Design Seminar 2

Photo from videoCapture by Josh Dolby

just took a look at some of the videoCapture footage Josh Dolby took of American Cheese: an introspection out at The Patricia Doran Gallery at MassArt … a one day event + opening … the original intent was to invite SIM + other MFA candidates working toward their graduate degree in art or design to participate in a quick-hit collective + themed show … the time was tight + despite the fast-paced nature of the what needed to get done i feel extremely proud of the work we put together + the turn out we got for the event … a lot of noise, a lot of nice work from the dynamic, conceptual + performative media domains + a fantastic crowd with much fun, laughs + interaction with the exhibit

i’m posting here as a sort of post-analysis of the content i produced for the show as a means to make connections back to both cyberSurreality + Total eXperience Design

the first prototype for what Josh called ‘The StandUp Machine’ worked well … standing as a makeshift semi-octagonal hanging structure of red theatrical curtains … centerStage in these rather cramped quarters, a stool, a small bottle of spring water, microphoneStand + microphone + a bright, hot spotlight … surrounding ’standUP simul8′ were 3 boomboxes on various pedestals, each playing a slight variation on what i assembled for a pre-recording for laughStream 2.0 … real + found laugh samples, a variety of similarly non-verbal expressions from men, women, children + animals, as well as random soundScape accoutrements … basic audio backdrop to set the mood, but not quite ‘dynamic’ yet … + believe me, the piece needed some form of deeper connection back to the user … interesting as a first experiment, ’standUP simul8′ definitely needed that sense of reaction + play, a greater notion that the microStage is a living, breathing organism that you stand in to receive automatic laughter … David Tamés immediately wondered if the microphone received signals, not only triggering the laughter, but also perhaps capturing everything each person said … very interesting from a user experience practitioner’s point of view … i very much seem to want to test the audience | viewer | participant with the pieces i am passionately involved with lately … + so, the next order of business then : create ’standUP simul9′ or whichever version release follows this initial attempt to actually build the pieces i envision

‘cheese procession’ starts to get a bit messier than our rather tidy laughCell experiment … i had bigger plans for this one { semi-interesting story behind the scenes, perhaps to be rebuilt at a later date for future foot fun + testing }, but this little walk of shame for the viewer | user | participant added an interesting element of both the edible + the grotesque … the scent of the piece as some of my DMI colleagues + i built out the actual cheese walkway quite literally stank, worse than any potential walker’s foot could have possibly smelled … besides my own personal walk on the trail of hundreds + hundreds of american cheese slices, 2 other participants made the journey … inspired by a quote from Steve Martin, the idea of ‘cheese procession’ is quite literally to make the participant ‘feel funny’ … + i don’t think i realized just how funny one might feel taking off shoes + socks in front of strangers + friends in a public place to then walk down a sidewalk of cheesy goodness

Cheesewalk from josh dolby on Vimeo.

the first participant expressed how unexpected the temperature of the cheese was on his feet … he expected the slices to still feel refrigerated, but the warmth of the room temperature walkway made for a more pleasant experience … more shocking was the ceremonial footbath at the end of the procession … the water, sudsy + warm, was equally unexpected for both participants, + the act of having the artist wash their feet in front of the small crowd seemed embarassing yet far more comfortable than bending over to wash on their own

‘cheese procession’ was another test for the participant … a bit more about social dynamics perhaps + how people might interact with a large mass of cheese as both potential participants + general gallerygoers … very interesting to see how comfortable people were talking over the procession, almost like people talking over the grave of a friend or from across a small, shallow stream …

+ perhaps the main reason for me to blog + think through these pieces leads us to a quick mention of ‘new crown’ … made from a myriad of found, textural objects, new crown is my first experiment using real biological matter in a piece of artwork … leaves, pinecones, christmas lights, a wreath of twigs, seaShells, a large black container + 3 lobsters worked together to create a really vague + messy found object installation piece … my intention was to incorporate actual live lobsters in the piece, but unfortunately the little creatures died on the trip from supermarket to gallerySpace … on first examination i am quite certain this amalgamation of disparate, natural elements seemed nonSensical + purposeless, but i think i am still trying to work out a certain metaphor or an issue i have with technology … all last semester my pieces in Design as Experience seemed to explore the boundaries between nature + machine … i wanted to intersect the 2 domains in an almost cartoonish manner, exploring Kurzweil’s notion of The Singularity, a time in the near future when man + machine will merge … looking at photographs of ‘new crown’, of the quirky details of leaves + twigs + lights + various hardshelled surfaces exposes to me a dire need to explore this area even deeper … to try to actualize some sense of true biotechnic computing, or at least construct some sense of beautiful lie, some amazing story that verges on that sense of magic technology can sometimes bring to adults, a sense of magic we all seem to have as children + that we tend to let evaporate away as we conch ourselves up into our adulthoods

Tags: American cheese, cheese, container, david tamés, doran, Josh Dolby, Laugh, Laughter, lobster, lou suSi, Machine, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Nature, Public space, ray kurzweil, scott murray, Steve Martin, story, The Singularity

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 11th, 2010 at 1:43 am and is filed under Student Forum, Susi, Thesis Proposal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.