#thingsascitizens

[adriaanoudemans]

VIGNETTE 3 STORY

It is typical Friday morning in a year 2050 and Rose is biking to work. She is feeling under the weather lately as she does not have anyone with whom she would share her free time. All her friends are busy with their partners. She feels bit alone, since her family lives far away. The only companion is her bike whom she calls Nina. She feels that Nina really understands her and knows when Rose has had a bad or good day and can react to it accordingly. They have created a true bond and Rose would never do anything bad to her bike or get rid of it. She is always looking forward to those calming bike rides, it is like a meditation for her. This morning her bike is suggesting to take a different scenic route to inspire and cheer Rose up. Rose is very happy about it, she likes to explore new areas and corners of her city. They are biking alongside the river bank when all of the sudden something happens. Her bike has technical difficulty and cannot continue with the ride. Rose feels really bad for her bike but she does not know how to help her bike or fix it. She sees that the bike is seeking help with nearby cyclists so hopefully someone will come and help her. All of the sudden her crush appears, he is the guy she meets almost everyday on her bike to work, but she is too shy to talk to him. He looks at the bike, but there seems to be nothing wrong. Suddenly the bike is up and running again. What she did not know is that her bike did not have any technical difficulty, but was pretending to have to be able to call the guy and come to help to make them meet and talk to each other. They keep chatting for a while until they both go their separate ways. Rose was so happy that she met her crush, because otherwise she might have never had the chance to meet him, or have the courage to talk to him. And seemingly spontaneous connection is made thanks to the bike's artificial intelligence, that cares about Rose’s well-being.

[adriaanoudemans]

VIGNETTE 4 STORY

Lisa just got a new job and is moving abroad. She owns her bike called Arvin, that she used for daily commute to work. Since she cannot take it with him abroad and the new city is not very suitable for cycling she had to make the tough decision and put her bike up for adoption. In order to do that she had to fill in an extensive online questionnaire on the marketplace to describe the bike and its personality. Once the add is online she gets a weird feeling in his stomach. She is worried that he made a mistake by selling the bike, or that she did not manage to describe the bike’ s personality properly. She is sad but there is no other way than to sell the bike.

A couple of days later she receives a message that a guy called Jonathan is interested in buying the bike. After talking to each other the deal is made and Jonathan comes to Lisa’s place to pick up his new bike companion. Jonathan anticipates that there will be a few days in the beginning when he and the bike will have to get used to each other. However, it seems to be more complicated than he thought. It seems like the bike is way more conservative than what Lisa described to him. The bike’s worldview is very much influenced by his previous experience.

One night Jonathan goes to a birthday party of his best friend. He is having a really nice evening when all of the sudden he starts getting notifications from his bike that he should go home. Jonathan is surprised: “What is happening, it is just 11:30!” He looks out of the window down to his bike, to figure out whats wrong but everything seems to be fine. A minute later, Jonathan gets a theft alarm notification that Arvin is being moved! He runs outside only to see his bike where he left it. Jonathan checks the bike and understands the bike wants to go home. He’s upset with the bike but they compromise on going home early.

[adriaanoudemans]

CREATING COMIC

[adriaanoudemans]

VIGNETTE PHOTO SHOOT

Today we shot the photos for the two remaining vignettes: Connector and Creator. We wanted to have the two Vignettes on the same level as the videos so we choose a comic book with a narrator text, to describe them.

[adriaanoudemans]

CREATING STORYBOARDS

We set up a storyboard for the Vignettes that we wanted to turn into a comic.

[adriaanoudemans]

3D MODEL

To convince the people of the bike's existence, we needed a 3d model with a photorealistic render for the website. I made a quick sketch and loaded the image into Solidworks. I took some inspiration from the 

Husqvarna-Decibel: https://www.behance.net/gallery/33808274/Husqvarna-Decibel

and the Ford E-bike concept: https://uncrate.com/ford-e-bike-concept/

[adriaanoudemans]

FINAL DOC DESIGN

[adriaanoudemans]

FINAL RENDER

The 3D model was supposed to fit in the future world of 2050. The bike would make use of some speculative design defined technologies like a personal assistant, different kinds of assists and automatic lights, etc. Of course, nothing was aesthetically defined, but I designed the bike as such that it would be convincing enough.  I looked at https://www.appliancedesign.com/articles/95306-understanding-and-using-emerging-aesthetic-design-trends for inspiration towards the design. I particularly wanted to use ‘’Organic Minimalism’’ which is showed as ‘‘ clean pure formulas of shape, composition and solid, monochromatic colour’’.  I also looked at http://www.core77.com/posts/60052/What-Are-the-Biggest-Style-Trends-in-Design-Right-Now were i took inspiration from ‘‘ elements like surface textures on electronics as well as strong chamfers that can be seen on objects ranging from micro (a Bluetooth earpiece) to macro (car tail lights and spoilers).’‘ which has really influenced the frame of the bike.  I think some elements like the steer and the back of the bike could have been designed better, but for the time being I it was convincing enough as a bike of the future. The bike might radically change over the next few years, were even hovering bikes or other crazy inventions would come into play, but I think it would stray away too much from what it means to have a ‘’bike’’. It also wouldn’t fit in the Vignettes.