Design - Part 1
What follows are combined notes from our first two design meetings:
Attendance was Craig, Steve, Peter, Mark, and Greg.
Nothing is set in stone at this time, but let's try to put a few nascent ideas on paper to spur creativity. As always, be thinking of the "why" something is the way it is. That will guide us to meaningful decisions consistent with the project's intentions. If something seems arbitrary, or unexplained, that's a cue for asking why!
Physical Design - shape and layout
Base, Stem and Antennae... plus some flowery words about its function and meaning. From our discussion yesterday, I drew up a proposal for the basic form. No, it will not be a cylinder, this is just conceptual and meant to focus on the physical form that is ~16' high with a footprint 8-12' with its antennae, a base that anchors it to the ground and hides the control system, it includes kiosks that explain the project and a structure for the solar and batteries. Also indicated is 1 of possibly 3 interaction stations that triggers the laser to send its message.
Sculpture layout. (It won’t look like this. I promise!!)
Craig said everything happens in 3s or 7s. Let's do 3s to start and see where that gets us. Shown is the stem with 3 big antennae which project light downwards to form 3 pools of light. We can color the pools to give feedback to the participants as they interact with the piece. Take a look and put your thinking caps on!
Interaction Design - The Game(s) that trigger the device
Steve described using "pentatonic scales" as part of the interaction. I really like this idea because it has a "universal constant feeling" to it. Everyone can relate to this scale. It cuts across cultures, language, etc. Music also triggers emotions; the interaction must evoke feelings to be successful. Combined with "singing" or voicing a tone from the scale, this could be the root of the activity that triggers the message sending routine.
Here's an idea I'm calling The Harmonizer:
A "strange device or appendage" protrudes from the sculpture's base, inviting two people to put their heads into it and face each other at close distance. Eye to eye! It looks like a helmet of sorts, each person has a mouthpiece and two earpieces.
The sculpture senses their presence and the lights above change color to indicate readiness. Thanks Peter for this!
The two participants are aurally bonded. A hears the voicing of B and vice a versa. They are linked!
The sculpture engages in "call and response" by playing 5 notes from the scale, then repeats 4 and waits for the two people to voice the last note.
Successful harmonizing is a +score and the sculpture indicates progress towards the goal of sending the message.
The call and response may be repeated, perhaps with the same scale, but asking the participants to voice 2, then 3, then 4 notes... until they've got all five.
The sculpture sends the message
The interaction is on message with the project because it’s:
Emotional - People using their voice, face to face with each other, will be uncomfortable. People may laugh, be weirded out, who knows.
Simple and direct, requiring no verbal instructions
Cooperative - they’ll have to work together to harmonize
Universal - cross cultural and perhaps cross species
Implementable - I think we can pull this ofF
Those are the 5 criteria for the interaction(s) we choose
But, wait, there could be more. Why just one interaction? We could have another. Perhaps 3, one for each pool of light. Each interaction is a step towards firing the laser. There's not just one way to measure "sentient, cooperative life" is there?? Let's keep the ideas coming on this most important component of the project!
I like the idea of doing something tactile and physical. What interaction is physical and meets the criteria??
Visual Design - Biomathematics
Life on Earth is a function of its DNA and other chemical structures that encode the proteins that turn Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitrogen, plus a handful of other chemical elements into dragonflies, sequoia redwoods, lions and stargazer lilies. Such beauty and seemingly infinite complexity and diversity all derived from a chemical form smaller than the head of a pin.
What is The Archeon? It's the result of a seed blooming in the desert. The seed came from outer space; to be successful, it has to survive in many different environments. So, it's not DNA based. It's mathematical. As such the structure's design will be heavily influenced by deterministic processes and dynamic systems. We all know examples of this... e.g., Fibonacci sequences found in most flowers, like sunflowers.
The forms we can compute can be both alien but somewhat familiar. It's easy to find online systems to compute the shapes we need... then feed them into my CNC router to make them. Hmmm, sounds appealing.
More on this as I read up on it. Here's a link to the wiki page on Mathematical and Theoretical Biology to read up on for inspiration. There’s so much material here, it’s mind blowing… inspiring!