DIVA 300: Final Report @ Tangible Interaction

Did you have a transformative experience over the internship?  how you may have changed since starting the internship?

1. This is what I learnt : Measure twice, cut once. Though we hear about this all the time in school, students never get the pressure of getting things done in the first time. Although students still pay the price for their mistake (literally paying the price for needing to buy more material), it is the pressure of reporting to your boss that you screwed up hurt the most.
2. Attention to detail. Again, this is a lesson that people talk a lot and practice a lot in school. However, school projects only presented and showed for a short period of time, and many of them are just prototypes, thus, a little imperfection wouldn’t ruin the whole project. However, in real life, your clients will nitpick every inches of the project. After all, they paid for it.
3. You get what you paid for. For my internship, I found the company a new vendor and service provider for material and fabrication. The new vendor is substantially cheaper, and the reason behind it is that they are substantially worst. Just to name a few things, the panels are in wrong size, fabrications are cut poorly, service aren’t provide in a timely manners, etc.
4. Be affirmative. For my internship, I have to deal with different vendors and service providers. One thing that I learn, or I am still learning, is that I have to be affirmative. Being affirmative is not trying to be mean or being a bully to the vendors, but rather is being honest and firm with them. My personality is quite mellow, and easy-going; however, some vendors take advantage of that and will push me around, or giving me some B-grade work.

How you may use the skills that you’ve learned in the future?

• I will use these skills in my everyday. These are surviving skills not only in the industry, but in life, too.

Do you have goals for continuing with the internship? was there an on-going relationship that was developed? have you developed a network of contacts that will benefit your practice?

• I would love to continuing with the internship, however, I haven’t have the time to discuss such an issue with my supervisor yet. I hope they will welcome me, despite all the mistakes that I have made. Thought this internship I did developed a network of contacts in the design industrial in Vancouver. I now know where to get materials, where to get them fabricated, etc. Also, working with Alex Beim, I was introduced to many of his partners.

Comment on the working relationship with the organization, working in a collaborative environment, the organization’s flexibility, the organization’s communication about the projects

• The working environment is excellent. Although he is very busy, Alex still tries to sit down with me and talk about the process or challenges of the project. When I am not in the studio, we communicate via emails or phone. Other co-workers also treated me with respect and there is not a hint of hierarchy.

How your expectations of the internship changed over time? (what you ended up actually doing vs. what was initially proposed.)

• At first, I was hoping to learn programing or other technical skills. However, at the end, I learn the right attitude to be a designer. I learn the design process. I learn how to approach a problem. And, the most important thing that I learn is communication skills. After all, for everything else, you can hire a speciality to do the technical aspect of the project, yet, the important thing is is how you communicate the idea to him or her, so that he or she is in-sync with you.

Mention the tasks and accomplishments that occurred after the midterm presentation.

• The projects that I am working on is still developing, but hopefully we can wrap it up by the end of this week.

Download the presentation PDF here.

DIVA 300: The Graffiti Wall at IF’09 is awesome!

At the Interactive Futures ’09: Stereo, one particular exhibition has caught my eye; in fact, it has caught many of my colleagues attentions as well; it is the Graffiti Wall by Tangible Interactions. The idea behind Graffiti Wall is simple: Alex Beim, CEO and creative director at Tangible Interactions, wants to create an electronic version of graffiti printing. Here is how it works: connecting to a computer, an inferred receiver is used to detect an inferred signal from an inferred sensor, which is on the spray can. A special program on the computer will transfer this signal and turn them into visual component which is projected onto a screen. This projection is the graffiti. The reminisce  of the art of graffiti, the active involvement of the participants, and the intuitive of the design make this Graffiti Wall an irresistible interactive installation.

Many people came to this year Interactive Futures exhibition; and each of the presentations, performances, screenings and exhibitions are very attractive and innovative. They give a lot of insights. However, nothing like the Graffiti Wall that can draw a huge crowd gathering. At Interactive Futures, it is not uncommon to see students draw on the Graffiti Wall, while many students are lining up for their turn. Among them, many more students gather around to discuss the technology behind the Graffiti Wall, to enjoy the art by a fellow student, and to talk about other possible application of the Wall. When I walked by, I kept on hearing phases like “how cool is this?” or “this is awesome!”. A colleague even post a picture of the Graffiti Wall on her Facebook’s page and praise how staggering the Wall is. So, why is the Graffiti Wall “awesome”? Is it the design? the intuition? I believe it is the interactive component of the Wall that pull every soul to it. When we talk about interactivity in technology, it is usually referring to a two-way flow of information between the technology and its users, responding to the users input. However, with the Graffiti Wall, the interactivity is not just between the computer, the wall and the users. The interactivity between technology and its users is present, yet, it’s just a simple flow of inputing and outputting. The Graffiti Wall actually creates a environment that allow the interactivity to extent to surrounding participants. As I have stated before, the Graffiti Wall created a buzz among students at Emily Carr. For the past three years of study, I have never seen such a charismatic installation that allow so many people to engage together.

Although the Graffiti Wall has a high degree of interaction, I couldn’t see how this art piece fit with the term “stereo”. Other installations and works from the exhibition are closely related to the stereo theme; there are 3D photographs, stereo ambient sounds, etc. Having said that, the Graffiti Wall at most is at a 2 dimension level. If the Graffiti Wall can achieve another degree of dimension, a 3D graffiti printing, it will be an even bigger innovation. At least, it will then fit the “stereo” theme.

Nonetheless, the Graffiti Wall is an installation that grab my heart.

DIVA300: MidTerm Report @ Tangible Interaction

What I have been doing?

My initial goal at Tangible Interaction is to design an interactive lighting cube module. The cube has to be simple, stackable, and ideally can be assembled without any glue. Alex Beim, Creative Director and the CEO at Tangible Interaction, is working on the electrical component of the project, and I work on the construction and the design of the cube. I had spent a couple of weeks researching different possible building materials, as one of the goal of the project is to try to build the cube using something that is less common. Alex and I took a look at some honeycomb core panels; we liked it a lot and ordered some sample. However, it turned out that these honeycomb core doesn’t diffuse the light too well. We then decided to go back to acrylic panel instead.

What have I learned?

I learned how to present my idea on-the-fly by doing quick sketching or quick 3D sketching. I gained a lot of researching experience and learned many different properties of many different materials. Also, by working along side with Alex, I learned or at least get a scope of what programming a Arduino broad is like.

How has your role and work shifted from your initial Scope of Work?

My role is pretty much the  same except that I am just working on a different project.

What am I doing now?

I am now working on a Twitpic Station for a hair salon. The idea is that people can take a before-and-after picture of their hair cut and it will automatically uploaded to the salon’s Twitter page. Alex and I are working on the design of the booth; and there is another team member, Mike, who work on the programming. We have ordered all the materials and equipments (Mini Mac, a 7″ touch screen, a Logitech camera, etc.) I am putting the design into Solidworks so that we can laser cut the acrylic panels for construction.

New goal?

We have to construct the booth ourselves and give it to the client by the end of November.

 

Download PDF of the report here.

DIVA 300: Scope of Work Report for Internship @ Tangible Interaction

For my internship at Tangible Interaction, I will be helping Alex Beim, the Creative Director, in researching and developing a decorative interactive lighting project.

This decorative lighting will be a fusion of D.I.Y and ready-made product. It is ready-made in the sense of an actual working light. It is D.I.Y in the sense of the owner build the light him or herself, and also has the ability to change its lighting module and its orientation. While Alex will concentrate on the electronic aspect of the project, I will be doing research on different types of materials that can be used for this project. The material should be light but durable. It should diffuse light in a cool and unique way. Ideally, the material should be something that is not typically used for lighting. Besides researching for the suitable material, I will also look into the basic shape of this light. The construction of it should be glue-less, and does not require any other additional tools. Also, the light will act as a building block; for example, lights can stack or interlock with one another.

During my internship, my goal is to learn the development process of a project. I hope my role in Tangible Interaction can enrich my research skills; and I hope I can learn more electronic knowledge, like programming, during my term.

HUMN 306 – Promise, Tool, Bargin

The book finally said something that I have been waiting for: “There is no recipe for the successful use of social tools.” (260) In pervious chapters, or in Wikinomics, every successful story seems to be so easy to achieve. You break the structure, give the power to the participants, provide a platform, and you get yourself collaboration. It’s that easy; at least to me it sounded. But only a few of these groups succeed: Wikipedia, Flickr, Lunix, MySpace, Facebook, etc. We keep on reading these books on how to make group action possible or how to ignite collaboration, yet, at the end, it’s not something that can be taught. Make no mistake, Here Comes Everybody and Wikinomics are good books, and I love them, but they can only be served as references, but not guides. How to come up with “a plausible promise, tools fir to the task, and an acceptable bargain” (277) are not exact science, but a practice. I thought I have a good understand of the spirit of collaboration until I have worked with my group for the final project. I found that what these 2 books gave me is knowledge, but it is through practice that it becomes wisdom. Also, it is because of the group project, it puts everything that I have read into context.

Our group is coming up with a platform for art students, particularly students from Emilly Carr University, to trade or buy or sell their excess art supplies. We have many platforms for communication between the group members: Pbworks, Ning, E-Mail, Chat Room, ProBoards, etc. We first thought it would be a good idea to put a discussion topic on Ning for the project development. However, gradually we move from Ning back to Pbworks. Where now, Pbworks is our sole platform for communication and bounce off ideas. Thus, it’s a try-and-error process, I think; and the project will evolve instead of following a particular set of formula. You really have to jump into a project to understand the complexity of such interaction.

I also finally understand the real power of collaboration: the quality, the speed and the efficiency. When I first come into this project, I kept on sending messages to my partners about my suggestions or about bugs on the forums or ideas on the design. I was always looking for an approval from my group members first, and then I will go ahead and make it happen. It turns out it is very time consuming and inefficient. Slowly, I started to make the change first then ask them what they think, it is like the concept of “publish than filter”. Also, some of the members are not located in the same time zone; as a result, the project is being improved around the clock.

At the end of the day, we all need to practice this art of collaboration in order to make it work.

HUMN 306 – Communication, collaboration & filtering out failures

As I continue reading “Here Comes Everybody”, I appreciate the book more and more. While “The Wikinomics” touches on the same topic as this book, “The Wikinomics”, like I said so many times before, is quite busniess oriented. This book, however, look at mass collaboration from the human behavior level. This book does give me a lot insight and clear much of the confusion that I had. I am intrigued with how Shirky’s idea of broadcast and communication have fuse to one. I am not a blogger, but I am not against it. I actually enjoy reading some of people’s blogs on movie reviews, or current event opinions. Yet, I, at first, couldn’t understand why someone wants to blog about some very personal or private matters? For example, I don’t understand why someone will broadcast to the whole world that he or she is heartbreaking from his or her break up, and he or she is crying every night; and how every song reminds him or her about his or her lover. I thought, maybe, this person has no friend to talk to, and has to express oneself via the Internet. But, it turns out that we need a new mindset to perceive all these information on the Internet. Like Shirky said, many of these blogs entries are not for us to read, they are for their friends. These entries are merely conversation between the writer and his or her friends or families or whomever he or she is talking to. But we always thought that whatever is out there is targeting us. Shirky is right, and it total changes how I see mass collaboration.

Many ideas that are raised in these 3 chapters are great and so profound to me, and change my perceptive, like the idea of fame, and the idea of filtering to practice, to improve, and how cheap it is to fail in open sources.

I especially like how he explains love as the motivation and the building material for collaborative production.

HUMN 306 – Everyone Is a Media Outlet

I remember my father always telling me to read more newspaper; and saying how the new generation does not have a habit of reading the newspaper or even watching the news on the television; and saying how we are so out of touch of this world. However, here is the thing that I never get: why do we call it “newspaper” when all it was written are yesterday’s news? I do believe newspaper or 10 o’clock news is dying media; at least, I can’t remember when was the last time I watch the news. I don’t watch it anymore not only because it’s not up-to-the-minute news, but also it is because I can’t weight the authenticity of the news. Over the century, the governments, the dictators, or the big cooperates used newspaper or TV news to distribute propagandas. CNN has been caught many times twisted the stories. So, why still listen to this fiction news?

Many people said that news on blogs or forums are biased, and have no editorial value. I agree. In many cases, people do put their thoughts and comments into their articles. However, I don’t see it as a bad thing; instead, these articles push us to think more about the news that are documented, to disgust more about it, to critically read between the lines. That way, it’s not a one-way communication scenario. The ability for us to voice out on current event is such a wonderful thing; it actually bought us closer to this world, to engage more to this world.

HUMN 306 – Week 3 – Platforms for Collaboration

After 3 weeks of reading, I think I can finally relate the idea of mass collaboration to Arts or Design. This week I spent much of the time debating with myself if Flickr should or should not compensate its contributor monetarily? At first, I think it is a great idea; what’s wrong with giving back some of the profit backs to the contributors? After all, without these extraordinary photography’s, there wouldn’t be Flickr. Flickr own us all money. However, as I read more, I feel like this idea of monetary compensation swallowed the grant idea of mass collaboration; people will start to contribute for profit, instead of self-willingness. If one had studied organizational behavior before, one will know that using money, as a motivation is very short lived, ineffective and inefficient. What Flickr can provide us is a platform to get recognition, to build our brand. As artists, our names are our brands; and brand name is an intangible asset that couldn’t easily be “bought”.

Then I come across with the Amazon example. I understand that Amazon opens up their codes, their data and their systems, so that everyone can freely contribute. I also understand that people wants to write add-on programs for Amazon because Amazon is one of the big guns in industry! However, here is the thing that tangled me: people want to work for Amazon because it’s the biggest name; no one would want to write some program for my e-shop (because I am no body.) So, what does that mean? Is that mean you will always work under someone’s shadow? I don’t have the answer yet; but one thing I know is that if I want to collaborate with some one, I have to be pretty damn good at one specific thing. I don’t have much comment on the rest of the reading as my mind is still overwhelmed by all these contradicting questions.

HUMN 306 – Week 2 – The Peer Pioneers and The Prosumers

This week’s reading raised a question that I always wanted to ask: how can you make money with open source? Since it’s open source, it belongs to everyone and can be used by anyone. Although some contributors are doing this for fun or for pride or for publicity, many people make a living out of it. I have no experience in Second Life, but, according to the Wikinomics, people, on average, can make $20000 a year by selling their creations in this virtual world. Is there really such a market for it? And what are they selling anyway? Virtual items? I am confused about the concept that you can generate profit from open source. Is it because I drew a too distinctive of a line between virtual and reality? Or am I just one of the old-minded people who couldn’t see the big picture? However, one thing that I understand is that collaboration can save cost, can give you the biggest bang of a buck; but I wouldn’t consider that “profit”.

I have a blast reading the chapter on “The Prosumer.” It is a very inspiring and a very insightful chapter. As an industrial design student, I am considering my study on interactive design. After reading this chapter, I think a interactive designer’s goal is not to create an end product but, like the book said, a platform for the audience. Such experience from the audience will bring the interaction to a deeper connection and a more emotional level.

One thing that I have noted, at the time when Tapscott and Williams published this book, Apple had yet given us the iPhone. In the book, Tapscott and Williams said that Apple is a close system, close platform; and yet, now, Apple has given the World a developer kit for it’s iPhone/iPod Touch. The innovation of the iPhone has bring Apple to another level, and has set a new benchmark in the way we use communication gadget. From all those apps on iPhone, I can truly see how Apple can harness the mass collaboration (and, well, how people can making money off it). Not only does Apple make profit out of selling these apps that created by the peers, but they also incorporate all these codes for their future uses. This is a zero-cost business model! Other people write and design the program, while you earn a fraction of the proceed, and received all the programming power for free.

HUMN 306 – Week 1 – Reading Wikinomics

It’s funny how much changes we gone through in a short 10-year period; from ICQ to MSN, dail-up to ADSL, Friendster to Facebook. Maybe because we are living in these changes, I never recognize these changes till now. A friend was talking about Twitter, so I go and start a Twitter account. Bang! I have ‘evolved’ again. It was that easy and natural. So, when Tapscott and Williams put all this in content, I was struck.

I think there is a lot of contradictions within oneself when embracing this Web 2.0 or mass collaboration or whatever you called it. Kids find more privacy on the World Wide Web. They wouldn’t share their troubles with their parents, but would post it on a blog for 100 million people to read. When just started, artists want people to download their songs or make anime-video for them; but when they are rich and famous, they sue a 15-year-old kid over copyright issue. Company encourage team work while there are still brick walls between the work force and the management. I totally agree with Tapsocott and Williams that you need to break through the old hierarchical system in order to keep up with current pace, needless to say to succeed.

Since this book is quite business orientated, it’s hard to wrap my head around the idea presented in this book and applied it in our practice. But one thing I get out of it so far is to really trust your partners, or just to trust when you put your idea out there. You can’t be afraid that someone will steal your idea. You can’t hold back with your best idea; instead you need to give it all out, and let others to change it or improve upon it. Tapsocott and Williams are right, I couldn’t remember the exact quote, but they said no matter how good you are, someone out there is definitely way more talented than you are.

I have a hard time to collaborate with others. It is not because I don’t want to share my marvelous idea, or I am scared that someone will steal my work and make money from it. I have a hard time because I always think it’s much easier to work on your own, on your own schedule. Also, you always know what you wanted to do, so you don’t need to take time to explain to others what you wanted to achieve.  I guess I am scared that when collaborate, the result wouldn’t be the one that I anticipate. This is something that I need to learn.