#vapourtek

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Prototype Update

The boys managed to get the prototype working today. We tested 2 scenarios one with holes in the box and one without. Basically, we drilled holes into the side of the container because we needed the air flow to create the vortex. It worked pretty well both ways, now we need to think about how to contain the smoke properly. Then look at dimensions for the final container. Testing is a bit hard in studio because we don’t have a way to contain the smoke, so all testing has to be done at home.

First Test w/ container, fan and battery.

Second test w/ holes drilled into container.

Compared to the pace we were going at during our last project idea, this one is coming along way faster. The first prototype is done and has been tested. Our message behind the project has been finalised and we are working on how we’re going to be conveying this to the audience without too much explanation. Sangeeta mentioned that the presentation should be related to the idea or we lose the value behind it. The work has been divided between us (what we know needs to be done). We’re on track to having this done pretty soon so that we can develop ideas further.

Photo credit: Shades @hauntedmarket

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Giving our project Value

A key part to making a good project is giving it value or having a core message behind it. Our group was struggling with this and that was the reason for the change in project ideas.

With our new project, there will be a smoke tornado formed and controlled by the intensity of your voice. This connects to violence and bullying and the affect it can have on people. The intensity of the tornado represents how yelling and abuse can affect a person emotionally. For example, the more intense the tornado the worse they are feeling etc.

Talking to Sangeeta really got us thinking about deeper meanings behind everything that we do. Today’s feedback:

She also talked about dividing up the work so we can each work on something instead of all concentrating on prototyping (what we were originally doing). But we haven’t really had a chance to figure out all the details of what needs to be done as we just came up with the change in yesterday’s class. For now, Rachael and I will be working on the aesthetics and presentation and the boys will be working on the prototype. But these aren’t set roles, we’ll be going in between areas as we move forward.

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WHERE HAVE I BEEN??!!

Thursdays class with James I realised that while I was away my group had slightly changed our project and I had no idea. Which is totally my fault!!! I hadn’t had a good discussion with them about what was happening. So, after James left I talked to them and asked about what we were actually doing and am now up to speed on everything we have changed, and what we have at the moment.

Now all the confusion has been sorted, I know that what I was thinking of as the reason behind the project doesn’t exactly fit what our project is. We’ll have a discussion later as a group to change the meaning slightly or even come up with something new.So originally, we were going to project an altered reflection of someone through a Kinect onto smoke/fog. (Which was why I came up with the idea of helping people with little self-confidence etc.) But they ran me through the parts I wasn’t aware of. The box/container for the smoke has pc fans, each pc fan has a zone, the projected image of the person has hand tracking software that will activate a fan depending on which zone their hand is in. This will allow the person to sort of control the fog by blowing it around in the box, which in turn gives them control of the image being projected onto it. Altering and distorting the image.

Finalising Dimensions Although we have done some 3D models of the box, we haven’t settled on final dimensions. And one of the issues we’ve been having is that obviously being in studio the fog will have to be contained so it doesn’t set off the alarm or sprinklers. But when we project the image onto it, the image may just hit the plastic cover and not get through to the smoke, which would defeat the purpose of having a projection. This weekend we’ll have a projector so we’ll at least be able to test the projection on the smoke first. And then try it with the Perspex over the top to see if it works. Once this has been figured out, we’ll be able to iterate and/or finalise dimensions for our box.

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Concept Development and Deeper Thinking

Talking to Sangeeta today was extremely helpful for me personally! We mentioned that our group was having trouble coming up with a reason or core value for the project. She took us through some projects that she’s encountered and the meaning or reasons for their creation. In my previous post, I talked about how we’ve been struggling with the deeper meaning behind our project and at the moment it’s looks like we’re just making something we think is cool. I think the examples we discussed with Sangeeta today were beneficial for our group to come up with a meaningful “WHY” behind our project.

My individual thoughts on a reason for our project… This project could be targeted at people with low self-esteem, no self-confidence or a bad view of themselves. It could be used as a digital way to change their view or reflection of themselves into something better.

I’ve run this by the team to see how they feel about it, and we’ve decided to discuss it further as this was just a rough idea. Sangeeta told us to make sure we justify everything we do and use because without any value for this project it won’t mean anything in the end which won’t get us anywhere when it comes to marking. I think that this is one thing our group struggles with, because we tend to focus more on the practical stuff rather than the theoretical stuff, when there should be some kind of balance between the two. The good part of this is at least we have things tested and different scenarios thought out about the physical components of the project so at the end there won’t be a major rush to get these things done.

At this point in the semester I feel like it is a little late to still be working on conceptual stuff, but I am happy that it is finally underway.

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Confusion w/ Concepts

Yesterday we got some good feedback from Ricardo about how much we’ve got done with all the technical stuff and building the project. But he told us that the ideas behind the project are a little foggy. So that’s something our group has decided to work on getting together before the end of the week.

I think we started with all the technical stuff because we felt that there was a lot more we needed to test and make sure was working or achievable for us, rather than getting our underlying idea straight. So, we’ve started to go back and look at questions that should have been looked at in the beginning.

Why are we doing this? What is the meaning behind it?

What do we aim to get from this?

What/How is it different from a YT tutorial? How is it original?

Who is our audience? What will they learn from this?

As not all of us could be here at the same times today we decided to start a google doc that would help us all work on the answers together. Getting this done is crucial for our project because once we know the specifics of what we want to pull off with the final outcome, it’ll become easier to finish the physical components of the project.

Initially the concept of movement we were working with was the relationship between physical and digital movement. But we’re finding that this is changing slightly to the transference of energy through physical and digital movement. The choice to project onto a smoke screen was to add another element of movement into the project rather than just physical movement of the audience. And now I feel that there should be a more justified reason as to why we have the smoke screen.

 We went 2 steps forward and 3 steps back this week :(:

Had a look at the sandbox interface suggested by Ricardo.

https://twitter.com/sensilab_monash/status/862171509032337413

https://twitter.com/sensilab_monash/status/864370332206903298