efn

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January 26, 2006

Thesis Prep - 6 Questions

Posted below is my first (drafty) response to the 6 questions assignment in 548.

As I answered this, I felt like I may have focused too strongly on an existing idea. I know that recently I've been learning a lot about myself, and I'm finding that what I'm learning relates to this project idea, but it also potentially implies other projects - and at this point I'm having a hard time prioritizing my various personality traits and interests.

anyhow, without further Ado -

1) Area of interest Identified

Music & Sound Design for Interactive Systems

This seems a little vague to me, it's hard to get all of my curiosity about this out in a single phrase

2) Couple of questions and opportunities suggested by area of interest
- what do we want or need to know about this area

How can we more effectively utilize sound in the design of interactive systems?
Can we design a game for "Grooving?"
How far can music go in the creation of "implicit narrative?" (Context)

* limit interactions to musically sensible (system-push)
* Limit music to interactively sensible (system-pull)
* Music Video Game?
* Could a game help people compose music?
* Are _all_ people synaesthetic to a degree?

3) Method or process that can be used to explore the question

Prototyping
(Syncronization)
* Demo where music plays and Actions are forced to coincide with the beats
+ Will this be frustrating? How much latency is acceptible between beats?
+ Will players even notice?

* Beat Demo Where all actions are melodic
+ How will player response be influenced by
- Pitch
- timbre
- Rhythmic elements
+ How will player response be influenced by
- Game mechanic?
- Visual Elements?
- color
- line qualty

4) One to three actual topics or subjects that address your interests/questions

Didn't I get these above?

5) Pair topics with Genre and Audience

I would like to try to focus explicitly on a Flow-oriented experience design.
I would like to try to prove that all people can achieve a flow experience without
narrative or photorealistic graphics, and to begin formalizing a design system
which helps others achieve similar results and continue exploration.

6) Commit to a term (participant, player, reader, user, audience) that you
will use throughout the project

"player"

This is admittedly hard. I think it's valuable to keep this definition
a little fuzzy. "Player" implies a "game" with a "goal" (to me). I know that
this means a lot to me because my final goal involves generating pleasant or
"fun" experiences for other humans. I'm sure that as I prototype my ideas
the terms "User" and "participant" will come up.

Posted by efn at January 26, 2006 01:28 PM

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