Environments Studio Spring 2023
Reading Reflections
Tuesday, January 24th
AI Impacts Design and Architecture
I was most interested in the robot that engaged with it’s viewers as much as the viewers engaged with it. The robot would get bored and focus on something else, which is such a human characteristic and is strange but enlightening to see implemented in a robot.
Can AI Create Art
I thought it was interesting how the author vilified the use of AI for art because there have been many technological advances in the past that has altered the definition of art (the example they gave in the reading was photography). However, I still think that AI is a bit different from tools such as cameras because it is taking the art created from artists and combining them. It was also mentioned how advances in technology does not cause net unemployment, which masquerades as a reason that AI art is not bad, since people will still have jobs, but I think that this argument disregards the livelihoods of the people who’s jobs are being replaced. Although there may be new jobs that arise from these new technologies, it is a new skill set, and the people whose jobs are taken over by technology do not directly transfer to these new jobs. Although this is just a byproduct of technology faced in all industries, I think that this framing of the situation in the article does not accurately describe the situation and tries to mitigate it.
Enchanted Objects
The interesting thing about enchanted objects is that it makes our traditional interactions with objects enhanced with technology. Sometimes, these ideas are overkill and are not needed; however, I think ideas like the medicine alert device have good potential.
Thursday, January 26th
IoT Data in the Home: Observing Entanglements and Drawing New Encounters
I enjoyed this presentation of different ways this research group analyzed data to be used into thoughtful products. Many of these ideas of using data are meaningful and connected to people’s relationship to data. I especially enjoyed the “Honest Time Blocks” idea where the true length of an action is revealed through data, which I feel would be interesting and helpful information personally.
Data Materiality Episode 4: Yanni Loukissas on Understanding and Designing Data Settings
I enjoyed how this podcast touched upon how data sets can be racist and sexist depending upon the environment these data sets are taken from. I took another class that dealt with image processing from AI that recognized people’s faces and they had a paper that described how the data set this AI was trained on lacked people of color, so the AI could not recognize people of color’s faces. I think its important to remember that even data, which seems absolute, is in-fact very human.
Case Studies
IOT Device Ideas
- Based on environmental data gathered, a fill in the black style story on the wall will change wordings to describe the space currently. (ex. On a (quiet/fun) (morning/afternoon/evening)). Mostly just for decoration…
- An emotional sensor will track your mood during your stay and print out your emotions with a little message or fortune.
- Data memories the building has will be hidden on the wall and require you to use the IOT device (either visually or hearing) to understand them. Reflects on how a space is built up of not just the physical but the people inside it and how places carry memories.
- Device that amplifies sounds of wifi or oxygen etc or allows people to hear sounds of things at high frequencies they normally wouldn’t hear.
Sketches:
Tuesday, January 31
Audrey Desjardins — Data Imaginaries: Between Home, People and Technology
I enjoyed that the sunlight fabric fading device produced effects that were not expected. Sometimes, we may think something is true, when it actually is unexpected and different, which broadens our understanding of the world. In this case, the researchers and I thought that the fabric would have a smooth gradient from fading of the sun since the sun is quite regular in its intensity; however, nothing is that simple, and the fabric was striated from other factors.
Top 5 learnings for visualizing data in Augmented Reality (AR)
The article outlines some difficulties of using AR such as difficulty finding a useful problem space, but also some positive points about AR like collaboration and interaction. As I saw the use of AR for maps, I thought about how AR could be useful to display 2D maps in 3D for navigation since some cities have a lot of vertical layering of roads which may not be apparent on a 2D map.
Designing the Behavior of Interactive Objects
Applying personalities to interactive objects is really interesting because it makes the objects feel alive. I thought that it was also interesting how people who interacted with the objects could pick up on the object’s intended personality without any verbal communication.
Assigning three personality traits to our idea: imaginative, playful, provocative
Case Study
As someone speaks throught the phone, the device will pick up the pitch and frequency of their words and translate that into movement for the device to tickle the listener’s ear. I think that this system has the personality of being silly and can potentially have further personality types embedded within it.
Thursday, February 2
Speak Data
I though that the plastic objects transforming into micro-plastics in the air to demonstrate pollution was interesting. Although it is pretty, there is a sinister effect behind it.
Tuesday, March 14
Sigur Ros
I thought that the AR experience was very magical and reminded me of avatar. I especially like when the lady in the video moved her arms around and was able to cause wind that moved the grass. I tend to enjoy video game experiences that are ethereal and feature world-building, so seeing the AR video feature something similar sparked ideas for AR interactions that evoke the same emotions.
Nike Music
I think that utilizing the shoes for music is a unique and interesting idea; however, I wish they showed someone dancing with the shoes on. I think solely using the shoes as a mechanism by DJ’s to create music by bending and twisting them is not as interesting to me than seeing what kinds of music is generated by other motion. As a marketing campaign, I understand the intentions, but I do wish they had a clip of what someone breakdancing would sound like.
Bloom Open Space
I liked how this video showed an AR exhibit with real visitors and how that dynamic works. I thought that the way they completed the exhibit was interesting as well since there were extremely large screens placed in a circle.
Spiralala
Utilizing architecture and sound is something I’ve never thought about but makes a lot of sense. Spaces are able to warp to amplify sound or to mitigate sound, and it is interesting how they made this dynamic and interactive. I do think it would be terrifying to be in the building and hear people’s distorted voices echoing, but it is fascinating in concept.
Sonic Arcade
This is a fun museum exhibit that allows people to play with different types of instruments to produce sound. In particular, I like how the sound is not only heard but also felt in order to create a new sensory and auditorial relationship. When I was thinking of ideas for the first project, I thought about a similar concept where I wanted people to gain a new understanding of their environment through a different sense, and this is happing from sound to touch in the exhibit.
Thursday, March 16
Towards a Framework for Designing Playful Gustosonic Experiences
This was a really interesting read due to the concept of the project and the content of the paper. I appreciated that the text went into depth about how they were able to create the screaming ice cream, since I have little physical computing background and having the moving parts explained was helpful in visualizing how the device works. Besides the technical parts, I find the concept fun and hilarious.
Toward Understanding Playful Beverage-based Gustosonic Experiences
I think that the Sonic straws are a fun interaction, but I can’t help but think they don’t have that much depth. Although the screaming ice-cream was also just playful, for some reason it feels more complete than sonic straws.
