See Music

I recently realised how important stories are to a designer. I noticed how my audiance seemed more engaged when I began explaining my work with a story. For infact it is a story; The process of how I got from a simple idea to a finished product is a narration.

So what is so powerful about stories?

This Monday we began our IX Design classes with Jon Rogers. He had asked us to bring stories of our future selves. At first I was caught off guard. I did’nt think he really meant a story with characters and plot and plot twist. I arrived in classes with a bunch of sketches and rough ideas in the form of questions. My batchmates had typed out longer pieces of text explaining their idea and how their future self might use it. Soon after we bagan storyboarding the Ideas. My inital story began as a account of a woman’s lifein the future where all my ideas come to life; Mood lamp, AR window screen, Health Scanner Mirror, Cook4U Robot, Objects that remind you to take them. But as I was storyboarding I realised I would hate a life like this. Where everything is controlled for me. Everyday the same routine. Everyday would be perfect. I think I would lose my mind. Where is the risk in such a life, The creativity, The social interaction?

“How do you tell a story with one LED?” Jon asked. We began protoyping our ideas with an arduino. The task seemed absurd to me at first. But soon I realised there was emotion in a simple blinking LED. If it blanked fast, if it blinked unevenly, if it blinked rarely there was so much it was trying to say!

The next morning we presented our stories to eachother along with our prototypes. It was lovely to see the things my batchmates had come up with. It really made me admire them even more. One had made LEDs talk to each other by changing the pace at which they blink. Another had a small skit where she bargained with an LED. Another had prepared a conversation with an VI. Slowly I was beginning to get a hang of what possibilities this course has provided me with.

The entire day we spent refining our story and taking our prototype to the next step, all in preparation for the performance we were to put up that evening.

“What if we could visualise music?” this is what I wanted to explore. The product I had in mind was a transparent screen that respondend to music and touch. Maybe I could incorporate AR aswell. It could responded to the objects behind it. In the future I’m perhaps sitting at home listening to a song trying to relieve stress. As my fingers trace the surface of the window, a brilliant splash of color fills the surface. Ripples are created wherever I touch it. My friend in the other room comes to check on me. he steps on the Ipod and the song changes to something sad. Suddenly the visuals change. Now fishes are swimming in the sky. They are swimming through the windows of the neighbouring buildings. My friend takes a seat beside me. He lifts his hand and the music gets louder. We both smile at eachother. Im happy! The music changes again to something rythimic. We start tapping our feet and before we know it we are on our feet dancing. The window has gone wild now. The visuals are following our movements. we just keep dancing.

I intended on creating a prototype of a screen that lights up when you touch it. But I ended up using a FSR to light a series of red LEDs. I was dissapointed. How was I going to make this work? This is when I learnt how to use performance to make an idea come to life. I kept my performance short and simple. My friend and I sat at a desk listening to music. my prototype was beside us.

To be Continued……..

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