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Video Link for Individual Assignment: Experience Prototype

Vimeo link: https://vimeo.com/91870291

Youtube link: http://youtu.be/Mtnx22JGfMs

This is a video draft that I made in place of a storyboard. Changes for my latest iteration include a more descriptive video which has a narrator narrate how the experience prototype would be like, rather than a scenario video whereby people act out an entire day's worth of the experience prototype which I mentioned in my last blog post.

Note that in the current draft video, captions in red are used to describe each interaction or feature of the experience prototype. However, I intend to use a narrator instead of those words for my final version. Also, the pictures and video clips were taken using my mobile phone's camera, thus explaining the grainy quality. More importantly, the contents in the video clips are more like placeholders rather than actual footage. I intend to create more realism in the scenes. This iteration of the video is mainly to capture the essence and timing of the flow, and to gather feedback. Lastly, information is not complete in this current iteration of the video.

A brief description of the video (narrator to narrate words in red):

An establishing shot or introduction shot of Asian Civilisation Museum to establish the context of the experience prototype.

Several miscellaneous shots to weave in the experience prototype.

The starting shot of the experience prototype: the reception counter. Visitors will have to sign in at the reception counter first.

Medium to wide shot showing visitors getting immersed into their roles by watching a video that shows a "commander" of sorts giving them their mission brief.

Medium/wide shot of reception counter. Visitors will collect their individualised mission cards there. A close-up of a mission card will be shown to viewers to let them know how it looks like.

A pan shot of the museum's stairs. Visitors have to walk up the flight of stairs to 'signify' the start of their role-playing.

A wide shot of the exhibition space they will first encounter. This shows the type and amount of space visitors have to navigate and negotiate through.

(Not shown in video) Dolly shot of a visitor walking along a corridor to simulate a visitor's sight when he/she is walking around the museum.

Over-the-shoulder shot of a non-playable character (NPC) showing a visitor(participant) talking to the NPC. (Additional narration: To complete a quest, you may have to find a specific artifact.)

(Not shown in video) Dolly shot (third-person) of a visitor walking again to simulate looking for an exhibit.

(Not shown in video) Over-the-shoulder shot of a visitor looking at an exhibit.

Medium shot of visitor(participant) talking to the NPC in-charge of that exhibit to get a stamp on his card.

Close-up of the mission card to show a stamp beside one of the listed exhibits.

A quick shuffle of pictures of different exhibits to show the different kinds of objects that visitors can encounter and discover.

First-person dolly shot of another corridor. (Narrator: Interact in many ways with different types of quests! *brief mention about the different types of quests*) (When about to mention about collaborative quests, head to point 16)

Medium shot of 2 visitors crossing each others' path and asking each other about their progress, showing them their cards and walking off in the same direction, presumably going to complete a collaborative quest together.)

Medium shot of both players at the same exhibit and talking to the NPC in-charge.

Close-up shot of mission card to show more artifacts collected.

Closing shot of a visitor's legs walking in the museum. Scene is for stating the objective of the experience prototype: Walk with a purpose. Play and learn; interact and socialise.

Wide shot of reception area followed by overview shot of exterior of ACM.

Still shot (picture) of exterior of ACM for ending.

Experience Prototype Idea

Asian Civilisations Museum. A short but distinct queue is formed at the entrance.

10:00AM sharp. The doors open to the museum. The queue quickly disintegrates into individual groups. People start entering the museum. Indistinct murmuring could be heard and some people are seen dressed in their ancient civilisations costumes. The excitement can be felt from the ground.

This is what I hope my interactive experience prototype would bring to the museum. Anyway let us carry on with my idea.

My idea is taken from the concept of a game genre, called live-action role-playing game, or LARP, whereby participants role play as characters in real life and act out his/her character’s action in reality. This concept literally transforms a physical space in the real world into a fictional setting.

The overview of my idea will be a more relaxed form of LARPing in the Ancient Civilisations Museum, whereby participants will be given character roles to fulfill and sent on quests that they must complete within the museum. Quests would be designed such that participants will have to interact with non-playable characters (NPCs) in the form of museum staff or/and fellow participants to complete them.

A more relaxed form of LARPing is such that participants do not need to adhere to game rules strictly, meaning they can jump in and out of character in the museum so that they have more freedom to do what they like. It is in hope that this form of LARPing would encourage visitors that are new to this game genre to participate.

Back to my initial scenario: At the entrance, instructions are presented to the visitors via a video on a large LCD television. Here is what they will see:

The dialogue is not etched in stone yet, but the presentation will basically be as such, albeit with the dialogue in audio form. To elaborate, there will be a person in the video acting as a guide for visitors and to prime them of subsequent activities to be expected inside the museum. The background and the dress of the person are put as placeholders, but in its current iteration, it feels like a marriage between technology and traditional cultures from Asian civilisations (although it does not really make any sense).

After the introductory video, visitors choose whether or not to immerse in this experience. Those that choose not to participate will be viewed as spectators. They can observe what the participants of this experience prototype do and behave, but are treated as “ghosts” by participants. In other words, they will not be able to affect or alter any participants’ game experience.

For participants, they are handed an individualised card, stating their role, mission and starting quest. They are then free to explore the museum in their own time. For the more enthusiastic visitors, they can request to choose their roles. A graphic example would be:

This individualised card allows visitors to track their progress as well as view their activity history and the exhibits they have visited. Different cards have different exhibits lists (which occupies the empty spaces in the table on the card). Some quests will require participants to “acquire” artifacts, which participants will then have to hunt from the different exhibits. Once a participant finds a certain exhibit that holds the artifact he/she is looking for, he/she will have to get a stamp from its NPC, symbolising that he/she has acquired the artifact.

Sometimes, certain quests may need more than 1 artifacts, which may not all be available in one card. This is when participants will have to interact with other participants to find the artifact they are looking for.

A formative and exhaustive list of quests have not been done, but quests will generally have certain purposes to them (again not exhaustive):

- quests to make visitors explore the exhibits.

- quests to make visitors understand the exhibits better.

- quests to make visitors understand the character they are playing better.

- quests to foster interaction between participants.

- quests to foster interaction with the exhibit.

- quests to make visitors share their progress on social media (very undecided on this!)

At the end of the day, the visitor is free to bring home the card as a souvenir as well as memories forged during the game.

This is the general idea for my experience prototype, but it is still rough around the edges. Constructive criticism is most welcomed to help me improve this idea!

As for the video, I have not thought of a storyboard or a script yet, but I am angling for a scenario like the above. Any suggestions on how my video can be would be great!

#experience prototype #interactive museum #new-age museum #cool museum

Hands: Gift of a Generation

Hand: Gift of a Generation is a very poignant and unique exhibition. Firstly, its exhibits are memories by Singaporeans of all walks of life. In essence, one doesn't just study the exhibits, as by themselves, the exhibits have no meaning. Rather, one must feel and experience the meaning and story behind the exhibits. In this way, this exhibition focuses and depends very much on the context of the exhibits.

In terms of interactivity, there is much to talk about. Most sections of the exhibition, for example "The Memory Table" and "The Memory Recorder", made full use of interactivity to create a fun and relaxed behaviour setting. Visitors are fully encouraged to submit their own memories in the form of writing, video or audio using creative ways, thus in a way enabling interaction between visitors. Visitors can now view other visitors' memories and vice versa. This would definitely fall into stage 3 of Nina Simon's 5 Stages of Participation. More importantly, this creates a behaviour setting of a engaging, casual and relaxed one.

In terms of physical context, the exhibition was held at the National Library's plaza. A quick seach on the Internet reveals the meaning of plaza:

"an open public area that is usually near city buildings"

http://www.merriam-webster.com/

This by itself hints at a casual behaviour setting, as the National Library itself is open and accessible to all, much less its plaza, thus creating a very communal "feel" to the exhibition.

The way that the exhibition is sectioned also hints at encouraging a certain behaviour setting: exploration. The sections, "The Gallery", "Remembering Room", "Memory Recorder", "Memory Table" and "Memory Pool" do not suggest any flow or any order. For example, one may go to "Memory Table" first, then "Memory Recorder" and receive the same message as one who goes to "Memory Recorder" first. In this way, my opinion is that it actually encourages exploration, which is perfect for families with active children that hop around the exhibition randomly.

Another way to put it is that this exhibition may actually subconsciously promote a carnival atmosphere to it, due to so many things to do and interact with. Therefore, we will be able to hear laughter, loud chattering and such. This, to me, is another form of behaviour setting.

All in all, I would say that Hands: Gift of a Generation is an exhibition that has a relaxed and reminiscing behaviour setting and tends to attract people of "recharger", "emotional" and "social" personal contexts.

#NM4226

Powerhouse Museum: Game Masters

http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/pdf/education/game_masters_teachers_notes.pdf

Game Masters is an interactive exhibition about videogame culture. By reading the curatorial statement presented in the above link, my opinion of Game Masters is that it tries to bring forth the awareness and celebration of the game makers as much as the games themselves. I feel that by including the interactive element in its exhibition, the organisers have aptly encapsulated what video games really mean and bring to people who love them - interaction and stimulation of the mind.

Layout

The exhibition is split into three different sections: Arcade Heroes, Game Changers and Indies. These sections form the base of the layout.

In this exhibition map taken from the same link above, we see that the biggest area is allocated to Game Changers, while Indie takes up the majority of the remaining space, with Arcade Heroes occupying the rest of the space. Visitors enter to Arcade Heroes, then they will explore games in Game Changers and finally waltz through Indie games. Armed with only the curatorial statement in mind, my assumption for the rationale of this layout would be to guide the visitors through a visual timeline of video games; to present a historical context to the exhibition.

My explanation for this is that games and game developers from the Arcade Heroes section are the pioneers of the videogame industry, like Yu Suzuki's Out Run for example. These arcade games present players with the most primitive form of video game entertainment, focusing on the game mechanics rather than the graphics and production value. These video games represent the formative years of the video game industry, giving future game developers a model and direction for future titles. This is also maybe why this particular section is given the title of "heroes", and put at the entrance to be the visitors' first contact of the exhibition.

Next we delve into the the section of Game Changers, consisting of game developers like Nintendo, giants in the video game industry. If 'Arcade Heroes' represents the pioneers of the video game industry, then Game Changers must be its catalyst to the mainstream popular culture. To me, Game Changers represents the era where the video game industry experienced a great boom in recognition. The big companies like Nintendo pushed the videogame industry into mainstream popular culture, producing games of higher production value and visual quality and in the process creating a new job haven for the creative and artistic minds. Thus, putting this section right after 'Arcade Heroes' would be logical, as it enables visitors of the exhibition to experience the evolution of the videogame industry as it is.

Last but not least is the 'Indie' section. This section is a tricky one. To me, it represents a renaissance of the old-school videogame production values. It attempts to renegotiate the values of some of these old-school production methods in the modern context (think pixel art, side-scrolling, 2-D, etc). In a way, I think the exhibition tries to come full circle with this section that it puts as the last, bringing forth nuances of nostalgia as well as restraint into the somewhat over-elaborated games of this era, which, to me, forces thoughts from the visitors about what games really are and mean (eg. realism vs artistic, visual fireworks vs simple but clean graphics).

So yes, I would think that this layout allows visitors to experience the historical timeline of the videogame industry and follow its progress. More importantly, this layout forces visitors to think about the videogame culture and the current state of the videogame industry.

Interactivity

Interactivity is obscenely evident in this exhibition. You get to interact/play with the exhibits, in this case the games. This kind of direct interaction with the exhibits engages visitors and keeps them interested and entertained, as well as provoke thought to those that are more critical. In games, what better way to understand the game mechanics than to personally experience it? However, in my opinion, this form of interaction is somewhat expected for a videogame exhibition. What is worth a mention is the added element of interaction that the exhibition organisers invested in. They have added in the element of gaining extra game levels to play on a mobile app by the usage of the QR code technology. Basically it forces visitors to find 3 QR codes around the exhibition and scan them to unlock the bonus levels. This added element of interactivity allows the exhibition to engage visitors in more ways than one, for example in the social context, visitors may communicate with each other to try and find the QR codes.

Webpage

The webpage is basically a well of information for the exhibition. The link posted above is one such document available on the webpage which provides a succinct description of the exhibition and also the curatorial statement. Visitors who visit the webpage before they experience the physical exhibition itself would be primed about what to expect and what to think about. A very good example would be my assumption of the purpose of the exhibition's layout. In this way, Game Masters exhibition has actually made a very purposeful webpage that influences and shapes the expectations of potential visitors.

Conclusion

The designers probably focused on using the layout of the exhibition to create a coherent and meaningful experience for visitors to this exhibition by arranging the layout in such a way that visitors will be able to walkthough the historical timeline of the videogame industry.

#Game Masters #NM4226 #National University of Singapore #Museum Exhibitions

The Big Idea

Random Blends in any edition is to me, a showcase and celebration of students' works and ideas.

Also, being a Communications and New Media (CNM) exhibition, I would want to nail down the essence of the discipline Random Blends is exhibiting first. So, a quick search on the Internet reveals that Communication is:

the meaningful exchange of information between two or more living creatures.

-Wikipedia

while New Media is:

on-demand access to content anytime, anywhere, on any digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, and creative participation.

-Wikipedia

Thus, Communications and New Media is broadly, meaningful exchanges of information through creative participation. Interaction, by far, captures the essence of that meaning.

Coupled with the fact that the theme for this year's Random Blends is Calibr8, holding notions of reassessment and renegotiation, this further epitomises the importance of interactivity. With interactivity, we have engagement, which translates to stimulation of thoughts and finally a reassessment of the audiences' preconceived notions of CNM.

Therefore, my Big Idea for Random Blends would be:

Random Blends 2014 invites visitors to partake in the showcase and celebration of National University of Singapore's Communication and Media students' works and ideas through direct and indirect interactions with the exhibits and fellow visitors.

I chose the word 'partake' to bring about a sense of involvement for the visitors while explicitly mentioning the way to be involved (through interaction with the works and other visitors). I also explicitly mentioned the discipline involved in Random Blends to prime visitors of what kind of exhibits they would see. Lastly, I used the word 'celebration' to condition visitors' mood and spontaneity (You often want to have fun and are seldom serious during celebrations).

I left out the purpose of 'calibrating' visitors' notions of CNM and what not as I feel that this is something intrinsic and a natural process that visitors will do when interacting and doing self-evaluation.

I think this sufficiently embodies the meaning of CNM and also the purpose of Random Blends.

#curatorial statement #random blends 2014 #the big idea

(re)Stretch by Sophia Clist

http://birminghamhippodrome.wordpress.com/2011/01/11/stretch-your-imagination-at-birmingham-hippodrome-with-free-interactive-exhibition/

"(re)Stretch by Sophia Clist" is an interactive exhibit at The Patrick Centre at the Birmingham Hippodrome. It consists of four miles of elastic "threads" that allows visitors to explore and play with. Visitors can bend, flick, pull, pluck and other ways of manipulating the threads to make different sound and light experiences.

It is a hit with children as they are often fascinated by the piece of "playable art". This is very peculiar, as "play" has many, but one particular definition:

"recreational activity; especially : the spontaneous activity of children"

http://www.merriam-webster.com/

Thus it brings about the idea of spontaneous activity with art. In our context, this art we are referring to would be the exhibit. Any spontaneous activity is unplanned, therefore it can be said that the results would be unexpected. Upon further analysis, this strikes a chord with the quote by Nina Simon that was discussed in class:

"I define a participatory cultural institution as a place where visitors can create, share, and connect with each other around content … This means the institution cannot guarantee the consistency of visitor experiences. Instead, the institution provides opportunities for diverse visitor co-produced experiences."

Simon, Nina (2010-02-27). The Participatory Museum . Museum 2.0.

The spontaneous and unexpected results that yield from interacting with this exhibit pretty much tallies with what Nina Simon mentioned, that it cannot guarantee the consistency of visitor experiences. Moreover, these experiences are co-created by the different participants interacting with the exhibit at the same time. Thus, it can be said that every experience is unique in its own way and that this exhibit is definitely a participatory cultural exhibit.

This brings me to the stages of participation taught in class. To what degree is the participation invoked by this exhibit? We would then have to examine the social factor involved. From the initial look, it would be easily categorised under stage 2 of the stages of participation, whereby individuals interact with the content. This is obvious. But after deeper considerations, I have categorised it under stage 4, individual interactions are networked for social use. In Nina Simon's case, the "social" here refers to social networks. However, I would like to view "social" here as a collective experience. This collective experience is a result of a few individuals' contributions towards the experience and cannot be achieved alone. Thus, it can be argued that individual interactions with (re)Stretch are collated for social use, which is a collective experience in this case. Of course, if it escalates to a situation whereby individuals interacting with the exhibit start actively collaborating with each other to create different experiences, this pushes (re)Stretch up the stages to stage 5, whereby individuals actually interact with each other socially.

All in all, I would still put (re)Stretch under stage 4, as for it to be in stage 5 of the stages of participation, with all the assumptions that have to be made, would be rather presumptuous.

#NM4226 #participatory art #stages of participation

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