sticks-SoliSandbox

 

Kindle (Soli Candle)

Kindle (Soli Candle) simulates and resembles a calm and gentle candle, one that is tranquil and contains energy like a little heartbeat. The candle flame behaves like a regular candle, where it swings and sways with forces and wind that act upon it. A swiping gesture with your left hand or right hand will disturb the candle, and will sway in the direction temporarily, then falls back in place. A tap gesture puts the candle out or ignites the candle if the candle flame is out. There’s also an “up-swipe” feature that allows the user to turn the calm candle flame into a powerful fire-beam generator, creating a colorful blaze that also spouts out a little smoke from the overheating.

Interface (Glitch):

 

sticks- 05-sketches

 

Soli Sketches


  1. Something Visual: Candle Fire Simulation

I had an idea of creating a candle app, where the user can interact with a candle, something which is hard to access nowadays and something for kids to “play with fire” without actually playing with fire.

The candle will shift and sway like any fire would to the motion of the hand, where swiping your hand across the screen will distort the flame, potentially burning it out. If the candle burns out, or the flame gets smaller, one can lightly tap (soli sensor) and the flame will rekindle again. Tapping consistently will grow the flame, and putting both hands around it will nurture the flame, similar in doing so to start a fire or to protect a flame from burning out.

2. Something that Connects: Spam E-mail cleaner

This idea could be made possibly by one of the IFTTT Applets, which has features that can let yourself send an e-mail to yourself, which I think could substitute the act of moving an e-mail into spam. Ideally, I had an idea that one can mark e-mail from unwanted senders (Advertisements, in my case, Taco Bell) in just a swipe. I figured that this could be a very useful way of quickly getting rid of all the junk emails that exist in your inbox.

The feature also comes with a tap feature, where if you tap your hand above the soli sensor, or phone, it will mark every single e-mail on your page as “read” or “seen”. When having an e-mail open, such as an advertisement from your favorite Fast Food Restaurant which you don’t wanna see, a swipe to the left will ask to “Report Spam & Unsubscribe”, and a following tap will do the thing.

3. Something that relates to space: Rock Skipper

I had simple idea of creating a virtual Rock-Skipping app which allows you to skip rocks form 5 feet away, where the phone can be placed on the ground or on the desk. The angle which you throw the rock will depend on the location of the phone, where having the phone in a position where your throw, or movement in the arm would have the best results the more parallel the rock is to the ground.

sticks – 05-CriticalInterface

After reading the Critical Interface Manifesto by the Spanish HANGAR collective, I chose the following tenet:

La interfaz se da en el pliegue entre el espacio y el tiempo; es dispositivo y situación simultáneamente. Es render (actualiza condiciones pensadas) y emergencia (ensambla algo nuevo). The interface exists in the crease between space and time; it is a device and simultaneously a situation. It is rendered (updated under thoughtful conditions) and emergent (joining into something new).

  • Try to delay your interaction with the interface by counting to 10 before clicking. Count to 100. Wait an hour, a day. (1+cH)
  • Invite yourself to act and perform in a different way. Imagine a different gender, age, location, character, social position for 20 minutes every day. Review how the render changes. (1+cH)
  • Delay answers, read twice, imagine impact. (1+cH)

I found this tenet particularly interesting, as it allowed me to reflect on what an interface is supposed to do, and envisioned this in the context of using the internet as the interface. With such advanced detection and adaptability in today’s modern search engine, the search engine interface tracks and adjusts to your typing behavior and sets up this world for you. The whole idea behind an interface is to bridge the gap between what is real and what isn’t real, and to make an interface that is invisible means adapting and adjusting perfectly to the user’s expectations; to create a fake and reality, like a simulation or situation.

I found this intersting in the line where it suggests and idea of performing in a different way, and seeing how the search engine reacts to that decision. I think it’s sometimes amusing how accurate and how observant the search engine could be, whether it recommends something which you just thought about or just looked over again a couple minutes after searching. As stated in the tenet, the interface is something which is rendered simultaneously, “off of thoughtful conditions”, where it adheres and transforms through time.

The idea behind “inviting” yourself to use the internet through the lenses and behavior in a different manner is an interesting yet creepy experiment I am interested on exploring. I want to find out to what extent can I transform my internet interface based off manipulating my age, gender, and social behavior?

sticks – Looking Outwards-03

aeroMORPH

AeroMORPH, a project created in the MIT Media Lab is a project that explores the creation of 3D elements through 2D materials at the intersection of origami and machine learning. The project implements many elements of art and math, where knowledge and skillsets in geometry, origami, and digital fabrication combine in creating interactive wearables and industrial design with precision.

I find this project to be fascinating and one which stands out from other projects in the way origami, a historic and traditional Japanese art could be used in industrial design. I really enjoy seeing classical techniques that are centuries old in application with today’s technology, where something like AeroMORPH can utilize the art and efficiency of origami and the creation of something ergonomic, crafty, yet elegant.

sticks-exercises

 

Exercise  1

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Exercise  20

sticks-Clock

 

abstract clock

For my abstract clock project, I focused on creating a clock that revolved around seconds, where viewers will understand the representation of a second and see the seconds roll past their eyes. I found that creating a pulsing animation can represent a beating sensation. I was also particularly interested in representing time in cyclical motion, where cycles are repeated every second, colors are slowly altered by the second, and the rotational direction also changes with the second.

Overall, I tried to focus on a clock design that will capture people’s attentions for a couple of seconds when they walk past the public display. I figured that creating an animation with playful circles that pulsate every second would work as an aesthetic “clock” interface.

The number of purple circles is proportional to the number of seconds in the current minute, where scale and alpha level also correspond to the current time in seconds (seconds are displayed here for clarity). 

Sketches

My initial ideas for this project went towards an abstract portrayal of a clock as cycles and iterative processes. I had a couple of ideas of measuring time from a biological perspective, such as representing time through the growth of a tree (i.e. a cycle of a tree growth from sapling to tree could represent 40 years in time). I was also interested in many other ways of representing a clock that would have required much more technical skill, and would not follow guidelines on the clock display; I had an idea of a “relationship clock”, where a heart’s size would change proportional to the stature and the body of a figure. The heart would shrink and expand based off the attractiveness of the figure, and when the figure reaches its lowest point in attractiveness, the heart would burst and will pop out another figure, where the cycle repeats itself. I felt that this idea could be further explored and developed, as I find it humorous and quite controversial, and will save the idea for a future project.

sticks-Timekeeping

I found it very interesting from yourcalendricalfallcyis.com that timezones aren’t set in stone, where countries like Samoa made a decision to switch its timezone, and that new timezones are created (Eastern Russia) when the timezone the area is in does not fit.

Another idea that stuck with me was from Graphesis: Visual Forms of Knowledge Production, where Johanna Drucker manifested a perspective on time that states,”Humanistic temporality is broken, discontinuous, partial, fragmented, in its fundamental conception and model” (Drucker). I never viewed time as something that had so many errors and historical mistakes, and sort of just followed it since it is generally seen as an accurate system to structure our entire lives around.

sticks-meander

One of my biggest takeaways from Meander was that many steps, revisions, and trials are necessary to create a successful project. A lot of tinkering is done in his development of the Oxbow Lakes and the Road Maps, where drafts and recreation helped him achieve his final form. His project is a reminder that many great works don’t start out as great works, and that “The network of roads didn’t begin as a network of roads” (Hodgin).