final project, in-process..

so after speaking with Joey about this final project, my child tracking device idea has become more of an exploration of tracking devices in general. through ressearch i found that my idea of making tracking devices more commonly used in every day life is already becoming more of a reality than i thought, so i began to worry, as perhaps the idea had just gone right down the pooper! But fortunately, it is not so, instead (thanks to joey's suggestion) i'll be doing a sort of manifesto about tracking devices, pros and cons, lots of questions. i've only participated in one manifesto in my life, but it was a mockery, a joke, a fiddle, but great fun nontheless. this one will be much more serious though. stern.

joey also suggested i go a bit further into the sketches i had done. originally, i thought of presenting images of children and children garments with strands of red wool to demonstrate the information of their location going back and forth from the satellite. instead, i might hand bind a book (thanks to the inspiration of Moon) and stich with red thread instead of using red wool. these are some of the "sketches" (i guess.. because they've got stichens in 'em)

MAC visit

“Éléments” by Alexandre Castonguay

This interactive video installation by Alexandre Castonguay was truly astonishing, as it took our involvement to bring it to lif. One of the projections in particular had our motions create ripples in our surroundings, this idea stuck with me, it somewhat relates to the user interface I’ve decided to pursue, as it deals with reverberated signals, wavelengths, etc… Also, the interaction is immediate, you have an action and then a reaction, which renders it more efficient and more likely to be used.

“Chemins” by Sylvie Bouchard

This painting by Sylvie Bouchard really grabbed my attention because of its aesthetic aspect; it is linear and deliciously so. The lines are organic as well, as they are reminiscent of lake mappings and tree forests. At the same time, we could compare them to the internet, using them as a visual metaphor. What I also enjoyed was the somewhat microcosm/macrocosm aspect of it, on the left; we could interpret the blue lines as an aerial view of a section of the earth. On the right; we could interpret the vertical lines broken by a few horizontal ones as a close-up of this section of the earth. I see this playing a role in my final project because it demonstrates how there are some many pathways to follow, so many entrances and exits, such that it is extremely easy to get lost. Especially for a child who relies on someone else for direction.

“Au seuil de la nuit” by Isabelle Hayeur

Isabelle Hayeur’s photographs are grand in scale and though they should be intimidating and imposing, they’re in fact very humble and gracious though a little unsettling. Partly due to the gray toned colors that are predominant in most of her photographs. She gives the landscapes very much human emotion qualities. The images also shed light on the juxtaposition of technology and nature that is a great part of a majority of people’s lives these days. It (the photograph) displays nature’s misery with immense beauty. This misery is the chaos that goes on within it, the injustice and crimes against humanity. As it has been said before: “Our children are our future”, how can there be a future, if there are no children? So if nature is engulfed in this chaos which creates a dangerous environment for the people roaming it, there indeed is a need for protection. That is how it would relate to my project.

final project proposal

To be honest, I found this particular task of imagining an interface of the future to be quite difficult. Trying to think of something that seemed likely to be pursued had me revisiting ideas that have already been thought of. Naturally, I became a little frustrated. That is until I hit upon something that sounded plausible to me. I was thinking about having child tracking devices be a new feature of the future. Also, I do believe it is in line with some of the questions we had to ask ourselves whilst conjuring up these ideas. Like, "What do we want from machines?" I believe we want machines to better our lives, to help make daily tasks easier and not so simple tasks simple.

So I started with an idea a close relative suggested, to have a bicycle with some sort of shield and better traction so that people could ride them in unfavorable bike riding weather. But that sounded better than it actually looked. Then I had the momentary glee of perhaps artificial trees, they would be implanted with surveillance cameras and the artificial leaves would detect local weather conditions as well as displaying them on a screen along with the time and other such useful information one might need in a location where one might only find a tree. But that seemed useless and like it would cost a lot of money more than anything else.

So finally I got to the idea I decided to run with; Child Tracking Devices. This first kind of came up with the daily paranoia my mother suffers from whenever my 9 year old step brother is due back from school. At 2:30 pm sharp she asks that either I (if I'm around) or my other step-brother keep an eye out for him as he walks down the street towards the door. I would tell her: "you need to have some kind of tracking system on that kid, it would keep your mind to rest!" To be blunt, I just don't think it's fun to stare out a window at a kid you know is going to reach the door by logical routine deduction. Unless of course someone decides to jump out from the bushes to kid nap him in broad daylight. Anyhow, the more I thought about it the more it seemed like a good idea. Why not develop some sort of tracking system for children? The microchips could be placed in little compartments on clothing, or accessories. They'd only be permitted to be used on a child up to a certain age, maybe 12. What with the countless number of children being kidnapped and disappearing each day, something needs to be done to protect them. The world isn't as safe as we want it to be.

In terms of the final piece aesthetic, I was thinking about getting some child clothing and various child accessories and placing them up on a wall. I would indicate the location of the microchip with red wool leading to a large drawn satellite which would then be connected to a large drawn earth (still with the red wool). I would include illustrations of where children could be while being tracked along with illustrations of how parents can get information about their child’s location. On some of the child clothing, I’ll add a red tag to the existing price tag, which would be a way to distinguish which items of clothing have microchip pockets already sewn into them. The idea is to give people the option of tracking their children, which gives them control (and a peace of mind) over the interface, not the other way around.

sketch :

*for the proposal : i used what i first wrote about the user interface design project and added onto it*

mmmcolors.

counter clockwise from top left corner: hungry happy melancholy angry

counter clockwise form top left corner: melancholy angry hungry happy

book

i didn't get to scan the "book" as a whole because i handed it in before thinking to scan it. so here are the work in-progress scans instead..