santini basra
Responsive experience
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Pigeons page03 Research page04 Pigeon Behaviour page05 User page06 Defining Direction page07 Ideation page08 Concepts page09 Research page10 Technicalitypage11 Concept page12 Moodboardpage13 Developmentpage14 Soundpage16 Logopage17 Systempage18 System Soundpage19 Final Videopage20 Changed Perceptionpage21 Reflectionpage22
Introduction “Design a responsive experience, based on an everyday interaction.� Responsive experiences are a result of interaction, that takes place in a specific context. It can have varying degrees of technology associated with it but it inevitably involves actors, artifacts and purpose. In this project we are asked to choose an everyday interaction, that occurs in a specific space, at a specific time with specific people. With this interaction in mind we must design a responsive experience that is of value to the flow of the everyday lives of citizens of this city. Our final deliverable is our highly realistic reenactment of our concept, in the defined context with specific users.
Pigeons
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It is intriguing that humans seem to always look for opportunities to bring nature into the city, yet the second that we are unable to control nature, our values change. Pigeons have not always been regarded as pests; from carrier pigeons to surveillance pigeons, they have often been of great value to mankind. Now pigeons are treated as vermin, with systematic population control schemes all over the world. In this project I wanted to look at the negative stigma associated with pigeons, and how this may be dissipated.
Research
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To change the perception of pigeons I first needed to research and define exactly what the public think about pigeons. From a survey of 50 only 15 percent of the public said they liked pigeons, while many others referred to them with the commonlyused phrase: “Rats with Wings�. When I inquired into this I found that the commonly recurring themes are concerns around dirtiness and proliferation; these are the main factors that drive negative attitudes towards pigeons.
Pigeon Behaviour
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I observed that pigeons display a pattern of movement that involves frequent dispersing and then regrouping; walking off in disparate directions, before abruptly taking to flight as one flock.
Rather than wandering around aimlessly, pigeons always seem to be moving with purpose, no doubt searching for food.
Unlike some birds, pigeons move with very jerky movements, their head bobbing almost in a rhythm. I later learned that this is due to their visual ability; they see in ‘photos’ which are updated every few milliseconds.
Male pigeons often flirt with a female pigeons, puffing up their feathers and strutting around them. Usually the females fly off fairly soon after this display starts.
Especially in busy areas, (comma) pigeons seem unafraid of humans, and will happily walk very close to people and even eat from a hand.
Pigeons’ droppings look very like the gum we tread into the floor, providing an interesting contrast, and questioning our perception of the animals.
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Persona As part of defining my direction I needed to state the who, the what, the when and the where. I created this persona (which was based on real people I had spoken to) in order to answer these questions. Anna Blackwell 20 years English Student Lives in Glasgow
Activities Lacrosse, Book Club, Travelling, Has been trying to learn to play the Guitar. Spends time relaxing in George Square. Goal Anna’s goal is to complete university and become a travel journalist Fears A lack of freedom and not being able to do what she wants with her life Opinion of Pigeons Anna does not dislike pigeons but can feel uncomfortable around them, especially if they are in big groups. Interaction with Pigeons Anna mostly comes into contact with pigeons when she goes to George Square. She likes to take time to herself, and spends time within the square to relax and escape her day-to-day life. Technology
Persona
Anna owns an iPhone and has a laptop which she mainly uses for work, however she would not describe herself as a technical person and is not the type to surround herself with digital objects.
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Defining Direction
Something to change the negative stigma associated with pigeons.
From What?
To What?
Diseased, Dirty, Feral, Nuisance and Annoying.
Interesting, Delightful, Cute, Valuable.
Create an experience in which humans interact with pigeons.
How?
In what way?
Using the concept of Input > Output
-It does not need to be useful but it must be interesting and engaging. -Must make the user consider pigeons as valuable creatures.
What are my deliverables?
Ideation
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The Pigeon Game There will be areas within a city marked up as ‘cool spots for pigeons’. The player will pick a pigeon online and they can follow his or her pigeon, looking at where that pigeon has been hanging out. Each player will be given a score based on how cool his pigeon is. The game is competitive as the user aspires to see his pigeon at the top of the social scene.
Track a Pigeon Sitting in a public space, a user can take out a smartphone and select a particular pigeon through their phone. They can then use the phone to follow the pigeon, not losing sight of him as he mingles with other pigeons.
Pigeon Music
Concepts
The movement of pigeons within a particular space will create music. Usually music creates a visualiser, however here the visualiser creates the music (the pigeons act as the visualiser). The music could be accessed in various ways from smartphones, to physical portals.
I presented these concepts to a variety of people of different gender and age, asking them to judge the concepts based on various criteria. Pigeon Music came out as the strong favourite, as an innovative and intriguing concept, and well-associated with pleasure, however others voiced concerns of this concept gaining attention quickly, but then losing strength as its novelty aspect diminished.
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Audiopad -James Patten Audiopad is a composition and performance instrument for electronic music, which tracks the positions of objects on a tabletop surface and converts their motion into music. This is an interesting insight into how music can be controlled in an abstracted manner.
Augmented Animals - James Auger As part of James Auger’s ‘Augmented Animals’ project, similar to myself, he looks into changing the ‘flying vermin’ status that pigeons have acquired. His simple solution is to attach LED’s to the pigeons, creating a light show during the dark hours of the night which would help them win their respect back.
Urban Eyes - Marcus Kirsch Urban Eyes is a project which explores the possibilities of pigeons as a responsive experience. Pigeons are fed RFID tags disguised as food. When a pigeon passes a CCTV camera with these RFID tag inside them, a small clip of what the pigeons are seeing can be sent to the individual who fed them. This is an interesting way of looking into how the relationship between a human and animal can be developed.
Research
Moonbell - Japan Aerospace Exploration Company Moonbell is an application that allows you to listen to music created by the moon. The user can draw a path on the moon and the application will travel along the path, with the contours of the moon influencing the music. A relatively simple program, this is a good example of how an abstract stimuli can influence music.
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Techncality
There were various way in which this experience could work. Initially I considered tagging various pigeons in a flock with location sensors, with these pigeons’ movements representing the movements of the flock. I made a basic version of this, using arduino, which comprised of a movement sensor connected to a speaker. To test this I tried to catch a pigeon, however the proved to be too elusive and were wary of my traps. I soon realized that sensors would be extremely inefficient, so moved on to briefly consider using some variation of a theremin. A theremin is a musical instrument developed in the late 1910’s that responds to movement of the musicians hands. Finally I decided to use the more recent Kinect sensor. Although the sensor is typically used for gaming, it has also been used for medical and creative purposes. The Kinect sensor has the capability to sense a humans stature, understanding where he is facing and how he is moving. The sensor could be calibrated to understand the difference between a pigeon and a human and it could even sense which pigeons a particular human may be facing.
Concept
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Moodboard
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I created the moodboard to help me understand what I wanted the experience to feel like, and to help inform the audio and visual elements of the interaction. I wanted the experience to be trance-like and meditative, through using ambient music. While the interaction must be relaxing it must also be immersive. The user will step into a hypnotic state, feeling submerged in fluid sound.
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Experiment 1
Experiment 2
Experiment 3
Experiment 4
0:10
0:15
0:47
0:22
Content
Content
Content
Content
Creating an irregular beat to the movement of two pigeons Insight Procussion does not sound good when it is irregular. I need to figure out how music will be influenced.
Experimentation with location and stereo (volume balance of headphones), using music (Belle and Sebastian), which responds to the pigeons flying past a seated viewer. Feedback “It makes me want to look at the pigeons, your camerawork is frustrating me!” “I like what you are trying to but it is still quite crude” Insight
Development
I need to make sure the input and output is obvious, which means the music editing must be precise. Also this genre of music doesn’t quite work.
Experimenting with volume and stereo, using upbeat electronic music (Crystal Castles). The viewer walks around the square, with distance influencing volume and location influencing stereo. Also experimenting with reverb in relation to speed. Feedback “Electronic music works better” “The Volume change is nice” “Sounds like raving pigeons” “Too complex, don’t know what is happening here” Insight Although electronic music worked well, I think the complexities of the music overcomplicate the interaction, and make it hard to associate the input and output. The volume change worked nicely however I don’t think the reverb change was particularly noticeable.
Volume fluctuations of a single note as a static group of pigeons fly off one by one. Feedback “Really nice, spot on, nice use of volume, it feels much more related to the pigeon” “Nicest video so far” “Very immersive” Insight Using a single note is immersive and beautiful, but also providing clarity to the viewer, which allows them to easily relate the input to the output. Simple interactions such as a pigeon flying past can have really beautifully effects. Using simple notes seems to be the way forward.
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Experiment 5
Experiment 6
Experiment 7
Experiment 8
1:11
1:15
2:44
5:10
Content
Content
Content
Content
Video Prototype that considers behavioralinfluenced music. Two pigeons break off from the group and the male starts ‘flirting’ with the female. The music fades from the note into Pavarotti, then fades back as the female walks off. Feedback “Hilarious” “It would be cool if different types of action creates different types of music, maybe you could have different categories; the fight, the dance and the love ballad” Insight
Development
Although more of a lighthearted experiment, I like the idea of behavioural music, however the mechanics of producing this would be tricky.
Experimenting with volume and stereo using two layers of sound. One layer comprises of a high pitch note, and is only influenced by a small group of pigeons. The second layer is a deeper note and is influenced by a larger group of pigeons. The viewer is seated. Insight Using two layers of sound seems to work well, and makes the experience more interesting. The sound needs some refining, as it can be too intense. Watching the video gives the viewer an interesting sensation of spacial awareness.
Using three sound layers, and experimenting with stereo and volume. Applying this to various different types of behaviour. Feedback “I can almost feel where the pigeons are, the music alerts me to their presence” Insight Three sound layers works well, and seems to provide a nice balance between simplicity and interest. However I need to experiment more with how the music changes, and define what the stimuli can be.
Creating a mock video of what the experience may be like for a user, experimenting with pitch, volume, bass and stereo. Editing together first person shot with clips from real user testing. Feedback “You don’t see the pigeons as manky little rat things, they actually seem quite pleasant and enjoyable because they are giving you something back” “To be honest I have never noticed them before, but now they add something quite unique” “The sound needs refining, it doesn’t seem relaxing enough” “How can the user influence the music?” Insight The variations in pitch were subtle but effective, while the variations in bass were too obvious and intense ruining the feeling of the experience. The sound needs refining, but also I need to explore how a user may interact with the pigeon, in order to influence the music.
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Sound
Using the moodboard I started to develop a feel for the type of music I wanted. Rather than developing my own sounds I decided to take samples from various artists, abstracting them to get the desired effect. Looking for an ambient effect I tested the likes of Air, Philip Glass and Brian Eno, ending up with the album Solfeggio Harmonics by Source Vibrations, whose soft, instrumental and ambient style lent itself to the musical aesthetic I was looking for. I abstracted three notes which I used as my sound layers (page 19), forming the basis of the sound experience.
Logo
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Pigeons
Distance
Location
Speed
Density
Sensors
Music
Trigger = Location
Smartphone
System
User
Above is the diagram which outlines how the system would work. Kinect sensors placed around George Square would analyse the movement of pigeons, in relation to the user’s location and orientation. This will then be converted to music which is live streamed to the user’s smartphone. The rather than the user having control over this experience the music will turn itself on automatically. The user will download an app which enables the music to be streamed to his phone,
and the trigger for the app is locational; as the user walks in to George Square their music will fade out and this app will hijack his phone, fading in the ‘pigeon music’. The ‘pigeon music’ can be turned off by leaving the square.
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Sound Layer 1 (light)
One Pigeon Speed
Pitch
Bass Density Treble Sound Layer 2 (mid)
Small Group
Pigeons
Distance
System Sound
Sound Layer 3 (heavy)
Large Group
Location
The music is comprised of three sound layers. Sound Layer One is a light, high pitch sound which is only influenced by one or two pigeons. Sound Layer Three is a deeper sound which will only be influenced by a large group, while Sound Layer Two is the middle ground, influenced by small groups of pigeons. All these Sound Layers are influenced by four different stimuli; density, speed, distance, and location.
Volume
Balance
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Final Video 4:20 Content The Final Video, contains all the same aspects as ‘Experiment 8’ (pitch, volume, bass and stereo) however this video demonstrates how a user can change the music through their own movement, and through influencing the pigeons.
“To be honest I have never noticed them before, but now they add something quite unique”
“It transforms them from something annoying to something beautiful”
“Pigeon Remix”
Final Video
“The volume is a really good tool” “Completely new experience”
“I really liked how subtle the music was, I felt immersed, and it changed my mood”
“You definitely notice the pigeons a lot more”
Changed Perception
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Reflection
Reflection
Responsive Experiences was one of my favourite projects this year. I enjoyed pushing myself with the challenging topic of pigeons, and I am happy with my final outcome. I was introduced to several new things in this project such as music editing, film-making and logo design. Despite this I feel that my final outcome was interesting and effective. Refining music takes time, and with more time the sound could be developed further.