Conceptual Depth - Ricardo
I chose to review the project titled “AtmoSPHERE”, which set out to visually represent the tranquility, or lack thereof, of the occupants in the room. Their spacial footprint would then be laid out in the zen garden, imprinting their presence in the sand.
This project was prototyped with the use of KEN’X pieces and 3d printed gears attached to motors. Their quick aproach to creating a prototype was very interesting, as I hadn’t thought of KEN’X as anything other than a toy until this point.
Throughout the project they constantly reference their ideas to pre-existing creations and then state how their project is similar and/or dissimilar. For example they relate their work to a sand sculpting robot at Disneyland, but state their difference in that their zen garden’s drawings are not predefined. This method of constant reference at first seems uncreative, as though the team has just copy-pasted snippets of other projects. However, it served as a conceptual base, confirming that their ideas were not unprecedented. Without this point of reference, not only do I feel the execution of the ideas would suffer in quality, but the project would seem shallow from an outside perspective.
The group goes on to test a small batch of viewers, paying close attention to their opinions, even though a lot of these opinions clashed with one of the main design pillars. They use this information as a potential testing path, integrating the findings into their future plans. They go on to state that long term testing would be deployed to research the effect on long-term users of the zen garden. Their process of feedback reflection proved to be very insightful as they paid very close attention to the audience, putting the audience opinions before the design of their machine. This modest/ego-less approach to designing seems crucial in industry and reflecting on this I personally need to focus on detaching myself from my creations.
