Here is my final proposal for 532 and 534. I would appreciate any feedback and possible suggestions. Thanks in advance.
Posted by stephanie at October 26, 2003 3:15 AMNothing like a good disembodied brain proposal. Of course, you'll have to research it by watching all the classic brain-in-a-vat movies like Donovan's Brain, also City of Lost Children.
It's all very Pandora's Box - open it up and all hell breaks loose. Nice.
I don't quite get how you are going to fit a projector into the brain - there's not a lot of room in there. Maybe an LCD screen could serve the same purpose.
But how is the user able to look inside the brain anyway? Is there a hole in it somewhere? You also have to figure that if users can handle it, it might get dropped. Does it have to be made of metal? Some kind of rubber or plastic might take the inevitable abuse better. Also, the brain will probably have to be cabled to the bust (power/video in/video out).
The Linen-Cube Option sounds intriguing, but I wonder if you can really get away with smothering your user.
Posted by: perry at October 28, 2003 6:11 AM
firstly, i think that the idea of creating an inanimate object with vulnerabilities and with a tendency for psychological suffering is very intriguing. some thoughts: i think that i like the linen cube idea better. it also seems more doable. its construction should be simple, and it might be possible to start experimenting with just one, two sensors. so long as the imagery and/or sounds that are outputted really reflect either calm/chaos at the right times, then maybe it's a good workable prototype to a really loaded and busy piece. in fact, perhaps the scale of the whole piece can be decreased a bit? it might be too overwhelming to include the whole environment/room. also, the cube may be smaller than proposed (?). the object itself (minus the room) could reflect the ideas you are interested in about panic attacks. how far/near a viewer(s) is from the object can be valuable information in order for the cube to output a specific reaction. this can be a very interesting question: what kind of outputs and what kind of logic to apply to this object which is vulnerable to panic attacks if a viewer does 'something'? then there is its inside... well, here i'd like to comment that frequently, people experiencing a panic attack look quite 'normal' on the outside - it is the inside that is a labyrinth, a mess. so, perhaps the cube can react a bit 'unexpectedly'; perhaps the relationship between what the cube shows the world and what it is internally experiencing is a dichotomy? at times?
Posted by: susana at November 4, 2003 9:26 AM
hey steph,
found a "Hot&Humid" sensor which you may be able to use to detect temperature and humidity (which in turn you can manipulate by placing simple vaporizers/heaters/etc. in the environment):
http://www.infusionsystems.com/products/hot&humid-10.shtml
also, "MoveOn" - a sensor that detects movement within a range of 3m:
http://www.infusionsystems.com/products/moveon-10.shtml
("learning" this stuff myself - it's exciting)
Posted by: susana at November 4, 2003 6:20 PM
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