:

In this box you fill find four wireless video cameras, each labeled with a name.
Please take the video camera with your name. This camera will be your “eyes” during this coming week.

Your “eyes” are an extremely precious thing. You will use them to share your life with the rest of your family. Use your “eyes” to show anything you think is important to you and your family, isn’t talked about enough, or is worth seeing in a new perspective.

Whatever you choose to show with your “eyes” will be displayed, at random, in the Sink Station in the kitchen. When the sink senses someone approaching, it will display, at random, one of the four family members’ feeds in the home. The feed will remain on for 30 seconds, and will switch off after the 30 seconds has passed. To continue viewing the feed, the sink needs to sense someone at the sink again.

To toggle through to different feeds, you will have to step away and re-activate the sensor.

The camera will be on at all times during the week. Feel free to carry it with you inside the house, take it outside into your yard, but do not remove it from the home.

7. Go back and review with your group the GENERAL EXPLANATION of the project and the OBJECTIVE of your project (2 separate things). If you feel you need to add something, please elaborate.

GENERAL EXPLANATION

Family members will each be given one wireless camera. Family members will be asked to place the camera in different parts of the home. They can carry the cameras with them while in the house, place it on the table filming them, place it on the floor, etc.

A LCD monitor will be placed directly on top of the kitchen sink, facing the person at the sink. When a family member walks up to the sink, a sensor will detect his or her presence and turn on the feed. The feed displayed will be streamed from the wireless camera that is placed throughout the home. The feed will be displayed for 30 seconds, and will turn off after the 30 second has passed. The user must actively step back and re-activate the sensor to turn on and continue watching the feed. Family members will have the option of toggling through different family members’ feeds.

OBJECTIVE

To create a new vehicle for streaming media in the home that explores the idea of “voice” and empowerment. To create an opportunity to allow the family members to view their shared home from the perspective of other family members, giving them the ability to see themselves and their life in a new light. To increase accessibility of streaming media by attaching it to an everyday activity.

Table Project

Disrupting Domestic Ritual with Streaming Media

Kylan Coats, Adam Guzman, Yusung Kim,
Ping Li, Julie Phanstiel

Activity Explanation:

A prosthetic table top equipped with overhead cameras, a monitor chandelier, and sound “catchers” under the dinner plates will be installed concurrently in the homes of both study families. The table prosthetic will capture specific “slices” of the dinner table experience (the sound of the utensils on the plates and the overhead visual of the eating of the foods off the plates, and beam it to the other family, in a one to one relationship. The study will take place over two consecutive night’s dinners.

The aim is to interrogate the moment of simultaneous consumption of media and food by interrupting the dinner table ritual. The installation will ask the family questions about politeness, and about prioritizing immediate conversation in relationship to primal communication/gestures of the narrowed bandwidth of banging on plates or eating of food. Will the family members subvert the provided channels by writing on paper or sticking their faces under the cameras?

It is possible, of course, that this way of connecting and communicating will also be highly unsatisfying or disturbing to the families. However, our goals are not to provide a better or more realistic way to connect through media (that is the job of, for example, skype developers and the nice people at apple) but to use streaming media to interrogate the loaded rituals around consumption and politeness as a way into understand the possible roles of streaming media in the home.

Documentation Methods:

There will be a separate video camera system of two cameras with audio attached to the overhead rack. These will capture the meta experience. We also will sample the sound streams, as well as screen video captures of the overhead cameras.

Primary Research Question:

Is streaming media a better surrogate than TV for the 66% of Americans consuming images while they consume food every night? Can streaming media and the domestic technology that delivers it become an actual avenue for connection not just for a blind and unsatisfying consumption?

Secondary Research Questions:
How does streaming media affect the family ritual of eating? How do families negotiate or create new conventions around consuming media when confronted with strangers projected into their dinner? How can streaming media create new conversations and disrupt/create family hierarchies?

These questions expanding on last terms investigations of conversation. Our telephone probe last term focused on how a family narrative can arise through sticky memories. This term, we are focused on the interaction and how that shapes conversation. Plate probes?

The Third Object – IRB

1. DESCRIBE THE RESEARCH
Our research has stemmed from what we learned last term. We focused on how conversation changes when a person is empowered with an object, how the object affects their spatial relationship and what design affordances arise from these observations. This term, we wanted to make an object that emphasizes this point and exploits the possibility of what a third object can be.

2. WHAT RESEARCH DID YOU CONDUCT?
The research we conducted was based on the probes we sent out last term. We analyzed results from the previous term. All our research for this project has been based on the probes (the doodle pad, the sticky-ball game, the families journals).
The use of the “tek-pal” with its extraordinary size, shape, and material in last terms study helped guide how we designed our object. For example the “tek-pal was soft and pillow like but very small in size – (how did this design affect the viewing experience?) How does an object with very common and a familiar design being redesign in a peculiar way changes your whole perception in different ways including towards other people.

3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS (original question)
How does a third object change the family’s relationship to streaming media and conversation? We found that a third object changes the relationship between conversation of people and their behavior. How can the form/shape further their conversation, behavior. Do we force them to use awkward gestures, spatial arrangement, and comprise with each other? Can we make their experience more enjoyable this time around? On top of this thought we want to know if we can change their perception by alienating a familiar object – how does this play with conversation and behavior? Also we want to give our object a personality of a rebel by randomly highjacking their TV.

4. DOCUMENTATION
We are using an IP-Webcam to document their reactions and interaction with our object. The IP-Webcam will be connected through an ethernet cord and does not need a computer. From there we use the program snapz” to record the IP-Webcam.

5. INSTRUCTIONS

HUG, PUNCH, OR SIT ON TO STOP THE MADNESS. THE OBJECT IS VERY SENSITIVE AND NEEDS YOUR ATTENTION – BE AWARE IT WILL GET YOUR ATTENTION.
Please call the hot-line if the object stops responding to your touch or stops being naughty. Each object is individual and unique therefore we will walk you through getting it back and running.

6. GENERAL EXPLANATION and OBJECTIVES
Our object is like a pillow but shaped more oddly. Our object replaces a TV remote control and focuses on one function of the remote (channel changing). The object has a mind of its own and may change channels at its own discretion. This is its way to ask for attention. We want to make it a fun, unorthodox TV viewing experience. In a situation where people have the voice of what is being watched, an object now has a voice as well.

Ceiling Project Update- 3.12.08

Developments in our project took place due to a meeting at the families homes. The current trajectory of our project is to place a projection of text animation in a specific location of the home. These sustained texts are contributed from the families. I had a meeting with Dave Champagne of Audio Visual Services Unlimited, a projectionist professional, and his associate Glen. We visited the families’ homes to determine the most practical places to show the projections, and came up with the study in the Suns’ home, and above the dining room in the Leas’ home. Pictures of both places are documented below:

Issues discussed with the specialists ranged from tricky areas of the Leas’ home, which featured an angled ceiling in the living room and a brightly lit tv lounge, to issues with overheating with the equipment. We also determined that stands will need to be created to hold the projectors in the homes. Our next steps are to finalize the aesthetic of our text animations and construction of the stands. The quotes suggested by the projectionists were a little more than our budget could afford, so chances are we’ll have to provide the installation and equipment by our own accord.