This portfolio contains my researches, design process and the final outcomes of the projects I have done in Unit 1 of MAID at Central Saint Martins. This year is very important in terms of learning different research skills. Throughout this yearďźŒwe have learnt to use new methods and research and decision-making processes which make a good basis synthesise our research into design proposals. Make this portfolio is helpful to bring insight out and reflect on my designing. It seems to me that this portfolio shows the evolution of my work and of my design process. Every project may it be more or less relevant or achieved is contributing to my personal evolution and bring me the tools for next year’s final project.
CONTENT CONNECTIONS
Personal Progect
THE GIFT
SPEEDS AND SLOWNESS
CIP 3/4
Group Progect
CLIENT PROJECT -ECOSYSTEM -OWNERSHIP -EXPERIENCE
INPUT AND OUT PUT
JASPER MORRISON
VISIONS
Arduino Workshop
Designer History
Other Works
PERSONAL PROGECT
CONNECTIONS
01 Each of us has been given a number. Number 1 will initiate a chain reaction by creating a mechanism that will trigger a second device created by 2, then 3 and so on until the final member. We produced our mechanism using materials and processes accessed in the workshops.
It is our first project which helps us get to know our workshops and learn how to use different tools. And more importantly, it is more like a challenging game requires us to work in a team and help each other. Each is an individual idea, in order to realize these ideas we have to work in a whole firstly, only in this way to be successful.
Before started to make, we drew some rough plans on the board trying to think how can we connect together and transmit energy from the N.O11 to N.O 15. Each of us has realized that the group comes before the individual, so we have to think about it as a whole before we build our own stuff. After figured out the direction of energy input and energy output within each unit, a general plan has been settled, after that, work in a personal way temporarily. We had to build them in a mechanical way, no liquids and electronics. And it should not simply be a ‘rolling ball type’. So I tried to make my own little story interesting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFSn8IwgQfw
I was inspired by a video called The Dresser-Rube Goldberg Machine for Getting Dressed shows many ideas using daily objects to make a chain reaction, I was attracted by the shirts falling at 0:37, the shirts knock over the rods to the next peg until they get to the bottom. It is so attractive to see the process operated slowly and hear the rhythm of the sound caused by two metal objects.
Used paperboards to build a sketch model, this process helped to understand the structure and the operation principle. I found it is not as simple as it in the video. The project’s size was limited by 30cm*30cm so it was different from the clothes tree in the video because of the size and quantity. I had to think about it deeply and make it much more simple to enable it to work.
I thought about the details for the next step and drew down what I came up with. I began to design the structure, think about the material, and also check that my work follows our team’s guideline.
Initially, we had a concept: music, we attempted to use our work to make some sound, but finally we gave up this concept because timing. All what we wanted to do at the end are connecting them together and making them work.
Used 3D model to get a good preparation for real making. Use a magnet to release the mental ball in a transparent plastic pipe, roll and hit the block at one side, then drop at another side, the transition of the angle let the ball roll the opposite direction and repeat the process above until it gets down to the bottom and finally hit the next.
The making process was not easy. It was very quick to finish the body structure, but making it work took a lot of time. There was something I had not anticipated: the tube didn’t drop or fell down to the bottom directly, the angle between each rod was not right, or the distance between two blocks was not right, I had to face all of these and kept testing to find the reasons and solve the problems.
After we finished our personal part, we just had one night to connect them. How to use our own work to trigger another is a big task, it should be gentle and slight. Sometimes it worked sometimes it didn’t, we had to try our best to ensure its success rate. The first one and last one in our group also had to connect to other groups’ last and first. So we aim to form a whole between our 6 groups.
It was interesting to see everybody’s work on a long table, It seems like many sections in a big story, not only full of fun in each part, but also work in a cohesive whole. It was far more difficult than expected while connected all of them together. There were too many details within each project. We spent a lot of time to operate our own work which should be done earlier. So we should arrange our time in a more rational way, not only focus on personal work, but also connect to group members perfectly before the deadline. I believe if we can do that it will be much easier to connect group and group on the test day. This project improved my ability to manage the roles and responsibility of myself and others as part of an effective team, let me learn how to balance between individual and whole in design working.
PERSONAL PROGECT
THE GIFT
02 This time, we needed to design a gift that CSM can give to others, something that challenges the norms of corporate gifting, and embodies the spirit and identity of our college.
In order to achieve this goal, before we started to design, we had to redefine what is a gift? What is our college’s spirit? How to branding our college in an emotional way? And How to use semiotics to convey the meaning of an object?
When I saw this brief, a gift, the first thing come to my mind is the gift between my father and uncle. When I was young, my uncle drew an oil painting and gave it to my father. There is a bowl of water and a pot of Clivia on the table. When Chinese people put them together, there is some meaning behind it: the friendship between gentlemen appears indifferent but is pure like water. After that father drew a Chinese painting to uncle as a gift as well. It was a landscape painting, but there was also some meaning behind it: hope the friendship like the high mountains. Both of them used artworks as a gift, the value of paintings beyond the paintings themselves. They weren`t just painting anymore, they were emotional and semiotical. This is a kind of gift which could survive for a long period of time and bring you something unforgettable.
Mauss, M. (1967) The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies London: Routledge
THE CONNECTION BETWEEN GIVER AND GIFT NEVER DISAPPEAR. GIFTS ARE MORE AND MORE EMOTIONAL THAN BEFORE. GIFT COUD BE GIVEN INDIRECTLY SOMETIMES. PEOPLE USED GIFT TO SHOW SOCIAL STATUS AT EARLY PERIODS
REMIND PEOPLE OF CSM. THE PEOPLE’S FEELING OF CSM. CAUSE SOCIAL RESPONSE OF CSM. EXPAND THE REPUTATION OF CSM.
After reading The Gift, the information from the book had given me lots if new insights, and I tried to transform them into the project’s theory supporting. Linking the theory and real design practice helped to form an outline of gift design.
Gobe, M. (2009) Emotional Branding: The New Paradigm for Connecting Brands to People. New York: Allworth Press

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF EMOTIONAL BRANDING 1. FROM CONSUMERS
TO PEOPLE
2. FROM PRODUCT
TO EXPERIENCE
3. FROM HONESTY
TO TRUST
4. FROM QUALITY 5. FROM NOTORIETY 6. FROM IDENTITY 7. FROM FUNCTION
TO PREFERENCE TO ASPIRATION TO PERSONALITY TO FEEL
8. FROM UBIQUITY
TO PRESENCE
9. FROM COMMUNICATION
TO DIALOGUE
10. FROM SERVICE
TO RELATIONSHIP
Inspired by the 10 commandments of emotional branding in this book, it should regard CSM as a brand and branding it in an emotional way, designers should focus on the people’s feeling of CSM and build the personality of CSM to communicate with consumers.
EXCLUSIVE SERIOUS INNOVATIVE TRENDY COMPETITIVE ARTISTIC INTERNATIONAL
3
2
1
0
1
2
3
ACCESIBLE PLAYFUL TRADITIONAL OLD FASHIONED RELACED INDVSTRIAL LOCAL
http://www.rca.ac.uk/studying-at-the-rca/facilities/
RCA
http://www.arts.ac.uk/csm/about-csm/facilities/
CSM
http://www.ecal.ch/fr/100/homepage/
ECAL
In order to understand people’s feeling about CSM, I and my group member tried to compare it with another two art colleges, saw them as different brands with different characters. And then tried to figure out CSM`s specialty among these colleges through the chart of different adjectives. CSM might be the most playful, trendy, international college among these three. Although it is not an accurate result, but we get a general feeling of CSM and made a starting point of branding CSM.
COULD YOU USE ONE WORD TO DESCRIBE CSM? COULD YOU USE ONE OBJECT TO DESCRIBE CSM?
We tried to get more people`s feeling of CSM in a more effective way, a questionnaire with two simple questions: Could you use one word to describe CSM? Could you use one object to describe CSM? One question was trying to get people’s abstract feeling while another was trying to get their figurative feeling. We got a lot of interesting answers, what we need to do next step was trying to analyze the similarities and differences between these words, then make a decision what is the spirit of CSM.
IDEA
DES
REPUTY DIFFERE
ART
FASHION
CRE
INNOVATIVE EMOTIONAL
BALA
CONTEM
SPECIAL
Creative might be the most appropriate word to describe CSM’s spirit. Everybody here has the necessary equipment for creating. Drawing a piece of artwork, designing a wooden chair or making a special costume. All of these activities need student’s creativity.
HAND-MAKE
HISTORY
CR
CRITICAL
YOUTH
ENT
N
INTERNATIONAL
TRENDY
MEANING
EATIVITY
MPORARY
RAZY
COLLABORATIVE
FUN MIX NEW
ANCE
CULTURE FREEDOM
L BUILD
SYNTHESIS
SIGN
PERSONALITY COMMUNICATE PLAYFUL
I tried to promote the implementation of research findings into gift designing and transform that abstract feeling into figurative expression. Thought about how can I create an object could convey the message of CSM accurately I brought about 6 ideas, all of these objects are more or less semiotical, but most of them were not conveying the meaning perfectly or not interesting. What I aim to make is an object could remind people of CSM whenever they look at it and cause some feeling relate to this college.
One afternoon I saw 5 people played table tennis together in a round circle in CSM, they really enjoyed it and it is a common thing to see young people play it in a different way to have fun in CSM. It also reflects the process of student’s designing here: try to be different here and enjoy the process. I gave up this idea because it is too playful and may not worth keeping.
I got some inspiration from Alexander Calder’s exhibition. Some of his sculptures were formed by different material object or different size object. But all parts of the sculpture were balanced in a harmonious state. It reminded me that in CSM, education being the synthesis of knowledge, art, music, and catering, etc. All sections and elements of the system are in a harmonious state. So I wanted to use different material objects representing different majors to build a balanced game. But finally, I realized that I went too far, How balancing represents creativity? Why balancing represent CSM. So I gave up this idea.
It might be an interesting idea to collect the sound of making in CSM and make a CD give people as a gift. The sound of student’s typing, cutting, drawing, singing or even there talking could reflect the work status of daily CSM. I finally I gave it up because it was not visually strong. And I conducted a little experiment, people felt boring quickly when they hear the daily life monotonous sound.
It was an idea to collect the waste in different workshops in CSM and reform them into something else. But unfortunately, someone had done it before, this idea had existed, so I had to change.
When I walked around in the campus, I found that every person was working in a different way, but the common thing is that they used the good facilities here to implement their ideas, even very small ideas in the sketchbook, could be transformed into great work in this environment. So think about CSM as a brand again, what is its product? It may be some sort of power could push us going forward and fully arouse our potentials.
MAGNIFY YOUR CREATIVITY HERE HAVE
THE OUTLINE OF
GIFT DESIGN
KEY SEMANTIC OBJECTS
The dictionary describes semiotics as "the study of signs and symbols" and goes on to highlight the relationship between written signs and the concepts they represent in the real world, either as ideas or objects. For the designer, it's therefore about the complex relationship between works and their meanings. Graphic artists take various visual fields and fill them with constantly changing symbols and signs to convey meaning. The same is true with the industrial designers fill them with different objects and materials. I began to think about my design at this step: how can I combine different elements together and convey the meaning? The final idea was combining magnifying glass, pencil and spinning top to make a special toy could create different possibilities. Imagine how interesting the spinning top could draw on the paper by itself and the turntable is a magnifying glass could magnify the drawing it does. When these threes come together, it becomes a new object which has some special meaning.
Spin it on a piece of paper. Use it to draw. Through the magnifying glass could observe the beauty of the drawing. the pencil symbolizes the students in CSM. The magnifying glass symbolizes the college which magnifies the pencil’s creativity on paper. The trace of the drawing is optional but beautiful.
After finished the main body design, I began to think about the packaging. What should it be like when people receive this gift from CSM? I made this design more specific through this process, the logo’s position, the color of packaging and how the spinning top be supported in the box, all of these details helped me to improve my design. However, there are also some details of imperfect let me realized that how can I push it further for the next step.
I should put the paper as one part of my design, it will be more complete. And it wasn’t a rational way to put the logo on the top of the spinning handle. Turning a logo from 2D to 3D may cause confusion. And I also need to think about the production, how can people change the pencil when it run out of lead? Can the protective circle be changed into other colors? Can the cost be reduced? All of these details are waiting for me to deal with. Actually, we could perfect our design again and again, there is no end.
Pinning work up is an intuitive way to show our thoughts. It was more physical than the screen presentation, I could see what we did, I could hear what we think and I could touch what we make. It was not just speaking and listening anymore, it was an effective communication, we could put ourselves into their design and bring some thoughts to help each other.
PERSONAL PROGECT
Speeds and Slowness
03 This time we were required to re-imagine the car as a technological capacity that provides, amongst other things, autonomy, mobility, connectivity and meaning. The aim of our design work is to identify and design new opportunities for the car in the future.
What we need to do is observing people`s behavior and discovering their latent desires, then transform these desires into practical design proposals. The most important part is building persona and scenario to make it more real.
Q1: Thinking of your favourite vehicle. If it was a person, how would you describe them? Prompts: Be as free as you like (for example think about their: Name, personality, job, gender. Are they shy, outgoing, etc? Are
they a well known personality? What is their place of birth? how old are they? Where do they live? etc etc).
Q2:
Make a list of situations that you wouldn’t
want to get lost in yourself. Pick one of these in which your person (answer from Q1) is to be the main character, and describe the environment around them.
Q3:
The person who resembles your favourite
vehicle gets lost in a difficult situation. Luckily, this person has an amazing quality/power that saves him/her. Tell a short story/part of the story in which your person uses these qualities to get around the difficult situation.
Initially, we went on the street to find some car owners to talk, talked about the experience with their car through these three questions. Personifying the car is a good way to explore people’s latent desire to the car. In this way of asking questions, people felt relaxed and talked some interesting story between them and their car. Actually some of them helped to bring us some good ideas.
INVISIBLE ACCIDENTS
RESULTS FOR A CIRCULAR ROAD Large number of vehicles
Medium number of vehicles
Small number of vehicles
During the interview on the street, one young man told us: he was really annoyed by the traffic jam on busy mornings, he really needs a way out of that mess at that time. If I want to create a way to solve this problem, I had to rethink what is the reason for the traffic jam firstly. Even there is no accident, the cars may move slowly if there are a lot of vehicles on the road. There is an invisible accident caused by every car on the road, all of them move and stop at the different time which forms a moving wave of jam. So I imagine that if all the cars can be connected together and move in whole, whether that is going to solve the problem?
Maybe we have this kind of trouble in our life: We bought one car, that car can’t suit different situations, it may too big for going work, may too small for family traveling, may too sporty in the city or too gentle in the wild. After we bought it, it’s function and appearance are fixed and can`t be changed. What if the car can be modularized? What if the car can be separated into different units with different functions? We can separate and combine them at any time and we can replace and assemble these units into different modes following our wishes.
KEY WORDS FAMILY
BALANCE
PRIVATE TRANKPORT
CONNECTED
SWITCH
SWITCH
MODULARIZED SWITCH
FLEXIBLE
SWITCH
WORK
PUBLIC TRANSPORT
CONNECTED
OVERALL MOVEMENT
EFFICIENT
HAPPINESS
i had two concepts, one concept is more about working situation, another is more about a family situation. I tried to combine these two concepts and found the keyword: connection, connect these two different situations. It can be switched between private transportation and public transportation. It not only can get people more efficiently on their way to work, but also bring more flexibility and happiness for family driving.
I also thought about the way of connection, is it has to be physical? I got some inspiration from the destination control system used in the lift. When people need to take this lift, they choose the floor and push the button, the system will tell people which lift should they take among the A, B, C, D. And then people just need to take that lift and go to their floor directly with less stop. Grouping people and connect them together is a good way to go to destination efficiently.
I put my concept into the scenario, used a story to examine every design detail. I tried to match the design proposal with the real life so I can design something really useful for people.
Building models helped me to imagine the situation on the road. I used this way to try it out and see if it works.
I looked at my work again after I finished my scenario, I found that there is something wrong with it. The design was not so related to the story I build, that car didn’t involve the persona as much as I wanted to be involved, I thought too much about practical functions for the car, but few for the persona’s emotion, what will people think and feel if they own this product? For example, do people in a family really want to be separated from each other? Maybe there is no happy atmosphere if they can’t sit in the same space. Or do people really want to connect to the strangers when they go to work? Maybe they need a private space with more safety sense.
Look back what we did in the Informance workshop, we built models and performed our scenarios. We cover our eyes to imagine the persona’s character and what kind of life do they have. What we tried to do is put ourselves into that situation and design base on it. But when I drew my scenario, I just focused on the car and ignored this important part.
GROUP PROGECT
CIP 3/4
04 CIP 3&4 are projects in which we are required to devise and design intervention in response to a cultural concern. The issues all relate to globalization, new technology and the human
condition, the topic we chose is that: Is the new human being destined to become a nomadic 'hybrid'? We had to use our way to answer this question as designers.
There is a group of people in the world: TCK, the third culture kids. They don't know where are their homes because everywhere are their home, they keep traveling on the road. Some of them love the way they live because they can experience the different life and explore the world. On the other hand, some of them think this lifestyle let them lose the ability to form a community. So there is conflict. It may cause the new nomadic hybrid. This hybrid is the hybrid of reality and the virtual reality. People may use VR to move in the future. So in the future, not only TCK but also everybody uses this tool to cross the space virtually with less time and less space. After that what kind of impact will it bring to people?
After we had our manifesto, we tried to transform it into a scenario, when we drew the storyboard there were many different possibilities. Initially, the story was quite boring and our 'design fiction' is just 'thought provoking', can’t move people and cause deep reflection. So we added some details that characterized persona’s psychological state at that moment. Mental station incarnates certain time’s mind activity and the human’s reflection to inside and outside circumstance.
It is a story will happen in the future, a worker went to visit the psychiatrist because of stress-induced, he travels around different countries in virtual reality to deal with different business. This diagnostic experience also happened in virtual reality, the psychiatrist was not real too. The worker couldn’t release his pressure at the end and gave up the treatment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dblihM4d1lc
This is Group 18’s work. They chose the same topic with our group and also chose VR to convey their message but did better than us in my view. They put fiction into real life, which contrasted sharply. The persona in the video wears the VR traveling in the virtual world. There is a huge difference between the real world around her and the exciting virtual world. Compared to our work. We narrated this story in a total fantasy way, it was hard to resonate and get people thinking.
GROUP PROGECT
Client Project -Ecosystem -Ownership -Experience
05 This project is design for Renault’s future interior. What the interior of the car will be like if people don’ t need to drive? This questions can be separated into different questions: With current interior ergonomics designed around the role of the driver, how will this change as the autonomous car takes care of the driving? Will occupants of an
autonomous vehicle feel comfortable if the driver’s seat turned to face them? How will the infotainment systems in the car change, to reflect the reduction in tasks for the driver? Should an autonomous car seek to entertain its occupants? These questions helped to open our mind.
The first research group’s task was building the mood board based on the analysis of the relative situation. We tried to find some pictures to convey our initially feeling of that space and asked what kind of atmosphere we want to build in the space of the car. And In my view, at this step, it was better not to think it as a car interior design, it could be a space design, could be a design about the relationship between space and the human body. The purpose was trying to get people’s real need, design for people, not designing for the car.
MO
ECOSYSTEM MOVING CREATURE
OWNERSHIP
OVING PRIVATE SPACE
EXPERIENCE MOVING PLAYGROUND
We brought 3 main concepts firstly: ecosystems, ownership of space and experiencing. We made them very different from each other so we can have wider thinking. And we also tried to connect these three with the autonomous car. First, when people don’t need to drive, the car can be a moving creature with living material. We could regard vehicle as a garden, hub as a jungle which is a totally a green idea. Second, when people don’t need to drive, can people own that space in some other ways? Maybe the car can keep moving on the road, and people can own that space temporarily. Third, when people don’t need to drive, they have more freedom in that space. What can they do? How can they entertain in that situation to get a good experience?
We talked about our three concepts to tutor and got approval. We had to narrow down next step, dreamscaping, material research, technology research, design proposals, models and scenarios, all of them had to be done to form three specific strong concepts.
Building this is a good way to ask ourselves: what we want it to be like? What is our latent desire? At this step, we could not think about materials and technology, just needed to make sure that what is the dreamscaping like so we could have a general direction for our design: for this concept, we wanted to build an organic world with more health and more interaction.
http://www.evolo.us/architecture/future-solutions-bio-city-map-of-11-billion-people/
http://shameesaden.com/singularity
These projects both used living technology which is responsive and reconfigurable, adapting in real time to the current activity. It blurs the gap between the nonliving and living. Responding, reacting and adapting become to be the main character of living technology.
Used sketches to transform the organic structure into the interior of the car. Actually, we didn’t bring effective ideas for interior this stage, it was just appearance. We should put our concept in it, not just vision effects from the existing organic projects. But we also saw something good because it useful to get a general direction for the design proposal.
When we had an idea we decided to make something to get inspiration and it was really useful. In the process of making clay models, we brought some ideas to the table, we imagined this clay as a living creature, at the same time imagined people sit in it. What the people’s posture will be? How will this living creature react to people’s behavior? We used our hand to inject our ideas, it was one way of Agile methods, bring thoughts to practice quickly and test them as soon as possible, and then take a new look, develop it into a new circle.
However, the line structure extraction from the clay model did not prove effective enough. We went back from 3D to 2D because we tried to transform these abstract lines into our design insights but got nothing. Now I think why we failed because we were limited by the form, and didn’t have a strong concept at that moment.
It was a useful experiment, the deflection of the membrane induced by thermal expansion of the special gas which supplies us with a kind of new perspective, the gas can be human’s breath, and the deflection of the membrane can be the transformation of the interior body. As the human’s breath penetrates into the surface, the chemical reaction will filter the air and improve the air quality and also change the shape of the interior. It was more related to our concept, find a way out to match the human body with space in an interactive way.
What we think is that in the future people may don’t need to buy the car to own the car. Regarding the car as transportation tool not private property could bring new possibilities.
I got some inspiration from the Apple. One button on my phone was broken, so I went to the Apple store. Because I had back up so they gave me a new phone directly. After I took it back home and downloaded my information from the icloud to this new phone, it becomes mine, same as my old phone. It let me rethink about the definition of ownership. For the car the concept is more like a taxi, you can own it temporarily because the interior can be people’s personal style. People can call it at any time, after getting on the car and plug in, the personal information has been downloaded to the car, the favorite pattern, music and TV shows will on, and people can also deal with their personal issue here, like sending emails or visiting Facebook. Not only the information above is yours, the car’s interior shape also can be yours physically. It will change the shape to your favorite sitting position, so people can completely enjoy this private space. This is a new way to own a space, not something material but spiritual.
Some technology research could support this design proposal. So we can make sure that the car may be adjusted to the best condition to suit consumers.
The first model was trying to carry out the idea of the visual transformation. For this model, the paper layers with different patterns can be changed inside the car roof and reflect it on the whole interior.
The second model was trying to carry out the idea of the physical transformation. The material is flexible seems like transforming technology which may suitable for different sitting positions.
We built mood board for different personas. The graphic could represent different people’s character. So the interior of the car may reflect them in a different way. At last, we chose one from them to build scenario and drew the storyboard.
EXPERIENCE THREE
For autonomous car people do not need to focus on driving, so they can have more way of entertainment. Nowadays people usually entertain with the screen, they close themselves into that space of the car, we want to people can more interact with and enjoy the outside world.
The pictures above show the different transport tools, which bring different experience, from top to the bottom, it is more open and more real. Like driving a motorbike, riding a bicycle and walking on foot, people can breathe the fresh air, feel the wind, smell in that environment and see the outside world more clearly.
We have different experiences using different transport tools because our five senses are activated at different levels. What if the car has five senses matched with our senses? It will be not only a transport tool anymore, it is a new way for entertainment and experience the world. The car will become an extension of our body to beyond our physical limits.
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/cycleincorsica/118416320
We wanted to create an experience likes this, more open, more real, people can experience the outside much more vividly, but no need to drive. It feels like sitting in the air. So we had a clear aim. This time, we knew what we want, we knew what is our concept. It was more efficient and easy to bring the specific ideas and narrow down for the next step.
https://vimeo.com/125824212
Wearing the glasses you can look through the hard body of the car. It might be a helpful tool for driving. Maybe we can develop it in the autonomous car and transform it from a driver assistant system to an entertainment system.
http://www.dezeen.com/2015/04/24/mini-augmented-reality-glasses-allow-drivers-to-see-through-the-bodyof-their-car/
The Decelerator Helmet offers an experimental approach to the fast moving society. The technical reproducible senses are consigned to an apparatus which allows the user a perception of the world in slow motion. So people found their way to control the speed of view. In the same way, the people in our concept car also can control the speed of view, they could slow it down visually to enjoy the peaceful moment and observe the surroundings carefully with high speed on the way in the real world.
So we brought some idea. The initial idea is that, put different sensor around the car, they like human's five senses.
People have their experiencing helmet which connects to the sensor, like a processor, transform the outside information into that helmet, and they can control, they can slow down the scene, they can zoom in. So they can see carefully, not only Vision experience but also they can hear, hear the sound of different distance. And they can smell as well. But we think helmet and the car this idea is not simple, and helmet maybe not comfortable, so we may use the car's interior as an interface. People just relax and enjoy in it, like play in a moving playground. They have more freedom in this space.
Although we had done a lot, but the design proposals looks still not clear. We found a lot of material, but which material should we use? We didn’t make a decision. We did a lot of research about technology but didn’t connect them with our design. We also drew a lot of sketches and made many models, but what the interior looks like is still not clear. What we need to do next step is make it more specific, what is the color, size and material? We are going to draw more sketches and make 3d models to let people see our design clearly.
ARDUINO WORKSHOP
Input And Out put
06 Arduino allows us to embed digital and physical interactions into objects and environments. It does this by giving us the power to control inputs and
outputs. We needed to design and build a prototype using Arduino which incorporates two inputs and one output.
https://www.leapmotion.com
I was quite interesting at Leap Motion and wanted to use it as a way of input. It represents an entirely new way to interact with computers. It's more accurate than a mouse, as reliable as a keyboard and more sensitive than a touchscreen. So I had a chance to control a computer in three dimensions with my natural hand and finger movements. So I had my first idea that uses Leap Motion to control a robot arm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ky9icPtKZM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zggCrgvemJ0 https://www.google.co.uk/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=FhvgVrOKC6-N8QeF1KPIAw&gws_rd=ssl
I decided to build my robot arm by myself. I searched some videos as references. What I wante to do maybe more simple with less mobility than the video.
I wanted to build it using three servos as the joints, drew sketches to bring the ideas building the arm. The structure of robot arm has to be built around the servos. The servos are the core of this robot arm.
While Building 3d models I thought about how to make it in real. Laser cut is a quick way to implement my idea.
After finished the robot arms, I had to think about connecting it with the leap motion and transform the position of my hand into digital information to the Arduino as input and then send them to my robot arms to move it as output. Coding was a hard work, with the help of tutor I did it.
As we see in these pictures, the robot arm could follow my hand’s motion trail. It was an interactive object reacting to my behavior. There are too many possibilities using Arduino to make something interesting, what I learned from this project is not only how to use software and hardware but also be more open minded offering me a different way of thinking about interactive design.
DESIGNER HISTORY
Jasper Morrison
07 Jasper Morrison is one of the most successful industrial designers of the past few decades. Together with his colleague Naoto Fukasawa, he defined the term 'super normal', which in his opinion answers the question of what 'good
design' should really be. In his work, he strives to create good examples of understated, useful and responsible design. Learned from him, I found myself looking at the design with new eyes.
http://www.jaspermorrison.com/photoofthemonth/html/february2009.html
This picture is downloaded from his official website, he wrote: “Nobody would describe this bench as good looking. From a design point of view, there’s plenty to admire. It exhibits a determined conceptual rigour, this bench was made from a single log of wood 1.5 meters long, without using any screws, and it will be strong enough for an elephant and heavy enough to survive a typhoon.The structure has been planned to make the most of a few basic cuts, so the flat sides are used for the seat (for comfort) and the base (for stability). Its character is cheerful and welcoming and it has obviously earned its place between the beer crates and the folding chair. The world could use more of the spirit of do-it-yourself projects like this one.” Through these words we can see Japer’s attitude for the object: It looks normal but good enough to live for a long time. and it also should suit that environment and create a harmonious atmosphere. Actually, in our life, we have a lot of this kind of objects around us, they can’t cause our attention, but they are important for our life, we can’t live without them.
Morrison J. Everything but the walls[M]. Lars Muller Publishers, 2002.
“By building a room and then designing its contents I could understand better how objects relate to each other and how the atmosphere of a room is affected by these objects�, Jasper thinks there is a connection between the object and space, the different objects will influence the atmosphere of space in different ways. All of these objects should integrate to the over all to form a harmonious whole.
The bottle design comes from the room atmosphere building. It seems to say: look, how beautiful a normal bottle is, better than some bottles ‘well designed�. When put it back into that atmosphere. It becomes one part of space and influence the environment silently.
Morrison J. Everything but the walls[M]. Lars Muller Publishers, 2002.
Jasper’s work is mostly based on these normal objects, try to revive sensations born of the long association with people and things and to recompose those familiar feelings in today’s environment. This gentleness transforms the ordinary into what can be called “super normal”.
http://www.jaspermorrison.com/html/89907052.html
Throughout his prolific career, Morrison has strived to create that same simple but functional beauty in everyday objects, from door handles to trays to wristwatches to chairs. These super normal objects are the result of a long tradition of evolutionary advancement in the shape of everyday things, not attempting to break with the history of form but rather trying to summarise it, knowing its place in the society of things.
After looked at jasper’s history, I realized that sometimes we should remind ourselves, we should design something really useful for people, not just make it different to attract people. On the opposite side, we should bring something totally new and different to open our mind and create much more possibilities. Maybe we should think about both of them and try to balance between these two attitudes: inherit the history and innovate boldly at the same time.
OTHER WORKS
VISIONS
08 For vision, I was quite interested at the section: The Elusive Object. I didn’t understand it deeply,
but I got a general feeling of them and drew something to express.
http://visions.myblog.arts.ac.uk/the-non-object/
“Things only reveal their true nature when they no longer function.� The elusive objects are not functional, they are objects not serving people, the sensation of substance does not exist so that intrinsic qualities is achieved completely independently. They are what they are, it is also a reflection of human’s free will, not being something with meaning for others but being purely self-centered. These objects have their own personality and want to talk something.I chose four objects and drew something for their voice.
Compared with the previous study on my BA course, I got some new insight for industrial design. In BA, mostly I designed for nowadays, improving the product’s function and appearance to get greater market demands. Different from it in CSM’s MA course, I became more far-sighted here trying to predict the future demands. It seems like far away from us but it comes from our daily life. Designing for future dose not only depend on imagination, we have to bring the fancy concepts down to the convincing design proposals through a variety if research methods. All of this methods were trying to get people’s potential need. Usually people’s feeling are abstract. We have to transform them into the tangible plans with different possibilities.