How to get started?

Final Project: How to get started? #

Start thinking about your final project and what you want to do. You have until March 10, 2023 to come up with a project proposal. Start working on it now. Document your process on your website.

Some questions that might help you situate your work? Your work might fit into multiple of these “boxes”, for example, nothing stops your work from being art and research that you publish at the same time.

  • Is your project a form of artistic expression? Is it an installation, sculpture, performance, or some kind of other artwork that uses the technology and concepts introduced during the course? What is it that you want to say with your work? Or what is that you want people to experience through the work?
  • Is your project interaction or user experience design?
  • Is your project a tool? What does it do? Who is it for? What problem or task is it meant to be used for? How is it different from existing tools?
  • Is your project interaction research? Are you interested in creating something that might become a research paper? What is your research aim or question? Explore the TEI conference to see what kind of topics have been presented in recent years.
  • Is your project a game with an experimental interface? Why does the game need this? Is it a form of exergaming?

During this course, it is ok to approach the project as an experimentation and exploring of what is possible, but I would like you to consider your work also on a deeper level. What other possible futures or presents there could be in how we interact with technology and each other?

Here are some resources that hopefully help you to develop your idea further.

Inspiration: Emdodied Interaction #

Talks and Lectures #

Jelle van Dijk has uploaded great lectures on the topic of Embodied Interaction for a course he teaches at the University of Twente.

Books and Articles #

Inspiration: Speculative Design #

Inspiration: Media Archaeology #

Those of you who have been in my other classes should be familiar with the concept of Media Archaeology.

Can you find some obsolete technologies that could inspire your work to create new ways of thinking about speculative futures or alternative presents of interfaces and interaction.

Inspiration: Science Fiction #

Science fiction offers interesting possibilities to think about alternative ways of interacting with technology.

Yes, watching movies and shows can be part of your research for this course. Even better, organize movie nights to watch things together. Here are some recommendations from this perspective:

  • Black Mirror
  • Minority Report
  • Ghost in the Shell
  • Logan’s Run
  • Johnny Mnemonic

Inspiration: Chinese Typewriter #

Watch this brilliant talk by Tom Mullaney. It is not directly connected to our approach, but I find it really inspiring and interesting from the perspective of this class as well. The talk discusses specifically text input systems and something that he calls Hypographic Age. Some questions that I was left wondering about:

  • What if the development of input devices for computers would not have happened in the so-called western world?
  • What kind of other “controllers” for inputting or “playing” a language could there be? Specifically in VR/AR or some other interactive spaces where the keyboard might not be the ideal way to interact with text and language.
  • Will AI and Machine Learning eventually be embedded to all situations where we write text? Would this require a complete rethinking of the computer keyboard as the primary input device for computers?
  • I personally hate text prediction on my phone and prefer to write myself even if it might be slower. Do people who use this with their own language (like Chinese) have a different relationship with auto-complete when writing English or other languages based on the Latin alphabet?

I also recommend reading the book if you can get hold of it.

And this reminded me of the CharaChorder as well

Events, exhibitions, journals, conferences, competitions #

Where could you possibly publish or present your work? Aim high!

Calendar Mar 8, 2023