mab24h

THE CUBE

  Our lab is located at the port of Pireaus in Greece. Pireaus is the biggest port of Greece and one of the biggest in Europe as well. In this particular side of the port, depart the passenger ships to the Aegean sea and Mediterranean.  It is like an urban center, full of life and energy all day long.

In this area, we can distinguish four main different social groups. First of all locals, who are simple traditional open-hearted people, educated in many specialties. Secondly, all kinds of employees, as Piraeus has always been a trading center. Furthermore, these days Piraeus is a temporary home to many refugees from Syria, who have come to our country and are currently living in the port. Refugees have been under a lot of difficulties but many of them are highly educated, in different fields. Finally, travellers from all over the world, different people passing by everyday, people that are always in hurry. All of them have needs and abilities. All of them differ from each other, but co-exist. The point is to make them interact with each other.

Our concept derives from the ancient Greek Pnyx, which was the spot were Athenians used to meet to exchange opinions and ideas, it is the spot where democracy was born. Ancient Greek Market (Agora) was a place like our modern shopping malls, where people used to exchange products and goods and met with each other. Palaestra was a square where people met to gym, under the idea of body and mind health. This is where the Olympic games were born.

The meaning of all these is that, in places where people can meet freely under a good cause, timeless values of humanity can be born.

Here comes our Main Idea. The Cube.

Cube is a shape, a form that represents equality. All it’s sides, surfaces and angles are equal. The Cube is an Idea that brings the concepts of the Pnyx, the Ancient Greek Market and the Palaestra together. Technology and social media instead of Pnyx, facilities instead of Ancient Greek Market and interaction instead of Palaestra.

How does this work? Well the answer is that we could build facilities, and make a social app where people would register and become the “Cube members”. The Cube members offer goods to other members and take goods that the other members have to offer. All these, without the exchange of money between them. For example a teacher could provide knowledge in classes organized for the children of the Cube members, a greengrocer would offer some of his vegetables, a web designer would make the web page of The Cube and so it goes on. To avoid this become a closed club, if someone besides the Cube was interested in any of the Cube goods, they could buy it, but in this case, in exchange of money. The Cube can also contain a social grocery. In this way even people without economic prosperity, such as refugees could become Cube members and enjoy the Cube benefits. The only requirement is the knowledge of something.

The Cube app represents the idea of The Cube into the social media world, where it can become an open space of exchanging (goods and ideas) without money.

The Cube is not just a building. The Cube is an idea. It can take all kinds of shapes according to the current local needs. And it can be more than one building all over the world, connected with each other via technology, and most of all connected by people, creating new life standards.

asa

architecture

Aristeidis Sevntalis

Spiridon Zachos https://www.dropbox.com/s/pjydgrzpldigmsn/asa%20architecture.mov?dl=0

Our final note on our design - Grow-it

A design made in the MAB24h student competition 2016 by Team Kaff’ - Malene Mogensen Henriksen & Kathe Elisabeth Reimuth

Designbrief, vision and designvalues

When reading the designbrief a lot of thoughts came to mind. Though Aarhus is a smaller city compared to other european cities it sure is divided in different groups of social-status, lifestyle and ethnicity. We have the hipster neighbourhood, the part of town where students live, the rich-people area, the family-friendly area, the immigrant area. Aarhus sure is divided, but we all share the same public spaces, parks and so on. Though sharing these, we do not interact and socialise with each other. We wish to change this. We want to act as place-shakers on these already place-made places.

We chose our domain to be Bispetorvet which is a new public space that has just  opened up to the citizens of Aarhus in 2016 (http://stiften.dk/aarhus/bispetorvet-bliver-til-et-groent-pusterum-i-byen). A year ago this space was a parking-lot in the heart of the city with its neighbours being the beautiful Cathedral of Aarhus, Aarhus Theater and the most visited shopping street strøget.  Now the Aarhus municipality has a vision about the space being turned into a green area to relax and take a break from the busy life surround the area. As stated in an article in the local newspaper “Trees and grass shall move in, when the cars move out of Bispetorvet. The place shall be a place of play, relaxation and experience.” (ibid).

Though we find that they have succeeded in creating a nice green area with a lot of room to play and relax - a place - they have yet to shape a true identity of the space and the users has yet to get to know it as a space. As Yi-fu Tuan puts it “”Space” is more abstract than “Place”. What begins as undifferentiated space becomes place as we get to now it better and endow it with value” (Tuan:2011:6).

Our vision of the place is to let the users of Bispetorvet and the place itself co-create the feeling, the activities and the identity of the place through interaction and play. Our design values is play, co-creation and simplicity

Our vision:

“We would like to create a design that through a sensory and playful approach creates simple interaction between users of Bispetorv in Aarhus and the place itself. Through co-creation and interaction between agents connected to Bispetorv the new identity of the place will be dynamically shaped.”

So let us present our design, Grow-it!

Our design concept, Grow-it!

What is grow-it? Grow-it is a game. Grow-it is art. Grow-it is a plant. Grow-it is a living organism. Grow-it is what you make it.  Grow-it is an interactive living organism living in the wooden areas in Bispetorvet. Everything you do on the wooden areas are being felt by Grow-it, Grow-it reacts on your activity on the place.

But how? The wooden areas are covered in a pressure-sensitive surface. The longer you stay at one place, the more activity, the more plants grow on the surface. By being and participating in the area, the more life is created. You and Bispetorvet are one. And you a part of creating Bispetorvets Identity. But it is more than that. It is dynamic - when participating, the plants connects you with the other participants. Bispetorvet is therefore also a co-designer and participant in your experience at the place.

Grow-it not only creates interaction and visualization of this interaction and activity on the surface of the area, but it also support social interaction and social engagement between the different agents using Bispetorvet. Not by forcing them to talk with each other, but by growing plants. The plants are attracted to other plants growing in the space. If you interact with the space long enough the plant you have grown by interaction and doing activities in the space will intertwine with other plants, and you will create a symbiosis with other people at the space. Creating a greater synergy.  

Process and reflection

Our approach to the designprocess was based on the Ideo design-thinking. Basically it has three different phases: 1) Inspiration, 2) Ideation and 3) Implementation. Though there is these three phases, we believe in moving dynamically between them and iterating. Our process has therefore been all about actively doing, failing, iteration ect. We believe in the “fail early and fail often”- way of designing. We started the designproces in the inspiration-phase brainstorming on the theme “place-making”. Thereafter we thought of already existing designs, each found our favorite and presented it to each other. The first one was Piano Staircase from the designgroup The Fun Theory. The other was the installation “Before I die-wall” which was exhibited during Aarhus Festival 2012. From both of these we were inspired by the playfulness, the simplicity and the fact that you can both participate active and passive while having a meaningful experience. From this inspiration phase we decided on some mutual designvalues. These are, as mentioned earlier, play, co-creation and simplicity.

Next we moved on to the ideation phase, where we first made a brainstorming session of the possible domains. After an open-minded brainstorm we narrowed it down to four different places, and again through dialog narrowed it down to two. We then went on a field study documenting the activities of the two places. We ended up chosing to Bispetorvet as our domain, and began observing, interacting and exploring the place. We created a vision as stated in the previous section.

After exploring we made a mindmap over the possibilities of the place which can be seen on the photo below. The idea with this mindmap was to conceptualize our initial thoughts of the domain.

Afterwards we started working actively with the domain by first using the method How-Might-We to gain an insight in the problems of the area. When we had created these insight-statements we moved on to work with them through the method BadIdeas 3.0 (Silva 2010). We started with a two minute brainstorming-session, but afterwards we hit a massive wall. We had simply created too many problems, to sort out through one method. Therefore we iterated and revisited the domain, the designbrief and our vision for the design. We realised the importance of participation and co-creation. Therefore we decided to include our future users in the designproces through a participatory process. We chose to make a mini-workshop and to give our future users a voice and a designer-role of their future public space.

Making this choice of including our users in creating our design was the best decision we made in this entire (and short) designproces. Participation and co-creation was crucial for us to make a meaningful design.

After the workshop we went back to the office to mock-up and prototype on the design concept. This through scenario-based storytelling. By approaching the design through play we got the last details sorted out and our closed in on our final design-concept.

Final reflection: How does the design respond to the design brief?

Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed, Nusrat Jahan Mim, Mehrab Bin Morshed, Maruf Zaber, Hasan Shahid Ferdous

Introduction:

A dominating feature of modern city life is often defined by the loneliness of its citizens. This loneliness ranges from individual level to community level. Individuals often remain busy inside their cocoon made of the stressful and demanding working environment [3]. On the often hand, cultural, religious, and social factors also come into play and create further segregation in many big modern cities [4]. Hence, modern cities are often characterized by the lack of interactions between the citizens. Sociologists and psychologists have identified this phenomenon as the root cause for different social and psychological problems associated with modernizations. This particular problem has been compounded by the recent proliferation of mobile and ubiquitous electronic technologies including mobile phones and tablets. Attending to these devices has further created alienation between people and the physical context they are situated in [2]. All these phenomena call for designing and developing proper technologies that can create a space for the citizens to interact with each other. In this paper, we present ‘EmoSpace’, an ellipsoidal electronic mural and public display that brings citizens together in creative and artistic ways. Originally designed for the city of Syracuse in upstate New York, this technology is equally applicable for any large city lived by people of different social, religious, political, and cultural backgrounds.

Context:

Before going to the details of the device, we first turn to the problem non-interaction in the busy city life of Syracuse. Syracuse is a city in Onondaga County, New York, in the United States. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,170, and its metropolitan area had a population of 732,117 [1]. It is the economic and educational hub of Central New York, a region with over a million inhabitants. Syracuse is also well-provided with convention sites, with a downtown convention complex and, directly west of the city, the Empire Expo Center, which hosts the annual Great New York State Fair. The city is lived by people with a variety of ethnicity. The racial makeup of the city was 64.26% White, 25.35% African American, 1.13% Native American, 3.37% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 2.23% from other races, and 3.61% from two or more races. The citizens also have many different religious identities including Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, and Sikh. This kind of mixture in the population has created a separation among the citizens of Syracuse. This separation is apparent from the behavior of people in public places like public parks, shopping malls, restaurants, movie theatres, and such other places. People seldom talk with each other beyond their friends and family in public places. As a result, although co-inhibiting in a city, citizens here are alienated from each other producing a dead and boring social life and weak civic infrastructure.

Location:

To approach this problem, we have targeted to develop citizen interactions in public places in Syracuse. As the first step toward it, we have targeted a popular public attraction in Syracuse - the Clinton Square. Clinton Square, in downtown Syracuse, was the original town center and first came into existence in the early 19th century where roadways from north and south convened. By 1825, the construction of the Erie Canal further transformed the busy intersection into the center of commerce and trade in Central New York.Two of the most significant features of the Clinton Square are the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument and the Ice Ring. The monument is a tourist attraction, and the ice-ring is populated by the locals during the winter. Although it is an often crowded place with people of different ages, not much of interactions are seen beyond citizens; family and friends. However, both because of its location, and the number of people it attracts, we believe that the Clinton Square is the best place for placing any technology to introduce citizen interactions.

EmoSpace:

To introduced an enhanced level of citizen interactions at the Clinton Square, we have designed EmoSpace. EmoSpace is a large digital mural that accumulates, shares, and displays the emotion of the citizens in an artistic way. The 3-dimensional figure of this mural has properties of a large display enacted with touch and audio, and embodies an art piece in itself. The citizens can interact with EmoSpace by drawing pictures, writing their own words, and adding pictures, audio, and videos. They can also interact with other citizens by reacting to their posts that floats around the body of EmoSpace. Hence, EmoSpcae creates a digital space where citizens can interact with others both through digital medium and in real world. Citizens can use this medium to practise and demonstrate their creativity, collaborate in producing artworks, and form political consensus. Beyond its functional and artistic aspects, EmoSpace brings the citizens closer by breaking down the walls of culture, religion, age, financial and social status, and ethnicity.

Design Objective: Collaboration

The design of EmoSpace is motivated by a number of factors that we describe here one by one. First, we try to develop a collaborative art-making space for the citizens [6]. The idea is to develop rapport among the citizens in a creative way. EmoSpace gives people the freedom to draw pictures by touching the screen. Two or more people can draw different parts of a big picture and fill up a large portion of the display. One person can start drawing a picture and then others can join. Such non-structured, shared, and collaborative art making platforms create an environment for rapport among the participants. We expect the participants to talk among themselves and develop friendship. Furthermore, the art piece itself becomes visible to the broader audience who can react to the picture by liking. Later this picture will be posted on Twitter from an automated account of EmoSpace, and allow people around the world to see the art. Thus, EmoSpace creates an opportunity for the citizens to collaborate and participate in developing artworks.

Design Objective: Political Voice

Second, EmoSpace is also a tool for the citizens to develop political voice around a particular issue [7]. One person can write something on the screen and make that visible to others. Other people can react to that and like the statement by touching. With a large number of support, a text message becomes bright and stay at the top of the EmoSpace mural for a long time displaying the whole city that particular message. Thus, EmoSpace creates an opportunity for the citizens to come closer through their political needs. This will also encourage discussions among the citizens around an issue and develop healthy debates. This kind of practices in turn introduce novel and creative interactions among the citizens, and engage them with the civic rights of the city.

Design Objective: Accessibility

Third, EmoSpace is designed in a way that it it accessible by blind, deaf, and handicapped people [8]. It is also accessible for the children and old people. The option enables people of different ages come together and share their emotions over this digital space. People can draw pictures, writes words, add pictures, audios, and videos from their mobile devices, and so on. This is also a place for people to know others and develop fellow-feeling. For example, one can share a picture of one’s foods or home, and other people can know about those. Then, other people can meet them and ask questions. This is how EmoSpace invites interactions and intimacy.

Design Objective: Knowledge

Fourth, we see EmoSpace as a place for learning new things [9]. EmoSpace can perform as a platform for sharing knowledge. One can, for example, write something in their own language, with an English meaning. Then other people can see and react to that using their own languages. Then people can meet and talk about these and learn new languages. In a similar way, people can introduce new places, culture, and foods to others. Also, if somebody needs some help, they can also use EmoSpace to draw other’s attentions and create sympathy [10]. So, through EmoSpace the citizens can know about the city, the citizens, and different new things about other cultures and places.

Design Objective: Art piece

Beyond its functions of holding and transfusing emotions of the citizens, EmoSpace itself is an art piece. The ellipsoidal shape of a large digital display should attract the notice of the citizens even from far away [11]. When nobody is interacting with it, EmoSpace can select a topic that is relevant to the city, and display inviting citizens’ reactions to it. The reactions of the citizens would then bubble up to the top on the ellipsoid and stay there for a long time projecting to the whole city. Thus, EmoSpace creates a non-linear space of postmodern art that is in dialogue with the citizens. It is both a medium and an actor in its artistic form. Participants both interact with it and through it. Also, the art is a complex combination of the creativity, skills, emotions, collaboration, and political orientations of the citizens. A current state of EmoSpace reflects a snapshot of the citizen’s life in an artistic form.

Conclusion:

In this paper, we have introduced EmoSpace, a digital artifact that creates a digital space for the citizens to interact. We have described the action of this large-scale ellipsoidal display for different purposes. However, this platform still remains open for the participants to be engaged in more creative interactions and collaborations. This kind of live, interactive, and collaborative virtual space, when added in a public place, should introduce both rapport and opportunities for the citizens to interact with each other in an artistic and playful way. We believe that EmoSpace, if installed properly at the Clinton Square in Syracuse, should increase the interactions between the citizens in a significant way and also contribute to the artistic beauty of the city. It will further become a tourist attraction and a platform for the citizens to raise their political voice. The enormous potential of EmoSpace shows us opportunities of such virtual spaces to foster citizen engagement in different important civic spaces in future.

References:

[1] Wikipedia article, Syracuse, New York: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syracuse,_New_York

[2] Turkle, Sherry. Alone together: Why we expect more from technology and less from each other. Basic books, 2012.

[3] Timberlake, Michael, et al. “Urbanization in the world-economy.” (1985): 180-98.

[4] Marcuse, Peter, and Ronald Van Kempen. Of states and cities: The partitioning of urban space. Oxford University Press on Demand, 2002.

[5] Wikipedia article, Clinton Square: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_Square

[6] Bishop, Claire. Artificial hells: Participatory art and the politics of spectatorship. Verso Books, 2012.

[7] Verba, Sidney, et al. Voice and equality: Civic voluntarism in American politics. Vol. 4. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995.

[8] Metcalf, Darrell. “Wireless controller with publicly-accessible communications link for controlling the content seen on large-screen systems.” U.S. Patent Application No. 09/925,093.

[9] Peltonen, Peter, et al. “It’s Mine, Don’t Touch!: interactions at a large multi-touch display in a city centre.” Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems. ACM, 2008.

[10] Elrod, Scott, et al. “Liveboard: a large interactive display supporting group meetings, presentations, and remote collaboration.” Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems. ACM, 1992.

[11] Dáz-Kommonen, Lily. “Art, fact and artifact production: Design research and multidisciplinary collaboration.” Leonardo 37.1 (2004): 48-48.

I had no idea I was capable of producing this much work in 24 hours.

Wow.

My faith in myself has been renewed.

To describe your project, you additionally have to write a briefnote explaining concept, design process, and response. You are also encouraged to include research references and other relevant links in the note.

Our idea is a distributed, asymmetrical game experience deployed at public spaces in Hobart with the intention of both engaging players on a community scale and giving feedback to placemakers on real-world issues. Each game would be a simple mechanical puzzle with unique interface elements that, when successfully completed, update a large central ‘command console’ with the completion of the task. At the command console, each machine is assigned to a given community issue; chosen by suggestion, potentially from an external app or some other method. By engaging with the games, players are also taking the opportunity to discuss and provide feedback on various issues relevant to the community. Each game is designed to be different, encouraging players to explore public spaces so as to engage with each of them. As the system is entirely digital, tracking of engagement with the system can be done online, and if such a system is deployed to more than one public space, competitive statistics can be made available online as well.

Our design process was to take the initial spec and perform a series of iterative brainstorms to filter the idea into something workable. We took all considerations of a social space as design constraints, and planned system functionality around these constraints.

References:

http://www.pps.org/reference/the-power-of-10/

Sensory Square addresses the issue of technology and digital media shaping public space to foster inclusive social interactions.

Users are encouraged to interact with each other directly and indirectly through the combination of the urban space and the digital technologies. Engagement is sought through multiple avenues, targeting different sensory perceptions involved in market life and exposing the user to alternative experiences.

The video, as promised. I think I’m officially done.

Video coming up soon.

We just mock-up’ed our design using this very simpel yet “accurate” model of our domain - with a picture of the beautiful cathedral. To do this we used storytelling and scenarios as a technique to visualize and play out the design. 

Research of the place - historical aspect & today`s viewpoint

Interviews with the target groups about their habits while they wait for transportation

Observing communication styles and intensity between people in the transportation point