26th October - 29th October
Group B: Tiana Robison Randriaharimalala, Ziyou Yin (Ines), Sanya Nayar, Kate Chernysheva
Group B: Tiana Robison Randriaharimalala, Ziyou Yin (Ines), Sanya Nayar, Kate Chernysheva
IDEATION
This week was focused on putting together a presentation and the experience we wanted to share with everyone. Looking back at our stage of exploration we derived 2 activities that we wanted to replicate in the class:
Snowball: this was one of the most successful ideas, where we felt together, yet at a distance. While scattered along the embankment in a line we started by showing a sign/movement such as a clap, which the next person had to repeat and add an additional sign/movement passing it on to the person following him and so on. Here we engaged the senses of sight, movement as well as proprioception.
Light Sensitivity: To engage our senses beyond the five we used light. The idea came to me as I stumbled upon an scientific article that talked about how humans can sense the light through their skin. The term to describe the phenomenon of seeing light through closed eyes that we found was phosphene. Some of us were familiar with the idea of Morse code and we thought. Why not combine them?
Sketches made by Kate.
Upon discussion with our course leader John Fass on Tuesday we felt very confident in both of these ideas and decided to include them both. We wanted to show what we’ve done without using the screen and the slides to make the experience more immersive. Hence, we began planning.
PLANNING AND PREPARING
To replicate our experience and make it more interesting and engaging for everyone we spent some time ideating online via zoom. When designing how to replicate our experiences we had to bear in mind two main things: social distancing measures due to COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the fact that we wanted to engage Tiana in the process of presenting as she was abroad at the time. Hence we started a google document to plan our presentation and kept in touch online for the rest of the week.
A screenshot taken during one of the meetings. Taken by Kate.
SOLUTION
Sketch of the Snowball activity performed in class. Sketch made by Kate.
As it was very difficult to capture the Snowball activity we wanted to show I have created a sketch in order to show how it went. It was very successful as it really looked like we were connecting as we couldn't everyone and neither could the rest of the people in class. However, they still saw the messages we were passing on. We placed the laptop which we used to communicate with Tiana in the corridor outside and passed in on and on.
As Tiana was abroad and unable to participate in person we have organised for her to be with everyone in the class via zoom and present next to us. Photo taken by John Fass.
For our light sensitivity idea we decided to take inspiration from the reading suggested by John Fass - the novel Blindness . It was very appropriate and suited the speculative scenario that we based our presentation on. For a moment we brought the class into the possible future, where Covid-19 has mutated and began to cause blindness.
Video from the presentation day. Video taken and edited by Sanya.
We played out a little conversation between people who started to use light as communication and taught the class a simple combination of our own light language.
Video and picture from the presentation day depicting a Light conversation from the future between two people who were blinded by a virus. Video and photo taken by John Fass.
REFLECTION
Even though we believe that we received very positive first feedback from our peers and course leaders, there were things that we could have improved. Perhaps, during the speculative dialogue, we could have used different colour lighting in order to differentiate who is speaking, but overall, we managed to achieve the sense of togetherness in the room.
This brief has given me a better understanding of how important human senses are in shaping our experiences and the way we perceive the world. It improved our collaborative skills as well as helped us to get back into a creative mindset post long lockdown period and made us think outside the box. It was a great introduction into the course and helped me see the User Experience through a different lens and step aside from technology and the digital world.
A picture from the presentation day. Picture taken by Ines.
bibliography
Hadlington2008-07-14T08:25:00+01:00, S. (n.d.). Humans may sense light through skin. [online] Chemistry World. Available at: https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/humans-may-sense-light-through-skin/3002007.article [Accessed 10 Jan. 2021].
www.merriam-webster.com. (n.d.). Definition of PHOSPHENE. [online] Available at: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/phosphene [Accessed 10 Jan. 2021].
NobelPrize.org. (n.d.). The Nobel Prize in Literature 1998. [online] Available at: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1998/press-release/ [Accessed 10 Jan. 2021].