Notice me #1: Cabinet Life

What if an electronic had a life of its own? When I’m not using it, when I’m not around, during that “down time,” what do they do?
What would they want to do?
What could they do?

Here I have a little cabinet with a lock. However, the cabinet is quite smart. It’ll listen to music, party all day long until someone approaches and tries to use him. Then all of a sudden, he’ll act like a normal file cabinet with a lock…normal…I guess it’s not that weird that a cabinet reveals the key hole just to help you out a little?

From this project, I realized that I am liking the idea of a “personal life” that happens during the down-time of an object. My thought is that if the objects we have had a life of its own other than when it was “working for” us, let’s say, it interacts with plants or animals, a sign of its own ecosystem without people, maybe we can accept them as its own kingdom of life. I understand that it is us human, who will think that these pieces of electronics have a personal life or a hobby. I wonder if I could expose their definition of a “personal life” without having to “design” one and assign it like “god”. So here comes back the question I had when I was talking to Norman a while ago. Can man-made nature be as natural as nature? I believe so. Hopefully I can convince other people with this same thought at the end of my thesis year.




Follow me #1

As I had more mentor meetings, I realized that I couldn’t just work on the theory and present good work in the end. In any case, I do have to know how to design objects so that it appears to be conscious, attentive, simply alive.

Here’s a little set up where anything, even a rolled up piece of plastic bag seems “alive” with the power of technology. Even imperfect behaviors such as losing sight of me and going back to a default position because of the limitations of its visible range plays a big role. The object is following me to the best of its ability.



Follow me #2: Digital Clock

Does it ever feel like time is chasing you?
Does it pressure you?
Do you appreciate it?
Does it annoy you?
Does it motivate you?

Since I have been working with a lot of clocks, I have had people commenting on them, wondering if I was intentionally trying to stress myself out by owning multiple clocks. As people who are in the studio for hours at a time, often feeling like we haven’t achieved as much as we should have, we do feel like time is against us. I think if the scale of this clock was bigger or if the clock was replaces with the computer’s cursor, the impact would’ve been bigger. Either way, the simple act of attaching the idea that time is chasing us has an effect on what we think. The clock seems pushy, the clock seems to hate us instead of being a “servant” who is trying to let us know the time ASAP.




Follow Me #3: A TV Set For You

What if a set of electronics followed your movements?

This scenario is a very practical solution for someone who would want to watch TV while cooking in the kitchen or cleaning up the apartment. In this case, the electronic pieces are moving to serve you.
I guess I could make it so that it would do the exact opposite too. It would make a lot of difference though with one little change! I wonder why it’s more interesting to wonder what would happen if electronics would disobey or show child-like tantrums. Is it the fact that it is unexpected? I’m worried that it would only be an interesting thing for 5 minutes. I want my final thesis piece to be useful yet shows a personality of some sort. I wonder if even if I don’t directly aim for an interesting imperfection in a piece of technology, it would still let us have the “generosity of the spirit” to embrace imperfection in technology.




Pay Attention to me #1: The Mischievous Fan

What if an electronic had a mind of its own, a goal of its own, and a personality of its own?

I am imagining the object in this super quick mock-up video to have a different function that we need. Maybe we need to keep this object around but it just has a quirky nature that may disrupt our productivity. I think this is more interesting to think about than just something that messed with us and it was its sole function. What if this was my computer monitor? Lets imagin that a computer monitor would work perfectly the way it does now but just had a ridiculously powerful fan to cool itself off? It would be impossible to do any projects where we had to cut little pieces of paper. Maybe it would be too cold to work around during winter. Maybe the cool-off function only happened once the owner leaves the scene. Would it still be worth it to keep? I guess this would be an imperfect piece of electronic, although it may seem more like a “poorly designed” piece of electronic than it just being defected. One of the limitations I had set up for myself was to not make design something that was just “poorly designed” or “poorly performing.” Ah….what to do…




Pay Attention to Me #2: Notice Notifier

This piece also definitely tries to pressure its owner, reminding an important due date, partially stressing or cheering one on. I guess it would differ according to the note. If I were to imagin that it was a digital notpad that followed my visual range around, notifying a new e-mail, or a reminder sent by my mother, or just a simple note congratulating my birthday, the context completely changes my emotional response. The mixture of serving me for my own good and having a pushy personality are both some recurring themes among this week’s exploration. It seems like a very psychological approach, focusing more on the interactive experience compared to the “alarm clock tree” idea, which is a surface-oriented, formal approach towards giving a personality to objects.