Reflexion

On reflection the team worked on this project was basically non-existent. Everybody went off and did their part, but there was no communication between each other. So this meant that none of us saw the visualisation and what it looked like until the day before the presentation. We all expected it to be what we discussed (a flower) and were very surprised when it was a path in the grass. By this points there wasn't any time to change the original visualisation.

If I was going to do this project again I would not work with the same group, it was very disorganised and I believe this affected the outcome of the project. I will also make the visualisation much more artistic and abstract. The visualisation would be visible from where the senors are, so people could play with the project. Below are two examples of different visualisation I would have used instead of the path.

This visualisation I would create a screen full of balls (as you can see below) them when people walk  on the grass it will look like they are walking through the balls. I believe this is something fan that people would like to take part in.

My second idea for a visualisation was to allow people to be able to draw lines by crossing the space. I believe people will enjoy this because they are seeing their movements appear on the screen. Another aspect of this idea I like is that you kind of end up with this piece of artwork drawn by students movement through the campus.

Feedback

Below is our feedback from Hannah, I have to agree with what she says. I think are visualisation of somebody walking over the grass is far too literal. I also believe that it is very boring and won't engage people to interact with it. I agree with Hannah that if it was on the portal it wouldn't make it very easy to relate with. I believe that they should be seeing an interactive with it at the same time. Another thing disappointed me was the fact we had done the research but that didn't come out in the presentation. I also believe that Ian input is the presentation damaged it rather and then helped it. He undermined Gaston Bachelard by calling him a French bloke. I don't believe this went down very well and does not show any professional courtesy.

Presentation

The presentation was meant to be made by me and Ian. I understand that Ian has family commitments, so I offed to drive to his and do the presentation at his house. He told me it was fine and that we would meet up on Friday to sort out the presentation, which was fine by me. Imagine my surprise when I sent him a message on Thursday about meeting up and he told me he finished the presentation because he could not meet me on Friday as he had family issues (which turned out to be drinking with his mates). I was very annoyed he lied to me about not being able to meet me and that I had done lots of research into the topic that had gone to waste. I was mostly annoyed that I did not get the chance to put in my input. I hate it when other people do the work for me. It was already done so what could I do. 

Ian always said that he would be presenting the presentation. So imagine my surprise when I turned up to the lecture and was told that I would be presenting. Which was fine I don't mind presenting, I just wish I had been informed before it was due. There is nothing I hate more then presenting off a presentation someone else has made. If I knew I was presenting I would of insisted on doing the power point myself if he didn't have time to do it with me. However I presented anyway and I think it went ok.

Development

The development of this technology was mainly conducted by Stuart. We used a proximity sensor to sense if somebody is walking on the grass. If it picks up somebody walking underground it plays the visualisation Joe made. One of the hardest things about the development of this project was getting android talking to flash. Below is a video of the project working.

Research

Gaston Bachelard

Gaston Bachelard first came up with the theory of path of desire in his book "The Poetics of space". His theory was that people move though the space how they want to. The track people leave behind should be encouraged. People should be allowed to walk where they desire and do things they desire. These are a thing of beauty a way for us to leave a lasting mark.

Path of desire

This is a typical path of desire a short cut though the grass to get to the other side quicker. You have to wonder if they see these man made paths and know that where people want to walk. Why not just put a path there.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmzWh2OVF_llk_t3uFGbKBnKNQKD_jqQCngj9N2xygwNhwIXnoYoa4PLVpNpYKbmg8xTFcfr0_uAdclwp9cM-8JJJvr4Ksj4AaVlbEN8_qvs5Zv9PFVQ4spU-JvZwy7u9MxMSTtQRsi3ZT/s1600/desire_path.jpg

Definition 

A desire line normally refers to a worn path showing where people naturally walk. Desire lines are an ultimate expression of human desire or natural purpose. An optimal way to design pathways in accordance with natural human behaviour, is to not design them at all. Simply plant grass seed and let the erosion inform you about where the paths need to be. Stories abound of university campuses being constructed without any pathways to them. Planners responsible earn great respect for their cunning in allowing the desire lines to form before finalizing the construction of the paved pathways. Reconstruction of paths across Central Park in New York was famously based on this approach.

http://www.litsl.com/personal/commercial_success_by_looking_for_desire_lines.pdf

Example


This is a video that show you how paths of desire are created and give you an example of different path that can form.

http://vimeo.com/30197847

Hinduism Philosophy

I really like this philosophy it implies not only do people make these paths to get somewhere quickly but they also get a pleasure out of making them. It also tell us that we shouldn't stop someone using these paths we should encourage them, we should feed into their desire. 

The Path of Desire--the twin goals are pleasure and success; nothing is gained by repressing these desires--in fact we might be worse if at some point we do not seek desire.

http://philosophy.lander.edu/oriental/purpose.html

This is a lovely quote saying that no matter what people do they leave line and imprints everywhere they go. We all make some lasting impression on the world, that a nice thought that we will all be remembered in a way.

“As walking, talking, and gesticulating creatures, human beings create lines everywhere they go.”  -Tim Ingold, Lines: A Brief History

Another thing I found out when I was doing my research is that centre park in New York is totally design by desire paths.  They left the whole park as grass and let people walk on it and then built the paths following the desire lines. How amazing is that! You can say you had a hand in developing the park, you were able to change something in the world and be park of the reason something was built like it is. I think that truly is amazing to be apart of something so magic in a way.

http://www.cringel.com/files/images/central-park-usa-new-york-flickr.com-photos-retokurmann.jpg

Final idea

The final idea of the project we decided to focus and research paths of desire. We thought it was interesting how people interactive and moved though the grass. We wanted to encourage students to walk across the grass and follow their desires. So we decided to make a visualisation in flash of a flower growing every time someone walks across the grass. This visualisation will be placed on a screen in the university. 

I believe that the installation should be somewhere where students can interactive with it in real time. Something that is going to make it exciting and fun to walk across the grass. I am not sure how exciting a flower growing is going to be as a animation to engage people, but this is what the group wants to do. 

This is a mock up for the flower that will be used in the animation. I believe its bright colours will catch people attention and make them want to interact with the flower more. The flower could also grow in a curve to make it more entertaining  instead of growing straight up.  

Brief & Ideas

The brief was pretty open. We have to create a project that uses an arduino sensor. We could use any sensors we could get our hands on. They did recommend sometime simpler is better. We like the idea of using a simple sensor.


The ideas


We came up with many idea in the lecture. We decided to create a project that works with flash or a game, as Joe has great knowledge of both. We throw around a lot of idea before we settled on our final idea.

One of the possible ideas was, having a camera on one side of the campus then when it sensored someone it took a photo and send it to a different location on campus. It could even have effect added onto it, so it made it creepy and more interesting. I really liked this idea, I though we could get some really interesting effects and reactions. However we deiced that it might be to hard to do in 2 weeks and wanted to do something more simple.

Another idea that we came up with was having a sensor that detectes when someone is near to  headstone and projecting onto it so you can see the writing. The purpose of this is so you can visit your loved one even if it is dark. A big problem with this is a lot of grave yards are locked at night and not everyone in the group was comfortable with mess around in the grave yard.      

We finally settled on basing our project upon paths of desires. We wanted to use pressure pads to see how many people walk across the space. Then create a animation in flash to make people relise what they were doing to the grass and how they were effecting it.