The Private in the Digital
Installation, Art Direction, Illustration | Final Year Project at Lasalle College of the Arts (2020)
The Private in the Digital is a project completed for my final year at Lasalle College of the Arts in 2020. As a Research-focussed project, the project was poised to produced as an Installation for the Lasalle Show. However, due to unforeseen circumstances, the project had to be adapted to a web experience instead. Prior to the start of the project, primary research was done through a Case Study, or also known 'Tracking Footsteps'. It is also documented in a Creative Process Journal, which can be found here
Tracking Footsteps is study that aims to find out user routines through available, usual documents through common channels. With user transport data collect, the visualisation communicates how location coordinates can be extracted and visualised in a map. To find out more about this project, view the website
Process : Development
Secondary research commenced during the 2nd semester, where the market and target audience were studied and evaluated to uncover various insights. Adhoc- visual research was done together with the creation of design considerations to help steer the project at an appropriate direction.
Find out more about the Secondary Research (and more) in the second edition of the Creative Process Journal
'Disclosure Made Personal' was derived from the comparison of possible directions and found to be technologically feasible and simpler than say, using identity cards to visualise or searching for a keyword and having the computer to 'crawl' for it. Focussed on reaction on user action, Disclosure Made Personal translates machine action to user emotion.
As installations involve a controlled form of user experience, I used technology as a leverage in the replicating of user emotions. Seen in the UX flowchart below, the program syncs with user feedbacks to produce the result of 'WHAAAAT' or a state of shock; that the machine is reacting to the user.
Over the next 8 weeks, prototyping begun with the creation of two deliverables that communicate the experience through a physical medium. With a limited timeframe, the project was focussed at the first deliverable that led to the use of Python as the programming language based in a Raspberry Pi 3B+ with attached peripherals. To assemble the products, wood-working was made by hand from materials easily found in Art Friend and around the house.
Prior experience in Industrial design has allowed me to easily create 3D models to visualise ideas from a simple sketch. Schematic drawings were first roughly done to dimensions, before drafted in Adobe Illustrator to scale and illustrated to an Isometrical view.
The Private in the Digital brings about an Exploratory study in the Social relationship between consumers and the digital realm, in the premise of the effect in disclosure of Personal data.
For the Full Experiences, view the site here
Reaction
Activated with human motion, Reaction lights up, displaying a magenta circle swiftly moving diagonally across the display. Such movement is made to incite a shock when users walk into its sensors, as a notion in the simplistic narration of how tech continuously translates our interactions into data.
Made with: Raspberry Pi 3B+, 32x32 RGB Matrix LED Display, Python Programming Language, p5.js, Wood Carpentry
Shredder
The Shredder embodies the first step in minimising disclosure from the user. As an act of learning by doing, users partake in the simple activity of shredding receipts while being remembered to be mindful of their information online.
Designed to be presented in its most natural state, the hand-powdered paper shredder is chosen as the key subject of this deliverable as hand-work often results in strong effects of reflection.
Made with: Wood Carpentry, Hand-Powered Paper Shredder
