Module Journal: Project Planning & Management

The Our Senses exhibit consists of 11 interactive rooms is " a playground that warps what we perceive to be reality.". Visitors are invited to use their six senses - sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing, and balance - to navigate through their experience.  Credit: Sam Hodgson for The New York Times The "seeing" rooms in the exhibit utilise optical illusions and sensory tricks to let visitors explore and discover hidden aspects of the exhibit, while learning about how their eyes and brain work together to perceive the world.  The "hearing" room asks visitors to pick out specific sounds from an orchestra, while a room with curves all over the flat floors and walls confuse brains and some visitors need to stumble through it.  Credit: Sam Hodgson for The New York Times I've decided not to continue paraphrasing the jounalist's work and let you read the article if you want. All in all, the Our Senses exhibit is quite interesting, but is...

With Vox Memoria being my chosen name, I went ahead and started sketching logos. Earliest sketches

I'm gonna start off with the questions from the worksheet for the positioning statement What - An installation which allows people to create musical mixes using shared emotional triggers that can connect people between cultures. Why - So people can realise how similar they might be - humanising strangers. How - Through allowing users to create their own mix from a selection of memory tracks, and listen to how similar or how different theirs are to others'. For who - Youths, students, young professionals (relatively tech-savvy) What is different - Incorporating musical and gory elements to the usual theme of interactive organ projects, while also teaching a little bit of anatomy What are the benefits - Enable users to feel more connected to the people around them Project personality (5 words) - Empathetic, Youthful, Sensitive, Raw, Honest For the name of the project, I played around with Latin words (as I do - it seems to be a trend in my works now). Some initi...

Managed to talk to both Julian and Michael on Wednesday to work on the idea, and Julian's managed to give very useful technical input on what's feasible. I've decided to work the launchpad music into the sculpture/mold of the heart itself, and Julian told me about conductive cotton, which I can try to incorporate into the veins/arteries of the heart. With this in mind, I wanted to further develop the associations of the music beats and rhythms with the anatomy of a heart. This required a quick refresher in basic anatomy, which I haven't really thought about since graduating high school. I'm thinking of associating the parts of the heart which pump oxygenated blood (orange parts) with sounds that represent life and hope, and the blue parts which pump deoxygenated blood with sounds that are associated with death and despair. I also want to find a way to incorporate the different parts of the heart (valves, major veins and arteries, and different chambers) with dif...

A look at online examples of human bodies and interactivity. 1. Alcohol and You: An Interactive Body (Collegedrinkingprevention.gov, n.d.) The purpose of this site is to let users click on the different organs to show the effects of alcohol abuse. The organs become bigger and are highlighted when hovered over. 2. The Human Body (Healthline, n.d.) (Healthline, n.d.) (Healthline, n.d.) (Healthline, n.d.) This site illustrates the 11 major organ systems in the human body, allowing users to move around and view the 3D models up close. Users can also navigate between different layers, from the skin down.  3. All Systems Go (Kinetic City, n.d) An interactive game, players is first greeted with a voice that says "Please help me, I've lost all my organs!". When the game starts, players are asked to find different organs from different organ systems. At the end, the character thanks the player, saying he "feels complete again...

Still kind of unsure about the exact installation I want to make, I decided to look up "interactive" and "organs" and see what comes up, partially for inspiration, and also to make sure I don't make something too similar to something that already exists. Body Worlds Mentioned in an earlier post, Body Worlds is an interactive science exhibit featuring plastinated human bodies and organs. (Body Worlds, 2018) Created by Dr. Angelina Whalley and Dr. Gunther von Hagens, the exhibit aims to promote awareness about preventative healthcare, showing the audience the varying ways the human body can be affected by different lifestyles. Visitors are able to see how common diseases and addictions affect each organ, emphasising the importance of a healthy lifestyle. (Body Worlds, 2018) According to a survey developed by Professor Ernst-D. Lantermann of the University of Kassel, Germany, "68% of the respondents resolved to pay more attention to their physica...

I'm honestly still a little unsure about how I'm going to combine my original pulsing heart idea with the musical launchpad aspect, but I need to keep moving forward so I decided to work on getting some visual references and see how things go from there. In terms of graphic style and UI, I'd like to stick to clear line work and distinct colours. This graphic from an interactive article by Science News talking about the effect that opiods have on the human body is a good point of reference for that. (Science News, 2018) I have also come across posters for the Body Worlds exhibit in London. Body Worlds is an interactive science exhibit which displays plastinated human bodies and organs. The plastination process leaves very detailed muscle fibres on display, but can feel a little macabre to viewers.  (Body Worlds, 2018) (Body Worlds, 2018) Finally, I looked through Pinterest for some other visual references, and will be compiling these images into a mood bo...