Traps, Scenic Routes, and Dispensing Machines
I participated in this group project with Scott Liao and Daniel Lara. The aims of this assignment was to design interventions that can serve to engage and reveal outcomes about the various participants. The value in this project is that it teaches that not all results should be taken for granted, and that it is a great challenge to design something that can entice a stranger into participating in your designed environment.
Talking on a String
Our Cans Experiment involved stringing together two cans on a very long string, but our group added in a third element; resting against one can was a hidden walkie talkie. This provided for some unexpected twist on the part of the participant. In this one experiment we were able to provide a scenic route (looking across the way to the other person), a dispensing machine (talking to one another means you’re dispensing information), and a trap (ha! caught your attention didn’t it?)
CardBots!
Our CardBots! creation is the final culmination of a series of experiments. There are two Bots placed back to back of one another, and the idea to this creation is that the audio recorded from one CardBot is played when you push play on the other. In this way the contraption serves as an unwitting dispensing machine. We devised a series of questions meant to provoke and provide the type of responses we desired, things like advice, confessions, or wishes.
