Week 23 Log: Tutorial

Week beginning 12/03/2012

Goals achieved: prototype completed, advert (YouTube video) and prep for contacting design companies.

Tutorial feedback

Prototype development of this iteration, a disconnect is evident between parent and child. How does the child know that it is the parent who is sparking the memories so the child it would almost be like ‘magic’!  To an adult they would understand the idea of a ‘key’ and the idea of a person activating it remotely, but a child may not. What is the significance of the parent playing the story remotely. Would it seem to the child as if it were happening by magic or as if they were doing it themselves? What distinguishes the child operating it themselves from the parent operating it?

A parallel was drawn with morse code; with the flashing you can feel that a human is there on the other end. This in itself is transient memory as if you miss a flash you cannot recapture it! It could change the meaning of an entire message. Is there a way to apply this to prototypes?

It can be useful to reinstate a working title when discussing it with users, just to give them something to work from. The New Scientist held a conference on ‘Writing for public’ at the royal college of art. There is an online resource with some ideas and inspiration for writing for the public here: http://www.sciencesitescom.com/CASC/writing.html. It states the differences between writing for the public versus writing for academia-the viewers was to be entertained and it is critical to draw them in in some way as well as giving them something accessible, with a low entry level of understanding. It is important to know how to communicate concepts. One structure that could be used is title, breakdown introduction and then a detailed description. Images could also be useful.  One challenge that I want to set myself is conveying the idea of ‘transient memory’ in a single page with no additional information in as few words as possible. With this the idea will become more accessible.

What to do from here on?

This needs testing. Test it with people, probably not children due to ethical issues. Some adults do have teddy bears so it could be tried with these people. The teddy bear is essentially a ‘prop’.

It could be useful to tweak a system for a type of memory i.e. form specific to the type of memory. These could be, for example, people, places, enviroments or events.

What are the memories of? Perhaps it shouldn’t be abstract, perhaps the system is for a specific type of memory. As file types are in a computer. This could lead the project rather than the other way round (abstract memories being lead by the type of object). Trawl types of memories then find a ‘what’. Ensure it is not simply a ‘memory box’.

Space

NEW: Fiction & false memory. This was researched earlier on in the project and was part of the general understanding of human memory. This could be a source of a lot of fun i.e. being playful rather than functional. It doesn’t have to be situational functionality. It might not be so much about the repository, but instead the type of content and the reason for it. Don’t just look for places that are memorable/hokey/strange.

Oyster cards, Written memoirs-books. Chairs have an aspect of inheritance. Old notes left in books-a space for things to happen?

This tutorial aided the work from the last week: the need to revisit the concept. One possibility has been successfully developed as part of the paired presence system, but other iterations need to be examined and worked through. A solid tech background has been established and it has been a steep learning curve, but at this stage I will be able to make small changes to create entirely different systems and prototype rapidly.

To do: single page description of transient memory, exploration of different types of memories and then apply transient memory to them. Try to do as much sketching as possible and mock up ideas using paper or the arduino. Google SketchUp could also be utilised as a prototyping tool.

Below is an image of some visual ideation work. It shows an objects location in the word-mobile, semi mobile, fixed and imaginary. It also shows a paired architecture.