project 2 - appraisal
I appraoched the project from the perspective of trying to enthuse kids about the interesting history that is in the building itself rather than just the exhibits. I tried to do this using stories. I decided that the best way to tell the stories would be to characterise a "guide" through my animation.
I struggled to find a way to characterise the walls talking, because I was finding it very difficult to animate speech realsitically. That's when I decided to try to use a digital camera which takes moving jpeg movies to try to learn about how my mouth would move while talking. While i was trying to draw frames from the jpegs, I realised it would be very effective to have the photos themselves slightly transparent against the wall rather than just illustration of the talking. This took alot of work to mask each frame, but i think it was worth it to set up the context of the story telling by the walls that can talk.
I wanted to use historical photos that i found at the state library, because I feel like it helps to realise how different yet how similar the building was over a hundred years ago, and to be able to visualise the history in the present location in the middle of the city.
I wanted to have simple multiple choice quizes to help engage the viewer in viewing the story less passively and thinking about objects and things in the stories. I tried using radion buttons and checkboxes, but I wanted an iteractivity with the quiz that was more natural, and more like filling in a quiz by circling and crossing out on the page rather than using computer sumbols of checkboxes and radio buttons. I think this was quite successful, and really improved the interactivity of the quizes.
I think I was successful in meeting my aims for the project. I think that the context of the wall talking works well to establish that there is more history to the building than is presented in the museum.
I have learned a bit about vector graphics, which will be helpful to me in the future, I have learned alot about masking, and thinking about breaking scenes down into parts that can be displayed within a masked section. I have also learned a good way to learn more about making realistic movement in my animation - to take little moving jpegs on my digital camera and take them apart frame by frame.
I have learned alot about thinking about interaction design and knowledge design. I want to be more critical about why I make design choices for interaction and knowledge design and think about how all design choices affect the overall aims.
I need to develop the sound more. I spent too much time working on the visuals that I didn't create a soundscape, but just used narration. I think that narration was an important part of my design, and i think it worked well, but I needed to create soundscape, I just didn't have time, and my file size was running away with me too.
project research and development
The state library has good books and photos for western australian history. There are lost of historic photos, including some of the old perth gaol. I find it fascinating to see the old photos and to try to imagine how the gaol is now - in the middle of the city.
I really wish that these kind of photos were on display at the museum. I think that its a pity that there is such a historic building that is part of the museum, that hardly has any information about it at the museum! The museum only has two tiny cabinet displays about the gaol and the whole gaol is full of other exhibits. Any information is hidden away never really seen, in the state library next door. But I feel like the building is history - and the building is a museum, why isn't there more about it at the actual museum!
I find the storys of the old perth gaol quite fascinating. I find it eerie to look at the building and think about people being imprisioned and killed here. It seems so much like an ordinary old building, but it has such a eerie history. I think this would intrigue children if they were told about the stories of the building and the prisoners.
other research I have done has been from the state library, they have old records from the gaol and there was a small book published when the gaol was restored in 1970. "The Old Perth gaol." - published by the museum, but now no information is still available from the museum. I think the museum must have been quite well funded in the 1970s, but now it must have virtually no funding. that's probably why there is not much information still available at the gaol itself anymore.
I also found useful a book on early prisions in perth "Early prisons in Perth and Fremantle" by J.H. Dickinson.
"Punishment, prisons and reform : incarceration in Western Australia in the 19th century." by Louise J Bavin, which talks about statistics on numbers of inmates, plans of the prisons and philosophy of incarceration.
In my project I am trying to present the historical images from the state library, and the information about how prisioners lived that I have learned from the books. I also want to include information from the displays that are already in the museum about a few artifacts that were found at the gaol. I am trying to do this by telling stories that will hopefully engage a child to think about the old gaol, and the history of the buliding. I hope that the short multiple choice quizes that I am working on will also help involve and intrigue the viewer.
There is alot of information that I have researched, and I want to present the history in a narrative way, which places the viewer/hearer into awareness of the building and its inhabitants' lives.
I think by getting the walls to talk, this should appeal to kids, and it is an interesting way to characterise the narrator of these stories.
Thoughtful interaction design - Lowgren and Stolterman
I want to take on board the ideas of the reading about being a thoughtful designer in the way I think about all aspects of the interaction that I am designing. I need to think about that I am constructing knowledge when I design.
As a designer my task, as Lowgren and Stolterman say, is to develop something of lasting quality in the most suitable and creative way for the given situation. I need to challenge existing conceptions and restrictions that are based on false assumptions. I want to be able to really learn to critically think about the assumptions that I come to a design problem with. I want to be able to try to define what needs doing, and not define just my pre-concieved ideas about what I should do, but come fresh to the possibilities available.
I think it is important to remember like they said that design is in a cultural context, the choices you make are cultural. Often cultural decisions and ideas will be invisible to yourself as a designer, but it is helpful to try to see even the invisible ideological context that you are desinging in. If you can see the things that you assume as natural common knowledge, maybe you can realise that it is not so natural and common knowledge, but cultural context. This is helpful to think of cultural context of myself and my audience, and make more concious decisions.
The limited time, skills and resources in this project are as they say in this reading not really just limitations, but they are just part of the considerations that I need to take into accout as I am designing anything. So often it is tempting to think - if only I had more time, or knew more about flash. But really these are part of the design problem, and finding the best solution involves learning what I can, thinking of creative ways to learn what I need to know, and how to achieve what I want to achieve with my skills and time available.
Metaworx - young swiss interactive
Windowmat
This project aims to guide people in learing more about cultural diversity, integration and ecological concerns. It wants to be like a learning tool on the street in a multi-ethnic neighbourhood in Basel, it aims to create an experience that teaches people about these big issues while being enjoyable and intriguing.
The aims of the project were achieved by using a vending machine placed on the street. It relys on people being intrigued, and the "vending machine" plays on people's consumerism but then aims to entice them into learning rather than consumerism. It aims to be easy to access by anyone and for anyone to be able to learn from an experience with it. And aims to get anyone on the street intrigued.
This project uses vending machine technology and multimedia delivery of information. I like this project because it inspires me to think about having a whole system of interaction to design. In our animations we cannot choose the machine people view the work on, but this project created the machine and the content.
It is useful to think about trying to design a learning experience that will intrigue people and get them to interact more with the work. I think if I saw this "vending machine" on the street I would definately be intrigued, and when I found out that it was a learning tool, I would be very intrigued by the information it presents.
In my project i would like to intrigue my audience and go on to present information in a very accessable way.
Nathan Sherdoff - Information interaction design
This reading made me think in more depth about what I want to do in my project. I want to create, like Nathan Sherdoff writes about, a design for my information that creates a powerful compelling learning experience that presents knowledge rather than just data.
To design "information interaction design" I need to take into account information design, interaction design and sensorial design. I need to oraginse and present the knowledge. Every design choice I make should be deliberately chosen to further the aims of my project. In the visual design, sound design and designing the story I am telling, I want to strive to present information not just data. I need to build context and meaning, orgainse the information in the best way, and think about every aspect of the design and how the different aspects add to each other.
He also talks about the continuum of interactivity - where the amount of control the user has over the information is placed on a scale. How much control the user has over the outcome, how productive or creative the experience was for the user, how adaptive the environment is to the user, how communicative of stories the piece was. All these factors contribte to the interactivity, and it is important to choose the ways I want people to be able to and guided to interact with my animation/learning tool.
I want to be interactive in presenting some stories/history of the old perth gaol. I want there to be some productive quiz-like elements to the animation/stories which will be a learning interaction that encourages the viewer not just to be passively hearing/viewing history but to be thinking about and learning about it.
Radio eye - Stanton Street Shul
I found the radio program Radio Eye extremely effective as an audio documentary because it blended narration, story telling, music, recited poetry, sound effects etc in a way that told the story very effectively. It told the story of a Jewish place of worship and it was told from various people’s perspectives that all told their own stories as part of the whole story.
The story telling was at some points very evocative of visual imagination in me - I could imagine the setting and the people telling the story. I think this was achieved by using people telling their own stories, tied together with narration. The people had very character-filled voices that helped me imagine the type of people. Also there was a feeling of following a story – walking to different settings, meeting different people.
The different sections were tied together by narration. There was the narration of the presenter at the beginning who explained the context for the program – spinning around the world, spinning stories, and then the main narration was taken over by another narrator who was involved in the story.
Music was used to tie together sections as well as to give a tonal/atmospheric/emotional feeling to the narration and story telling. The music would start at the end of one section and link it to the next thematically and atmospherically. Poetry was also used in this way, like chanting children’s rhymes or reading poetry. This was effective as an almost musical element, which added atmosphere and was another form of storytelling that illustrated the narration’s points.
There was also used a technique of the characters telling children about what was happening, which was effective, because it felt like they were telling children (who were present with them) about something, which was interesting and at a basic level to the listening radio audience.
I would like to use narration in my animation to set the scene. I would also like to use the idea of characterised narration to lead people around the learning experience. It is interesting to think of the whole radio piece as a series of stories that add up to tell the whole story. I would like my piece to involve various stories that add together to tell the overall story of the old Perth Gaol. I also want to take from this radio program ideas about how to link various sections and stories, and how to tie them together thematically and atmospherically. I would like to explore the use of audio to link sections, like with music or ambient noise carried over between sections, and also how to use narration to lead someone through various stories that make up the whole story. I want to think of my piece as telling a story. I want to think about what voices can most effectively tell people the story and how to link stories together.
visual design references
I am inspired by the animation of Phip Murray, in an animation called Brace Brace retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/arts/strange/animations/default.htm
I need to learn more about vector graphics and vector graphics animation style because I haven't got much expereince in vector illustration. I think this animation is beautiful, while being about death and destruction. In my project about the old perth gaol, which has a dark side of imprisonment and death, I need to be able to capture images that are moving but not delibrately gory because the learning tool is aimed at children.
I think the way that she handles subjects like death and war is inspiring for me, because, for example in this still, she uses a vector scene of mountains and animates planes flying across. This is very effective and easy for me to imagine achiving, and gives the sense of menace of the planes. If I can set up becautiful vacor backgrounds and animate small moving parts, I hope to be able to use the reference of this animation which does it so well.
I love the way she frames every scene and every image within the animation so that if i choose one still, every image is visually beautifully framed. I want to think of the framing of my images in my animation, to make each frame, even in-between ones to be striking.
I love the subtle way she animates figures, and then symbolises death with small popies that fade in to represent each soldier dying. I need to find a way to represent the dark side of prision life in 19th centrury Perth, in a simple animation style that is not tacky blood and gore, but just suggestive.
