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Presentation Set Up

Reflection from Presentation

For my presentation I displayed four of the same manuals and two videos (One dog and one cat room), these explored the movement for the animals and have sounds attached to the videos. The focus of the project was on the design of these four spaces for the animals. This enabled me to get to what I thought was a refined level of each of the spaces and provides for the animals needs. Overall, I thought my presentation went reasonably well. Everyone was enjoying the videos and thought the manuals were a nice touch. They were impressed with the amount that was within them and how good they looked. I am proud of myself for creating a rather large document that could be passed onto the SPCA. I think the videos were a success in showing the movement of the space from the animals perspective and to continue to reflect this concept of empathy that has been a focus of mine. Something that I am pleased which was raised in my presentation is that there is this new way of thinking that we need to consider when designing, this idea that design can extend further than just for human users. Feedback_ something that is missing within this is the number size to how much things/what it would cost for the SPCA since they are a non-profit organisation. How could this work on the basis of donating materials more than just toys that could help to create these spaces.

Another key point that was bought up was the materials I had chosen. This has been an underlying question throughout my whole research project. There is a problem that relates to animal ethics as we don’t know what they are thinking and therefore can’t know whether they would respond well or negatively to a material. Some of the materials were still seemed questionable- but there may be further solutions that I could explore. I need to look at what exactly you can seal materials with that protects the animal but still allows them to interact with it. * something to consider to further exploring and nutting out so that I could pass this onto the SPCA.

#wk12 #reflection

Friday Presentation

‘For the Love of Pets’ constructs habitable yet playful and interactive environments for animals at the Wellington SPCA, Alexandra Road, Newtown. These environments are specifically for cat and dog inhabitants as they popular within the centre. The project proposes an alternative approach that privileges the animal over the human perspective and human needs in order to create living environments for our domesticated animals. It employs the idea that animals are sentient beings that express emotions, needs and behaviours through actions, movements and sounds. It embraces these in an empathic mindset to respond in a meaningful and interactive space for the sick, unloved and abandoned animals that are housed at the SPCA.

The design uses animal centric concepts of play and stimulation amongst an animal’s other needs to create safe, multi zones and renewable spaces. Materials, textures and forms have been selected based on the colour, vision, behaviour and mannerisms of cats and dogs. While the design caters for an animal’s personality, well-being, need for exercise, sleep, security and nourishment, it also affords replacement and reshaping in the case of wear and tear.

The site for the project is at the Wellington SPCA on Alexandra Road Newtown. The design focuses on challenging the current existing buildings use within the rooms and looks at four specific rooms for a dog, cat, puppy and kitten.

The research involved regularly visiting the SPCA to get an understanding of what the environments requirements for animals were that stay temporarily and come in a range of different sizes. It was important to experience the rooms and how they interact with them to progress the interior of them.

For the love of pets links back to recognizing animals as valuable beings we can design for and create healthy and comfortable spaces for them. It connects with my research as it offers animals to be the main users and influence the space.

Empathy was required to look out for moments when cats and dogs are happy or sad as I acknowledge that I can’t truly understand what they are thinking, and these are the signals to whether the animal responds well to particular item. Trying to put myself in a better position with the mindset that animals are playful, loving and friendly species. You are able to tell when cats and dogs are happy from their movements and sounds and actions they do and make.

These videos are to show an experience of how a dog and cat might respond to these environments and putting it from their perspective. It also gives a sense of movement because animals are energetic and constantly moving. The sounds help to emulate the experience for us the viewer watching it and to try and become the animal. The videos don’t show what some of the material are which is why the manual is so important.

These manuals that are being passed around are to help the humans understand these environments and why they are designed in this particular way from the placement, materials and the qualities of the environments. The manual is split into the sections I mentioned earlier, dog, puppy, cat and kitten with also sections on the approach and some of the main materials.

Jane Goodall describes, “we humans are much more like other animals than was once thought, much more than people like to, or are prepared to believe.” Therefore I believe we design progress into creating spaces for animals and moving beyond just thinking about an individual need of a toy.

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Final Manual and with the materials added into it. I was worried at first when I got it because the folder was really big and when I added the pages in, the folder wasn’t that full. But by the time I added the materials it made it more bulky and the right size for what I need. I am really happy with how this turned out. The materials within it , is an interesting feature that adds to a big part of my process and the final outcome of the design.

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Final Manual

https://issuu.com/sophiegracehgibbs/docs/gibbs_sophie_22454

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Final Cat Video

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Final Dog Video

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Cat Video

Because there was a whole lot going on in the cat environment I had to plan the areas I wanted to record to make the video for.

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After editing my Dog video I was able to find out that filming in sections in each of the different things I wanted was going to be easier to edit then recording the whole environment in one recording. For the cat environment I held the camera and move around the space rather than wearing it because cats are at a lower view which I wasn’t going to be able to do as easy.

This recording shows one of the ones I used before any editing happened.

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We always wondered where our cat went to and how he gets on the house to come inside. We strapped the GoPro to his collar and he came back home after 30 mins...

Watching this cat video to look at how they move around an environment. I was worried in my VR testing that my video was too shaky but after seeing these videos it shows the movement of the cat. Although the vision for them isn’t shaky, the video is to reference there point of view.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX1X_EglSPE&t=70s

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Printed Draft of my Manual

Week 11

This was the manual I edited with my grammar and spelling from before printing.

http://www.petlinkssystem.com/assets/M011501_PLCatalog_LO.pdf

^ This manual I looked at earlier in the semester was helpful as it showed images and words of the products. This is something I wanted to do for my environment. Show images and words so the person can gain a better understanding from it.

#wk11 #manual

Printing my Booklet. After deciding I was going to print 5 copies of my booklet, I decided with printing that I was going to aim to print 4 copies for presentation. With I managed to get 2 copies to and a3 page. Which meant that I had 4 copies from x2 a3′s. This was a bit more manageable in achieving this in the time frame since this was a relatively time consuming process. The place where I got my folder from cut the majority of the pages and hole punched them for me since it was a specific 3 hole punch I had in my folder.

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Paper of the Manual

I thought about the thickness of the style of paper. I tested looking at 120gsm and 250gsm as this is paper I had from previous projects. 120gsm was still a bit too thin. I liked the thickness of 250gsm as it gave the pages some depth to them and made them more secure. It gave me vibes of a manual giving it strong paper that wouldn’t rip in the ring binder as well.

I had to investigate at gordon harris if they sell the 250gsm in packs more than 10 because my manual is so many pages, otherwise I would need so many packs and the cost would add up.

I manage to find they had a pack of 100 , which i required the need to get two to be able print a number of copies of my booklet for my presentation.

#wk11 #presentation

After deciding that the twin motion wasn’t working I asked Oli if he could show me how to use the VR headset again. I was able to upload my file into the software and away I was. The quality of was great and being able to be inside my video was great. This was super helpful.

A few things I still had to work on was whether wearing the head set or holding it and get the right level for dogs. I tested a range of different types of videos. I found that for the dog environment holding the camera and wearing it by getting down to the right level was the most successful way of doing this. This video is just one of many that I had to test to get the right footage. *I recorder the whole movement of the environment in one recording and edited the parts together with sounds of dogs to further immerse the viewer as being the animal.

The rendering of the video doesn’t quite show the qualities of the video that well but it offers a better understanding of how the dog interacts with the space.

#wk11 #VR #wk12 #video #test

Presentation Format

After deciding I wanted to create a folder for my manual I began looking around for where I could get a clear ring binder. I was about to give up because I couldn't find them anywhere after looking at stationary stores in wellington, I was thinking about getting a white folder which I didn’t want, Ellie told me about where she was getting her book done and that they do folders. I got in contact with Presentation solutions to enquiry if they could do what I was looking for: Clear ring binder with logo and also 6 tabs as this was a special number which isn’t sold at stores or online. I wanted to get custom colours as well from the wall paints I have been using from Resene in each animals room.

I got a response which I was really happy about as I was going to be able to do what I had intended to do. I sent back the colours I was interested in getting for the tabs.

These are the colours I was looking at giving each section. They respond to colours animals can see and relate to the section for the animals. They are able to print the colours onto the tabs but I had to get the PMS colours. I didn’t know what this was so had to google it which meant Pantone Matching System Color Chart.

These was the information for the tabs- the colours and words I was getting printed on them.

Since I could print a logo I had to explore what my logo was going to be. After getting my exposure statement edited, it helped to clarify what the name of the project was which I wanted to put on the front cover.

For my logo design I wanted to have a cat and dog on the front. I thought about having paws but then there is different types of paws for cats and dogs.

I wasn’t really happy with how these were looking or thought that they spoke to my project. I decided to see if there was something even simpler. I thought the idea of using a heart could be interesting but there is a range of different shaped hearts that I was confused on using. Therefore I went for a simple version and used a circle. I have been using circles within my manual and putting the animals needs into them and thought this is something simple and effective.

This was the final logo and spine I had. I was really happy with how this looked and thought it was really nice and subtle. The title is working so much better and speaks to the project and values of what I have been exploring.

#wk11 #presentation

Week 11 Puppy Space

These images again have the same process. The room is a lot lighter and brings the materials out more than a render was doing. I am really happy with how these are working. I first tested what view I wanted to do of the puppy environment but I thought I should keep it same as with the kitten one where it is more close up and specific that environment.

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Trying to show the movements of the dog through the space with audio relating to the movements.

Video is getting into the space however the view throughout it is still robotic and not showing the organic movements of what an animal would actually do. Still needing to develop this more to create the correct movement through, around, under, and within the environment.

#wk11 #video

Week 11

Kitten environment. The same process was applied again to the Kitten environment. I am focusing on just the individual area where the kitten specifically spends time. Still images were taken from twin motion and kittens were added to the environment. * the third image was my final image until I printed it onto the paper I was using and then realised the glass at the back of the case didn’t look like glass and looked liked a solid grey wall. So had to edit it be light to represent glass.

#wk11 #kitten

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