#interactive objects

Gary Schott. Wonder Object. 

Just to clarify: Earlier on I was following the idea of having all my eggs the same weight as a regular egg would be so that the person doing the experiment wouldn't know that it wasn't normal until the egg was cracked.

I am now making eggs of varying weights so that when you look at the eggs they appear normal but when you pick them up you realize they are different and that is what makes you want to crack them open to see what is inside. I think if I continued with my original idea people would be unsure as to whether or not they are meant to be opening them up or indeed what the point of the experiment is. So if they are the wrong weight people will immediately know that there is something up once they pick the eggs up. 

So I spent last week emptying out a number of eggs and filling them up with various things.

I used :

Glitter Ribbon Sago Shampoo (unsuccessfully) Boysenberry Jelly (delicious)

I took these ones to class and gave them to people. Some were interested to note the varying weights when they picked up what they thought was going to be a normal egg - they got a surprise when they weren't the weight they expected. When they found out I filled them with things they were excited to find out what was inside.

I wanted to choose whether I focus on weight or I focus on contents. I am still a bit unsure. I like how both create surprise but I feel like its a wee bit vague having just a general surprise. 

I have more ideas for fillings

Paint Nails Feathers Sand Wax Beads Salt/sugar Seeds (poppy, sesame etc) Chicken food Concrete

I am going to spend more time filling eggs to find the most successful.

At this stage I am focusing on the idea of the egg feeling like normal, so a person picks up an egg and proceeds to crack assuming they will simply contain egg but they will have an unexpected surprise when the contents is not what they assume. 

If I want this to be the case I need to find fillings that don't rattle around in the eggshell.

I have an idea..

I am going to experiement with emptying out eggs by putting pin holes in each end and blowing out the contents (like it's easter time) , refilling one of the holes and filling the eggs up with a selection of materials.

I have two things I hope this will achieve;

Firstly I will experiment with the idea of the fillings I use having varying weights so that the eggs feel different to what we expect them to feel like when we pick them up.

Secondly I will chose fillings that (probabaly) have weight similar to a standard egg but when the egg is cracked we are surprised by what spills out.

At the moment, although I don’t have a solid idea, I am trying to experiment with the idea of tricking your mind by having something that we assume we know what it’s going to feel like but when we examine it it turns out to feel completely different to what we thought.

I tried to think of an experience I have had that makes me think twice. I have found that before I pick something up I judge how much effort I need to put into the physical act of the lift I am about to do. Sometimes the object is not the weight or density I was expecting and I have put more effort into the lifting than is required. The movement might be more jerky than I had anticipated because I have tried to lift the object thinking it was far heavier than it actually was.

Hard to explain..

PROJECT 1 so far...

We have been exploring objects that interact with our senses and that we interact with to make them serve their intended purpose. 

I am trying to explore ideas that relate to this project, so far I haven't come up with an idea but I am researching.

Here is an idea relating to our senses that I found interesting.

Materials:

Three tall glasses of water, one filled with very warm or hot water (not burning), one filled with room-temperature water, and one filled with ice water

A clock to time yourself

Procedure:

Grab the glass of hot water with one hand, making sure that your palm is touching the glass. Grab the glass of ice water with your other hand, holding the glass in a similar fashion.

Hold the glasses for at least 60 seconds.

After holding the hot and cold glasses for 60 seconds, grab the room-temperature glass with both hands, palms touching the glass.

Does the glass of room-temperature water feel hot or cold?

What's Happening?

Your brain just received confusing messages from your hands about what the temperature of the third glass was. The hand originally holding the hot glass told you the third glass was cold, whereas the hand originally holding the cold glass told you the third glass was hot. But they were both touching the same glass. How can this be?