week 17: Invention, Intellectual Property, and Income (May 15)
develop a plan for dissemination of your final project
what does the THING currently do (or means to)
it is an interactive (art?) installation placed in a public (outdoors or indoors) place that engages
people into a playful game that involves other people present there.
it's goal is to be a kind of a catalyzer for social engagement and participation, to foster human interaction,
to be fun, to make one smile, to create an event, to transform a place into something more.
the prototype will like this:
a box with "hearing tubes" protruding from it.
inside the box will be electronics and speakers.
each speaker will be attached to one tube.
each hearing bell will have a different color.
there will be a barcode linking to a site explaining the "rules of the game".
the rules of the game:
send a tweet to @speakout (for example) with a message that you want to be spoken out.
the message will be limited to 1 to 4 words.
you have to direct the message to a specific hearing bell, by stating it's color.
example tweet: @speakout color red i like you baby
don't use bad language or offensive messages or you will be banned.
technically, it will do the following:
poll for tweets sent to the specific TWITTER user.
convert the text to speech.
"speak" the voice message to the correspondingly colored hearing tube.
"speak" the name of the sender.
what is the THING's potential, beyond it's intended use
the prototype converts text to speech.
the original idea was about engaging as many senses as possible!
future models can include:
sounds, music.
video shot on place and transformed.
video with a twitter messages live feed.
lights, colors.
moving parts, wind.
what potential markets or groups can find it useful
public gathering places, like city squares, etc.
youth gathering places - skating rings, neighbourhood basketball courts, etc.
night clubs and such.
storefronts in the street or in shopping malls.
inside bars, clubs, etc.
festivals and temporary outdoor events.
how should i develop it further taking all that into account
i think that the commercial potential is there, since the concept can attract people to a commercial venue.
the people engaged in the "game" are not necessarily potential customers, but the social "event" taking place
will create a defintive interest and attract more people.
that said, i still want to explore and research the notion of human interactions and place making that are triggered or enabled by
digital/virtual means of communication.
my original goal intention was:
... i thought that the project could be an opportunity to check out ideas i had about interactive design and installations. specifically, i wanted to explore installations that caused interactions between people, even strange to one another.
the idea is to make an installation, in a public/urban setting (like a street, public square, etc) that has to be interesting enough so as to rise people's curiosity and attract them, and then involve them in a social game. the interaction between the people and the installation should be wireless and digital (smartphones), but the result will (hopefully) be a direct and "analog" interaction between the partcipants.
so, my goal should be, at least at first, to make a couple of successful public installations, and only afterwards look at
how to make a business out of it.
2013