THE PROCESS OF THE PROJECT:
1. STEP: Project Introduction
The starting point of our project was the saying: You don’t have to be afraid of moving slowly, but you should be afraid of stopping.
We developed a concept of an ecological circle which has to be run by the action of the visitor. With the challenge of “keeping nature in balance” the visitor can start an animation of growing mushrooms. The installation will consist of a balance-board (interaction device), a screen with the animation of the growing mushrooms and a illustrative forest-like surrounding.
2. STEP: Paper model
To get a better idea of the technology needed for the device we quickly built up a paper model.
3. STEP:Building the Balance-Board
After figuring out a construction plan and collecting the necessary components, we went to the Holzwerkstaette to start building our balance-board. The board failed the first test, due to too thin screws and overall instability. We had improve the construction-plan and buy stronger components.
The next day we drilled new holes and made the entire construction more stabile. There are still some adjustments to do, but in gernal it is working. So we decided to go on with starting to test the technology and focus on details later on.
4. STEP: Presentation
In the presentaion we showed our current status of progress and talked about the challenges and what we are planning to do next.
5. STEP: Preparing the animation
Meanwhile constructing the balance-board we started to make the animation. Technique and style wise we chose hand-colored recycling paper and cut-out technique. We will use this style in the forest environment as well as in the animation.
6. STEP: Paper Plants
To set up our forest-model we had to start coloring some paper we found at our studio.
After the papers dried, we could cut out leaves and plants.
7. STEP:Programming
The programming was the next challenge we had to deal with, thanks for the support!
8. STEP: Finally we could put all components together and start testing the sensors at the device.
Meanwhile the animation made progress, we continued building up our forest-model. A simple cover-mechanism will later help us to access the computer in case we have to adjust something before the exhibition.
9. STEP: Testing
As the last step, we have to continue making some adjusting and add some details. With a first test-render we could check whether we can affect the animation as we wanted to.
10. STEP: Part of the exhibition
In general we got a positive feedback from the visitors, they liked that reaching the aim was quite challenging and fun to do, for the young and old ones. The main message of the feedback was, that the device is quite intuitively to use and the issue of “keeping nature in balance” can be experienced in form and content.
In cooperation with Anete Melece and Ge Wang
With support in maxmsp from Felix Eggman and Raphael Perret
HSLU 2011