After feeling like kids at a candy store while looking at such a broad pool of inspiration and research into potential technologies, and just plain cool stuff, we began to narrow down our focus to decide what our project would be all about. Here I have to give due credit to Linzi, who right from the get-go really wanted to be project manager, and with good reason – I don’t think I’ve ever seen such an organizedly chaotic brainstorm in my life.
To start the brainstorm off on the right foot, we considered the parameters of the project. First of all, according to the rubric for the class, it needs to be presentable at Imagine RIT: Innovation and Creativity Festival here on campus. This pretty much defines our audience: adults, college students, families, and children. Of course, if we’re to present this project at Imagine RIT, we want it to be more or less universally accessible, and placed in a high-traffic area so that it gets the most exposure possible, whether indoors or outdoors.
Projects also tend to be more successful if they fulfill some sort of want or need of the user. This could be anything from fostering a sense of community from a multi-user experience, to “memories” and little takeaways from the experience. Escapism can be a great example of a community desire that needs to be fulfilled, whether you want to “escape” from yourself for a while by controlling a completely different character or avatar on the screen and losing your sense of self-consciousness through that experience, or something as simple as finding yourself on a virtual beach with sunny weather to escape the dreary cold of Rochester. This want or need can also be an invoked emotion, a shared experience and “bonding” with other people, or a sense of accomplishment. This installment is meant to be all kinds of good-natured fun – we definitely don’t want to make anyone feel stupid.
Although the possibilities for this project are tempting and endless, one thing we wanted to keep in mind before we got too involved in the details of things is to keep everything SIMPLE. We even wrote it in 60 point font in our notes. It’s that important. You will see why in a second.
The possibilities for the type of project and the technology we can use are, like I said, pretty much endless. Installation vs. TakeHome vs. Website vs. any combination of the three are only a few of the ideas we came up with right off the bat. As far as non-mouse interactive technologies here’s a whole list:
- Keyboard
- Camera
- Video game controller
- DDR pad
- Rock Band equipment
- Guitar Hero guitar
- Wii hit board
- BX24
- Projector
- Multi touch screen
- Infrared, webcam
- Playstation game camera
- Pins/sensors for touch
But what do we actually want to do? After miles of notes and hours of deliberation we came to a basic consensus. We want to blow your mind. How that will be done is up for discussion at this point, but done it will be. Don’t worry.
A huge source of inspiration for Linzi was the Terrascope(?) installation in New York City. The installation was composed of a giant sculpture of a telescope that used a webcam feed from London to display in the eye of the telescope. This facilitated communication between two cities very far apart, to the point where people on opposite sides of the earth were having drinking contests via “telescope.” Now that’s community bonding right there.
The idea of facilitating interaction between remote areas really struck us and even kind of stuck for a while. After talking about the MIT Party Room we got to thinking – what if users online couldn control the physical environment, for example the composition of a room? Somewhat like playing God, yes, but the collaboration between a removed decision maker and a person experiencing the environment firsthand could be interesting concept to explore. This also brings in the idea of teamwork, which is something we’ve slowly been zeroing in on during this brainstorm. If we do a game, like a puzzle game, or a maze, where you actually have to use your body to find your way, we could set up multiple installations and allow people across campus to work together to complete the games.
Another aspect that we want to bring into this project is viral marketing for the project. We want it to spread like wildfire through campus on the day of Imagine RIT by word of mouth, through handouts, giveaways, etc.
More from this brainstorm session can be found here.
ira | 
02 5th, 2009| 
