Just found that I can’t fit into my dress of last summer. I’ve been gaining weight really fast lately. It seems I need stick with palin breakfast like orange juice, plain margarine, cookies and steam eggs for a while. I also bought some Museli in case I need something different.
There are some dandelions in my backyard and my boyfriend is out for vacation. Damn…Guess I need put on my new garden gloves and get rid of them by myself.
I just had some macaroni with little salt and tomato paste. No cheese or meat. It’s been third day of same diet. I just weighted myself and nothing changed. Still long way to go.
It’s late and I’m still working my project. I think I need another cup of coffee.
I’m still trying to figure out how to lose weight. Emmm.. Let me finish this buttermilk dessert first. I can’t think straight when I’m hungry.
Name: Louis Lau
Education:Master of Electrical Engineering
Location: Toronto
Occupation: Working in a Telcom company
Wardrobe: Casual (T-shirts and jeans)
Music: R&B, RAP & Pop.
Food: anything can be found in his frig or any restaurant within walking distance of his working place.
Hobbies: Shopping, traveling, taking photos, going gym.
Loves: Sleeping, drinking with friend, BBQ at beach.
The hooked-fish, can be pretty much fun and be played during boring time. In office, home, and school, whenever people feel bored and easily take out to play with. The fun fish has two set: one is hook and another one is basically fish. On the fish’s mouth, there is a circle made to have fun with hook. People also can put the fish into water, and moving fishing makes more fun to people. Considering the function of fun and easily put into pocket, so fun fish is an ideal gift to give your friends as a complement or functional toy to enhance their home or work environment.
The object I love the most is my IPad . The iPad is way easier to carry around than a laptop. I used to bring my old Dell laptop to school almost everyday. Its very heavy. And I also need carry the bulky charger and an external mouse which will add some extra weight. Although I cannot install Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator on this device, Apple provids some other great substitute applications like Photoshop or Adobe Ideas. Most applications are free or by a very little cost . The battery last around 10 hours. The tough and sensitive screen easily bring sense of interaction and fun, and the sketch board save me from the burden of real sketch book. I absolutely feel release after I had it. Now I just cannot leave it away, and I rely on it for my daily life and found a lot of fun with it.
The object I absolutely hate is my new SonyEricsson cellphone. I got it from Fido just few weeks ago to replace my old LG phone. The phone looks fancy at first sight: It’s super slim and light. The phone comes with a 5 Mega camera which can also be used to take HD video. There are also some other cool features like FM radio and touch screen. After a few days of using,I started to notice the flaw of its design. The battery is draining very fast and i need to charge everyday. The awkward touch screen couse me pressing so hard each time. The phone doesn’t use standard earphone so I need carry 2 pairs of earphones in my bag. Alrough it has it’s own ‘App store’, but only has very few applications to choose. The worst thing is that I signed a 2 year contract for this phone and I feel like I’m stuck in a bad merriage and cannot see a way out.
I came from China and have been live in Canada for about 2 years. In my hometown, there just happened catastrophic earthquake two years ago. And now my some of friends and their parents still wait for moving in the new apartments which are assigned by government.
In ten years, I may already going back to China or become a graphic designer in certain field. Based on my character is not quite stable right now, so it is hard to imagine I will take job more incorporate with people or tend to do more self-work. I am a quite person so far, so I want to push me a little bit to more involve in social activities.
In China I learned fundamental skills of Photoshop, and more recently I just grasp how to use it smoothly.
The idea of fun fish is basically use hook to catch the fish. There are several circles on different parts of the fish body. The player will try get his hook into these circles to catch the fish.
2) Score Board
Let’s try how much score you can get by playing the score board. There are 10 holes spreading on the whole board. Each hole represents certain marks. The player will gain points when ball drops in a hole with positive mark and will lose points when the ball drops in a hole with negative mark. The player with highest points will be the winner.
3) Shoot your Boyfriend
The concept of this toy is hurling and shooting. The player will use a device to throw a ball or other objects to attack picture of her boyfriend setting on a spring on the other side . (The idea come from an IPhone App called Angry Bird). The purpose of this game is to release girls negative feeling towards their boyfriends.
proposal:
“Shoot your Boyfriend” can be a good way to release girls negative affections such as angry, frustrating, and depression especially be invoked by their boyfriends. By the action of shooting or attacking, girls find the way to balance their feeling and get fun from the game.
Players will try to figure out how much weight should be used to pull the string. If player pulls the string too much or too little, the ball will miss the target. So the key of success is to figure out how much weight to pull the string. The picture on other side is set up on a spring. So when it gets shot, the picture would shake which will add more fun on this game.
The concept of this toy is hurling and shooting. Using a ball or any object which can be through out to attack another side of picture of boyfriend which sets up on a spring. In order to release the angry comes from a girl’s boyfriend, the model of boyfriend be suffering by girls can really make a balance.
Click here to download pages 35-57 from Art as Experience by John Dewey (1932).
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“Experience occurs continuously, because the interaction of live creature and environing conditions is involved in the very process of living. Under conditions of resistance and conflict, aspects and elements of the self and the world that are implicated in this interaction qualify experience with emotions and ideas so that conscious intent emerges. Oftentimes, however, the experience had is inchoate. Things are experienced but not in such a way that they are composed into an experience. There is distraction and dispersion; what we observe and what we think, what we desire and what we get, are at odds with each other. We put our hands to the plow and turn back; we start and then we stop, not because the experience has reached the end for the sake of which it was initiated but because of extraneous interruptions or of inner lethargy.
In contrast with such experience, we have an experience when the material experienced runs its course to fulfillment. Then and then only is it integrated within and demarcated in the general stream of experience from other experiences. A piece of work is finished in a way that is satisfactory; a problem receives its solution; a game is played through; a situation, whether that of eating a meal, playing a game of chess, carrying on a conversation, writing a book, or taking part in a political campaign, is so rounded out that its close is a consummation and not a cessation. Such an experience is a whole and carries with it its own individualizing quality and self-sufficiency. It is an experience.” (Dewey 35)
Congratulation on the successful implementation of your Urban Intervention! A lot of you worked very hard to make it happen. Everyone I spoke with had a wonderful day in Trinity Bellwoods last Saturday, thanks to you (and the weather).
I look forward to having one final chat with you on Friday about all of the different interventions, including yours. A couple of notes:
Anything and everything that needs completing — e.g. documentation, recycling, refunds, experience evaluations — must be complete and posted to the blog by the end of class on Friday
Friday is our last class, and is not optional. Please be there.
It’s easy to spot a crowd from any distance, and by some unwritten law of nature, they attract people effortlessly. Another such unwritten law is that kids like large objects. Combine the two and you get this group’s Project Three.
The group created a larger than life version of the ever popular novelty gift word magnets on duct-taped cardboard boxes. The boxes were made simply of cardboard and the words were written in large block letters on the sides. Even without a group member explaining the project, it was immediately obvious what the purpose of these boxes were, though not necessarily due to an already existing version of the ‘game’.
It was interesting to see people of varying age groups and personality types enjoy this experience on different levels. Kids were attracted to the objects because of the size and large lettering; the vocabulary was simple enough for children to read and create their own sentences. Parents saw this as an opportunity to teach their children, and guided the kids in looking for the right word to complete a sentence. Some people like to do-it-themselves and moved the blocks themselves. Some people like to watch and direct from the sidelines. Most people got a good chuckle at the absurdity of the sentences constructed, which was further amplified after being read by the voice of a child.
From what I could observe, the project was probably simple to execute (cardboard panels duct taped together and words written on in sharpie) so I would have liked to see perhaps even more blocks and some colour application. The materials chosen were appropriate – cardboard is recyclable and light enough for a child to lift. The words chosen were also appropriately silly (juicy, water-gun, zebra).
Overall, I think the experience was a fun one that appealed to most people, even though it was not necessarily the most original. There’s something about the scale of the boxes and silliness of the words that make this experience reminiscent of childhood fun. Although the life span of a sentence is quite short, and perhaps it won’t be remembered a week from the experience, the spontaneity and moment of laughter make up for it.
This light green tent acted like an emergency hospital in a disaster area. Once we entered the tent, we saw there was a group of medical staff. They were segregated from us with protective clothes and safety glasses. This scene looked like we were about to have a body check or we were actually in an emergency surgery. When we were about to exit this tent, there was a nurse on the right hand side. She gave us a button with a word, “clean” on it and now we realized that they just helped us to “clean our body”. I think this experience is quite fun because it has an unusual setting. But, the attraction is not strong enough. If the tent has a sign to let people know what it is all about, it would definitely attract more people to join.
The project was about inviting people to experience playing with balloons and also adding your message to the balloon and releasing it into the air.
As we interviewed Benjamin Jami (student), we realized that the inention is to make people have an anonymous and accidental experience.
Another sudent explained to us that the sepectators would write their secrets on tags and release them into the air. What attracted people to the ballons was their colour and the extention of the experience was the feeling of release that the individual would have from releasing their secret.
We think that the colour set up was attractive as it can draw people’s attention. However, the extension was weak. If the individual was not there when the balloons were released they would get nothing from the experience. Also, the project ended up being more of a playground for children then a chance for people to write and release their hopes, secrets and desires. Moreover, because the composition of balloons was so extended, the balloons could not be noticed from afar. Unlike our project where the balloons were visible from almost every angle and distance in the park.
There will be six other Urban Intervention experiences taking place in Trinity Bellwoods Park on April 2.
One final task that requires volunteers is the observation and documentation of these experiences, for discussion during our last class on April 8.
I’ve prepared a form that can will help you perform this task. Part 1 features space for ethnographic observation, and reminders regarding how to best do this. Part 2 features a matrix conflating the five stages of experience with the five senses: how are the users’s senses stimulated in each stage, and what is the user’s response?
Each volunteer should prepare a blog post that includes:
A description of the experience,
Some documentation of the experience (as always, any blog-friendly medium is encouraged),
The field notes collected in Part 1,
The stimulus/response data collected in Part 2, and
Any commentary or critique.
Volunteers, please organize yourselves so as to cover all six experiences. There can be duplicate efforts, but please don’t leave any of the experiences out (other than your own). So far, Keight, Melanie, Inwoo, Ainura and Queenie have volunteered for this task. Anyone else who wants to volunteer, simply comment on this post.
This is an essential task, and a great opportunity for anyone who feels like they haven’t sufficiently contributed to the Project Three effort.
Click here to download a PDF of the Experience Evaluation Form.
Group Explore + Andrew met today and I’m pleased to announce everything is pretty much sorted. Group explore has decided to work with the balloon idea. We are going to hang balloons on the trees and benches with notes inside them. They will kind of be like fortune cookies except they will be fortune balloons. People will pop them and find the note inside.
We’re still offering pins as a fun way of remembering the day.
Here’s the list of what people are doing so far as we got today;
Amir and Cindy; Print messages
Olivia and I; Arrows
Sam and Friend; Something to pop balloons with. Maybe a sharpened stick so there’s less waste.
Nik; string.
I got in touch with Judy and she is picking up the balloons for everyone. Apparently we are not getting helium tanks as they are too expensive. We will just have to stick the balloons / hang them on trees.
questions / things needing done/ ANYTHING; my number is 416 948 2327. Please get in touch!
We are nearly there though.
🙂
EDIT; KENNY AND I HAVE TALKED AND DECIDED TO TRY AND ORDER HELIUM TANKS. IT MIGHT BE A BIT OVERBUDGET SO WE’LL HAVE TO TALK ABOUT THIS LATER TODAY.
While I think we should use a wrapping that doesn’t involve the amount of clean up balloons would require (food perhaps), the idea of hidden messages is workable. Here is a list of messages I have generated:
What if we didn’t have parks?
What if there were condos here?
What if this was a parking garage?
What if this was a cafe?
What if this was private property?
What if you couldn’t exercise here?
What if you had to pay to be here?
What if you couldn’t protest here?
What if this was part of PATH?
What if you couldn’t play Frisbee here?
What if this was indoors?
What if you couldn’t jog here?
What if this was a golf club?
What would happen if we didn’t take care of our parks?
What if you couldn’t watch the clouds here?
What if you couldn’t be here?
What if this was a stadium?
What if you couldn’t barbecue here?
What if there weren’t any benches here? (Like Younge and Dundas)
What if this park were for sale?
What if this was a red light district?
What if you had to rent this to play sports?
What if you couldn’t bike here?
What if there were advertisements here?
What if this was sponsored by a bank?
What if you came here to buy things?
What if you couldn’t nap here?
What if there wasn’t any space for nature?
What if you had to walk all the way around this block to get to the other side?
What if you couldn’t blow bubbles here?
What if A. Josephs was here?
What if the white squirrels were evicted?
What if this was a super market?
What if this were under surveillance?
What if there was a fence here?
What if you couldn’t play hacky sack here?
What if no one could practice circus tricks here?
What if adults weren’t allowed to use the playground?
hey guys, i calculated the costs roughly. The following charts will show the amount that i will be collecting depends on which budget we choose.
Please note that the final figure was multiplied by 2. It means that I will be collecting the money as shown, but we will only spend around half. The rest will be returned to you afterward.
If you found any mistakes or you have any suggestions/updates, you know what to do ;D also i’ll come to the meeting around 4
#1 200 buttons + small helium tank(100 balloons) + 2 packs of balloons(144) + 3 bubble gun
#2 200 buttons + large helium tank(200 balloons) + 3 packs of balloons(216) + 3 bubble gun
GUYS; everyone meet in the learning lounge tomorrow at 3 if you can make it. It’s really important that we get together and talk some of this stuff through.
I’m all in favour of narrowing everything down into balloons and/or bubbles. Can everyone else agree or disagree with this? As cool as it would be to have the logo printed on the balloons I don’t think it is necessary. Even if we all hand wrote a fact on the explore balloons or asked people to write their favourite part of the park on the fun balloons that would be really great.
We could still give out pins at the end. This would simplify everything and we don’t have a lot of time.
3 tomorrow in the learning lounge! I will see you all there!!
and to group explore; I’m sorry! I know we had a lot of our own ideas in the making but I don’t think we are going to be able to pull them off. Doing this would be better for all. If you guys disagree, please let me know but I think we should work with this. We could still create the historical park idea that we wanted by writing the facts on the balloons and placing them around the park.
Interesting facts about the Trinity Bellwoods Park
• White squirrels: there have been white squirrels in the park for decades. Right now, there is a pair living in the trees within the circular path near the Queen St entrance.
• Oldest tree of the park: stands on the west side of the tennis courts, near the diagonal path that leads to and from the corner of Queen and Gore Vale.
• The Hickory Tree from the Ravine: just north of the bowl there’s an old hickory tree that’s surrounded by low, stone walls. It was protected when the ravine was filled by the dirt from the Bloor subway construction. It’s the last remaining growth from the woodlands that lined the original Garrison Creek Ravine.
• The Trinity Bellwoods Gate: they are originally part of the old Trinity College located north of the circular path; it is now on Queen St and has been restored.
• The John Gibson House: built in 1889, it was originally St. Hilda College residence for women. Now it is a senior residence.
The lost artefacts of Trinity Bellwoods
• Trinity college: just north of the circular path is where the old Trinity college once was. It was a neo-gothic structure, one of the finest architecture in Toronto until its demolition in 1956.
• Trinity chapel: it belonged to the Trinity College but was also demolished. Its foundation is now buried near the Tennis court.
• Crawford Street Bridge: built in 1915 across the ravine, it is buried under today’s Crawford Street during the construction of the Bloor-Danforth subway. Concrete hubs and railing roots are the only remains today
Lost nature of Trinity Bellwoods
• Garrison Creek: once the largest stream between Humber River and Don River, it was formed from the Wisconsinan Glacier 12 thousand years ago. It served as a protection area for the soldiers at Fort York in late 1700s, earning its name Garrison Creek. In early 1900s, as the area is urbanized and settlement grew dense, the creek became polluted by garbage. This raised health concerns among the municipal council which eventually leads to the burial of the creek.
• Garrison Creek Ravine: now known as the “pit”, it originally stretches across the entire park. It was used as a garbage dump during the construction of the Bloor-Danforth subway and was filled up in the 50s.
I think we should only have the balloon + bubbles idea;
instead of using helium, we can just buy a bunch of balloons and hang them on the tree on different levels using string to give the illusion that theres balloons floating everywhere, we can have some on wires and plant them to the floor as well.
and either below the tree or next to it, we can have the bubble station.
i think 2 packs of 72 will be enough to cover the tree. if anything, im sure we can grab more but i think 144 will be enough. I can pick them up tomorrow 🙂
here is an example of what it might look like, but itll be outdoors.
Hey andrew, everyone else is the fun group.
Here are some answers & the progress report;
– I’ll be ordering/picking up the balloons and helium tank
– Ordering from Party Packagers on Finch & another on Dufferin here is the address:
1225 Finch Ave. West At Alexdon Rd
39 Orfus Road
Marco and I agreed to goto party packagers to pick up the stuff, or I can even get a ride to grab the stuff.
– I’ll be picking up the tank, getting it to the park we may have to discuss!
– balloons come in the biggest pack of 72, and they are $5.99 each, its the regular balloons (9inch?)
– Money is abit of a concern because the cost came up to be more than i expected, if anything people who can meet before hand can collect money and we’ll get the rest on friday?
PRICE:
Helium tank rental:
MEDIUM : $74.99 – 200 balloons
SMALL : $54.99 – 100 balloons
* plus $100 deposit :/ & rental is for two days
^ thats the only concern because they require an extra $100 for deposit..
– string i think everyone can bring some from home, if anything there is also the dollar store! & as for weights we need to discuss. We’re trying to save as much money as possible.
– I’m not sure about the logo, ordering them will obv cost money
– I think Renars was on the bubble machine, we’re getting a bunch of small guns, not the machine, and we may to a giant inflatable pool of soap water and have some home made blowers (maybe with clothes hangers?)
* as for the rest, i haven’t been able to communicate with everyone on the group, but if anyone else has any progress report please please update us!! for instance what is happening with the decorating of the trees?
Task Group Explore Future will be staging a non-linear performance cautioning visitors what could happen to Toronto’s parks and public spaces if they are allowed to be privatised. Saplings borrowed from a nursery will be set up in a field. When visitors approach Miss Condo Toronto will appear in her sash and helmet directing workers to remove trees to make room for condos, garages, coffee shops, etc. When visitors ask her what is going on/why she is doing this, she will tell them that condos are more fashionable than parks and she needs to build more to have any hope of becoming Miss Condo Canada. Greedy investors will “enlighten” visitors of the “benefits” of privatisation such as how the park can be kept perfectly spotless with funds obtained from entrance fees and that visitors needn’t worry about having their day disrupted by “bothersome” protesters. Should the visitors linger long enough they may witness resurgents restoring the park (returning saplings to the field) to the displeasure of the investors.
We will need people to play Miss Condo, the workers, the investors, and the resurgents. For materials: saplings, helmet(s), a Miss Condo sash, and if obtainable, an albino squirrel costume. If anyone could recruit more actors and/or borrow saplings, that would be excellent.
It looks like Mhairi, Kenny, and Caroline got some good work done. (I meant to go to the meeting too, but I slept in…) I love to logo! Anyhow, I thought I’d ask everyone for a finite status report, particularly for group Fun. I think we all need to know:
-WHO is actually ordering the balloons.
-WHO we’re ordering the balloons FROM.
-HOW exactly the balloon getting is going to work. Can they deliver the tanks on site? Are they going to deliver the balloons already filled?
-HOW MANY and WHAT SIZE balloons this person is ordering. (I assume the largest amount available)
-WHO is going to remember to bring money to PAY for them. (by the way, the answer is EVERYONE right?)
-WHERE we’re going to decide it needs to be (though I think it could work pretty much anywhere in the park.)
-WHAT ELSE we’re going to need. i.e., strings, weights, paint for the logo. (Can we order the balloons with the logo on them already?)
-BUBBLE MACHINE, what’s happening with that? Do we really need it?
-HOW MUCH TIME will we need to set up?
-WHAT can we afford to leave until Friday?
I’m mostly worried about the lack of communication. Only those aforementioned seem to be making regular use of the blog, and I don’t know who is doing what? I would order the balloons myself, but I don’t know if someone else already has. (Is this all being organized on facebook? I wouldn’t know. Someone tell me if that’s the case please.)
If any of these questions have already been answered, and I didn’t notice, I apologize. I often forget how to read. Please reply. If you want, email me at raiyze29@gmail.com
I’m starting to think the balloon idea will really work out. we can create two paths out of balloons; one explore, one fun. each paths will have its own balloon colour (say, fun is red and explore is green). then we can have questions or info written on it according to the groups. and eventually both paths leads to the final destination where the pin is (I assum).
as for the entry, I think we can make a balloon gate/arch. if its helium balloon, it shouldn’t be too hard.
the good thing about the paths is that we dont even need to make arrows. the balloons will serve as a directory
The Explore Group!
I think we need to have an idea about what we should do other than research. We need to make this exciting somehow.
I was researching earlier today about the lost Garrison creek. We can make the path go along where the creek once was and end at the crawford street bridge (balloon: “you are now on top of the Crawfors street bridge burried in 1930”) some thing like that.
Just a thought.
FOR SOME REASON I CANNOT MAKE NEW POSTS ANYMORE OTHER THAN THROUGH QUICKPRESS
Hacky sack is a multi player product that will attract students at OCADU. It comes in different natural based colours and sizes. The product is to attract an audience to play and create strategies to keep up the sack, and as you become more experienced you can add two or three into the mix. The hacky sacks are made of foam balls wrapped around with thick string that has been twisted and turned to stick together and hot glued to stick together. The colours are inspired by nature.
Hacky sacks will allow you to play with a group of friends, which will lead to new friendships or getting to know people by allowing everyone to play.
A video of people joining in to play with these sacks is included below my proposal.
It seem like not a lot has been happening and I think we seriously need to step it up a notch. Either everyone is insanely busy or Andrew’s right and we’re just not very good at posting on the blog, haha.
MEETINGS;
Can one representative from fun and explore who KNOWS what the spending is for their group meet with Kenny at some point? Get in touch with her, you guys should meet thursday LATEST.
Group Fun; We need a budget of what you are actually spending. PLEASE, can both bubble and balloon groups meet together to ensure we stay on track budget wise. I’m not sure how much a bubble machine, and helium tanks and the various other items will be but it sounds like a lot.
Group Explore; We are meeting on Thursday in the learning lounge at 3. PLEASE, have all your research done and know what you are doing within your groups (past and future).
General Design; Kenny, Caroline and I are meeting at 11 tomorrow in the learning lounge to talk about blog / button and arrow design. You’re welcome to stop by.
THINGS STILL NEEDING DONE;
ARROWS; We think it would be best if each group make their own arrows. We will be coming up with sort of like arrow guidelines tomorrow so they will look related. Sort out who is making arrows within your own groups!!!!
Is there anything I am forgetting? GUYS, please please please use the blog and comment on this post with roles and issues. I’m sure everyone is working things out but we need to know what’s going on to function as a team.
Please reply to this post if you thought of anything that’s going to be a expense for us(it’ll be nice to include the price too), right now for group fun we have:
– balloons
– helium tanks
– ropes/strings/ribbons (to attach to the balloons)
– bubble gun/wands
– construction papers
group explore:
I am not in group explore so someone in group explore please contact me about stuff that you need!!!!
Hey everyone,
I missed last class so I’m kind of out of the loop right now – if anyone could give me a quick rundown that’d be great. I’ve been reading the posts and it seems like there’s a bunch of groups with different tasks so if any group could take me in that’d be awesome :’D (Sort of awkward singling myself out …)
Hi everyone. Andrew here. Hope we’re all doing what we’re supposed to be doing. I myself am FREAKING out, but that’s okay.
Mhairi brought it to my attention that we don’t have a name (other than “Fun/Explore”) for our experience. People have told me I’m pretty good at naming things, so I thought I’d give it a try. So how do we all like the name “TBA” as in “Trinity Bellwoods Augmented” but it’s also a joke, as it more commonly stands for “To be Announced.” It’s funny right? No? Yeah. Oh well.
Anyhow. I checked through the posts, and I didn’t see anything about meeting, so I figured it would be a good idea to meet on, say, Wednesday, to check up on how we’re all doing. I doubt people are using the blog as effectively as I would hope… I’m specifically talking about the people working on bubble/balloons, but I urge the others to meet up too. I really want this thing to work out. So if you’re reading this please comment if you’d like to tell me when you’re available to meet. I am free all tuesday, wednesday and thursday. (Even though I’m probably not going to be awake until 3 pm… haha)
While I’m on the topic, I thought I might share some ideas.
I was thinking about how to better incorporate the balloons. I agree with Jesse that they don’t seem particularly park-y. But Kenny had a cool idea that the balloons could be like word balloons, y’know, like in comics. Now THAT got me thinking. It might take a little more effort, and I’d like to discuss this in person with the balloon team, but we could entirely white balloons, and write a variety of what-if questions in them. And there could be a variety of fun/exploring sorta questions. Like, imagine one balloon says “What if there were no parks?” and another that says “what if hamburgers ate people?” Then, at 3:00, we give out the balloons to the park-goers, and they act like thought bubbles, showing what that person is “thinking” about as they walk down the street with their balloon. Get it? This also solves the waste problem. Any leftover balloons we can just pop for fun. Or I’ll take them. I would love to fill my house with balloons. XD I think it could work.
This leads me to think that we can use the balloons like arrows. The balloons that say fun things could be over in one direction, and the deeper questions could be in another?
Sorry if I’m being too pushy with these balloons. I’m just getting really excited about the ideas.
Caroline has been looking into pins and if we make 100 1 inch buttons the price range will be around 30-35 dollars. We think it would be a good idea to use pins to separate the students as well as give them out to people who complete the arrows. But if we get buttons we would have to get big buttons, at least 50 (because its the minimum amount) which will cost about 37.50, too pricey. Caroline is suggesting everyone to bring their own shirts (preferabley white ) and then she can create a stencil and we will spray paint the logo and group name on it.
I think this is a good idea, especially for photographers / video and people running the stations. Just in case anyone has questions or issues with our experience they will know who to address. Does everyone have a plain white shirt they can bring to class friday?
If you are not planning on staying the whole three hours you don’t have to worry about it. Most of our experience is just set up and observation.
hey guys Party packagers have deals for helium tanks or we can even order the balloons, ill try giving them a call but heres the site you guys can check out!
http://www.partypackagers.com/content/balloons
btw, does anyone have updates on decorating the trees and the bubbles?
1. The same as any other day, there are many people in Trinity Bellwoods walking on and along the paths of the park
2. On this particular day, there are a few who notice some arrows all along the park leading to a sanctuary family room situated outdoors in front of a big tree.
3. Extremely intrigued by the big comfy couch and living space, some become curious and go to take a look. They sit on the couch and see something written on the table infront of them. It reads ” The Secret to Happiness is…”
4. As they look in front of them, they see an old television stuck on a colour bar screen.
5. They wait for something to happen, but nothing does. The secret of happiness is not revealed but is instead pondered on, leaving the audience with an open mind.
Comments Off on Project 3: Storyboard [Carrie Harden] | 3.3 - Project Three | Permalink Posted by Carrie Ann Harden
There were a couple of loose ends today which are worth talking about. Kenny has volunteered to be the treasurer so she will be collecting money from everyone next week. If all the groups could figure out roughly what they will be spending and send that to her / post it on the blog that would be GREAT. Her and/or Jesse will let you know how much to bring for next friday!
In terms of the final station… I know we didn’t talk about that a lot. I like the idea of buttons we just need to see how we could do that. Handing out business card type things would be really easy. Would anyone like to help out with this? Kenny and I will be getting together to build up the website/blog this week. Ideally the logo / type / sign would match, right? It would be great if someone would like to help organize the buttons!
If anyone else is interested in helping to document the event, let me know. We have two photographers and two people willing to videotape so far. Blog building will commence early next week so let me know soon if you want to help.
On a different note, what are we calling this experience? Is fun/explore temporary or permanent?
Awesome guys! Sorry if I’m overloading you with stuff, haha.
My number is 416 948 2327, feel free to get in touch if there are any emergencies.
Congratulations on all of the progress you made today consolidating around an idea. Your idea has a great deal of potential but much work remains to be done. Remember that this project came from you – all of you – and it will only shine if you all bring your energy to bear on it.
Your Urban Intervention will launch at 12:00 on Saturday, April 2 in Trinity Bellwoods Park. I will gather all seven sections together at that time in the centre of Trinity Circle (see attached map). Tori, Shawn and I have each invited guests to experience your Intervention, and we will introduce them to you at that time. Please remember to actively seek feedback from each of them at some point in the afternoon. Your Interventions will end at about 15:00.
Four final thoughts:
The blog is yours: make use of it. Each task-specific team should report their activities on the blog on a regular basis. If you need something – feedback, an item, an idea – ask for it on the blog. Everyone should be checking the blog at least once per day between now and next Saturday.
High quality documentation is essential. Documentation is the most useful way that your experience lives on once it’s over.
No decision should be left until next Friday. Task-specific teams should feel empowered to make decisions as necessary. Use the blog to obtain feedback as necessary, but don’t defer any essential decision for too long.
Let me know right away if your Urban Intervention requires a specific location in the park. I need to confirm that none of the other sections are using the location. In general, be flexible: the park is a public place, and there will be other users there.
You have seven days, sixteen hours and fifty-eight minutes: use it wisely!
Mhairi Robertson, Jacky Tse, Olivia Shin, Sam Staddon, Joanna Rim, Brian Pierce and Anonymous
Read the captions on the story board for the participant’s experience.
We decided that keeping the arrows was a good way of drawing someone’s attention to our experience. We decided to make the arrows a bright neon colour and stick them to trees. This will help them notice the arrows. At each arrow will be a piece of paper. It is kind of a jigsaw puzzle where the participant has to follow the arrows to collect all the pieces. When they put them together they will get the message ‘What if we didn’t have parks?’ embedded within an illustration. The picture will also include a link to a website where they can put their experiences of the arrows, what they think and what other people think too.
The point of this is to make people really think about how important it is for us to have green spaces. Ideally, the participant will spend a long time and get to know and appreciate different areas of the park through the arrows. They will then be prompted with the idea of what if it wasn’t there.
As this experience pretty much makes use of paper, whatever people don’t take home can be recycled.
Overview of our Experience;
Attraction; We decided not to include any advertising for this experience. We really like the idea of you just finding the arrows while in the park. The appeal for this would simply be the idea of a walk in the park itself.
Entry; The person would enter this experience when they see one of the arrows and decide to follow it.
Engagement; By using a mysterious ‘jigsaw puzzle’ like message we are offering the participant an incentive/reason to continue.
Exit; The experience is over when the participant follows all the arrows and discovers the message.
Extension; By providing them with a means to stick the image together they will have something to take home with them. Also, by prompting them to answer the question and see what other people wrote it will extend their engagement further than the park.
Comments Off on Project Three; Specified Experience | 3.3 - Project Three | Permalink Posted by Mhairi Robertson
Our classmates will be the parameters of this maze. Some of us will wear shirts with arrow graphics, while others will wear ‘blocks’.
Once you start moving, you may only advance in the direction you started until either an arrow-shirt intersects your path, or a block-shirt brings you to a halt. If you come across an arrow-shirt, your direction changes accordingly. When you’ve come to a stop, you may choose your next direction.
The goal is to successfully navigate the arrow maze, and reach the end point. It is possible for the player to run into a bomb-shirt, in which case they will flip a coin/guess a number etc. If the bomb is activated, they must restart.
Extra shit:
double-sided arrows
switch-shirts that change the mazes design
nintendo theme music
consider possible prizes
This is a toy that I can define as fun and entertaining, not only physically but mentally as well. This brain teaser is rich in varied knowledge of symbolic logic. This puzzle toy was well-known and rare in the 19th century in Europe and America, as a benefit of intelligence. This toy challenges the body and mind, keeping you entertained in the moment and opening your mind for the future.
The design of the puzzle is quite simple in its shape and form, but overall it looks a little difficult. The product does not come with a solution to the puzzle, you have to figure it out for yourself. Basically, the objective is to detach the metal wires from one another. The concept of the toy is very easy to understand but actually making it happen is quite complex. This toy is suitable for a wide audience ranging from children to adults.
See the 3 refined ideas here. I begin to consider the feasibility of some features and what I am capable of in terms of construction and technology. I also begin to consider the smaller details of the toy design so it actually physically works (eg. how can modules fit together, how can I make something light up).
Prototype:
Maze and modules shown above.
User Testing:
Positive feedback:
Most users found the maze to be more fun than a traditional maze on paper
Ability to rearrange and create new puzzles = always a new challenge
Users were creating more difficult puzzles for their friends (possible implementation of 2+ player game modes)
Appropriate size for play
Convenient (everything can be stored in the box and is portable)
Negative feedback:
Too much hassle/too slow to set up (though it is partially because of the weak toothpick pins in the modules)
Too easy to solve
Needs reward/satisfaction of winning
Needs to be more visually appealing
Still does not appeal to those who are uninterested in puzzles and mazes
You have collectively chosen an idea — Psychogeographic Arrows — that demonstrates promise as compelling interactive experience for Trinity Bellwoods Park on Saturday, April 2. You have also been organized into groups, each charged with the task of propelling this idea forward. These groups are as follows.
Caroline, Hilda, Marco, Prisilla, Judy
Andrew, Fan, Alexandra, Cornelia, Kenny
Brian, Samantha, Jacky, Olivia, Mhairi, Anonymous
Renars, Amir, Sandra, Cindy, Sharon
1) A fully specified experience. In your groups, re-read the project brief, and contemplate the idea you have chosen. Brainstorm variations on the idea, and develop a fully specified version of the idea that best suits the constraints described in the project brief: limited budget (make it cheap), material flows (make no waste), intuitive functionality (make it easy to use), temporal sequencing (12:00 – 15:00 on Saturday, April 2) and site specificity (Trinity Bellwoods Park). Explicitly account for how your version of the idea satisfies the five phases of a compelling experience that we discussed in class: Attraction, Entry, Engagement, Exit and Extension.
2) A storyboard of your fully specified experience. Make a storyboard that outlines your new version. Post the storyboard to the blog, and annotate it (i.e. describe with text) with any important details. This storyboard will necessarily be more elaborate than the ones you prepared individually. Bring a physical copy of the storyboard to class.
2) A role-play of your fully specified experience. Come to next class prepared to role play your new storyboard: act it out for us. Bring any props and equipment you might require. Engage your colleagues: they can take part in your role-play too.
This is effectively a competitive exercise. May the best version of the idea, that is the most convincingly storyboarded and role played, win us over.
everyone has Snake Game on their cell phone, and everyone knows how to play it.
1. random stranger spot a group of organized circle shape on the ground. each circle can turn green and they can move around and formed a snake. There is an instruction on the ground says:” Step on one circle”
2. stranger step on one circle, the circle turn yellow.
3. the snake move towards the stranger and eat the yellow circle, it became longer afterward.
After wandering around the Bellwood Trinity Park during exercise 10, I noticed that there were many trees planted all along the path areas. With the way society is today, tuning on Facebook and other social networks frequently, why can’t we do the same outside the internet? The idea is simple: we present the participants with blank cards and ask them to fill them out. On one side, the participant includes there age, gender and one thing about themselves (this could be a notable quality, an interest, a secret, the choice is up to them!) On the opposite side, they will be asked to create a display image of how they see themselves/portray themselves. This is not a portrait of how they appear, but rather how they feel/think/feel they appear to themselves. The display image can be anything, from a cartoon version of the person, to accessorized stick-men. They can portray themselves as animals or a bunch of random lines/colours (abstraction). For those who are not so confident in their artistic abilities, there is the option of writing a description, a piece of prose/poetry, or some random nonsense if they wish.
Once the participant is done and content with their identity card, we will hang it with the others, tied against the trees. The written information will be displayed towards the viewer, and when flipped over will reveal the “face” of the person whose information they have read.
This idea will attract the attention of pedestrians walking through the area and indulge them to investigate what the pieces of paper read. As they flip the paper over, expecting to see a picture of the person, they will instead see the personification of the individual.
The idea will boost creativity levels inside individuals and gives them the freedom of expressing who they are inside.
My idea is to help increase and encourage nature and wildlife, and what better way is there to do that than at a nice big park? There are lots of things individuals and families can do at their homes to encourage green life. Basically, I took those little ideas and put it together to create an idea of having a wildlife space in the park. The “magic garden” will be an open space/walkway in the park where many varieties of flowers plants and trees will be planted, especially ones that can attract wildlife; such as milkweeds. The garden will also have bird feeders hung around , and we can even take a step further and make bird baths or squirrel playgrounds.
Sam and her friends Emma and Robert are typical university students out on a nice day for a relaxing walk.While strolling in the park, when they notice a sign that says “magic garden”. Interested, they check out this garden and find a giant walkway that leads them through a very interesting and beautiful space. They are wowed by the pretty flowers and plants that are growing all throughout as well notices there are butterflies and hummingbirds hanging around. They leave happy, wanting to tell their friends about this place, and plans to return again soon.
Comments Off on Project Three: User Scenario Storyboards | 3.3 - Project Three | Permalink Posted by Sohyun Chun
While I was there I noticed that most of the people who came to trinity bellwoods were a variety of ages. There were a lot of parents, kids, young people and even dogs! For my experience I want to improve the park to make it more appealing. Right now it seems a little barren and muddy.
The subjects of my graphic novel are a family but I think this experience appeals to a lot of people. Since the text got a little cut off, here is what it says;
Box 1) Family goes for a Saturday walk in the park. 10:00AM.
Box 2) But it’s just early April and the park is still barren and muddy.
Box 3) What’s that up ahead??
Box 4) There are lights everywhere! So pretty!
Box 5) Family leaves park similing. They stayed at the park longer than they thought they would. 12:00 PM.
Box 6) Everyone in the park enjoys the lights. It creates a new environment on a chilly spring day.
I think that this is a good idea. By the time we get to March it’s still chilly but people are ready for a change from the cold weather. This is a fun way to simulate spring. Problems I see; lights might not be as effective in the light.
Comments Off on Project Three; User Scenario Storyboards | 3.3 - Project Three | Permalink Posted by Mhairi Robertson
For this project, I would like to make a wish tree in Canada as a symbol of wish of peace.The Wish Tree is a lovely concept to create for everybody at the holidays or any day. Everyone writes down their wishes and then hangs the wishes on the Wish Tree.
With the Wish Tree, people are invited to write their wish on a piece of paper and hang it to a tree branch. Some wishes of the wishes are deeply personal, others global wishes for peace and better future for all of humankind.
People see the Wish Tree like a collective prayer in a way. Therefore, people are encouraged to keep wishing as they participate.
Ethnographic observations of young adults in various public contexts (Christie Pits, Trinity Bellwoods, Younge and Dundas) have shown that they enjoy children’s games more than they might let on. Unstructured games such as tag and the floor is hot lava have greater health benefits than organised sports and regimented exercises and therefore would be excellent games from which to form a league for adults. An urban intervention demonstrating the suitability of these games for adults could be a useful catalyst for the formation of such a league in its experiential extension. Drawing from the mythology of the park, visitors are invited into the experience by albino squirrel costumed students dancing to funky tunes and handing out cards.
For me, I personally think that water fountain is one of the important components for a park. Without a water fountain, I feel like the park is dead. So in my idea I wanted to create a nice water fountain build near the entrance. The reason why I think a water fountain is important its because not only the view is monotonous, the ecology of the park is also feels like it is dead. If theres a water fountain near the entrance, not only the people will go there take a look, the birds would also stay there and take a rest. And the park will be come revive again.
I came up with an extensive list of ideas but I found this to be the strongest and moderately interesting for us and the viewer.
PROJECT: HOBO HEAVEN
So in my idea I wanted to to create a space where the person will enter the park and immediately feel uncomfortable and question what is happening. Also I wanted the person to experience it throughout their walk in the park, not just for 3 secs or so.
My idea is to turn the park into a giant living space. Each bench will become a bed or “room” and each will be occupied. I also had an idea that will incorporate the giant hole in the middle of the park. We should string long ropes from one side of the hole to the other, creating a laundry line. By doing this, it gives the project a feeling of having the Whole park inhabited not just the benches and it also gives the project some variation. (also the tennis court or the skating rink can also be turn into some sort of rooms)
When the person walks into our environment he will feel confused and sort of disoriented. When people think of or encounter homeless people it tends to make them uncomfortable. If we create hobo heaven this will triple the uncomfortable feel.
Hobo are usually “intruding into our space”. This time we reversed the role. We are now intruding into their space
* hobo heaven will be an elaborate set of of a living space. It will not be realistic
Since the late 60’s, people have used this common, household medium to express a variety of feelings: the mixtape.
This concept is something like a trade-off. Where people submit their own mixes in exchange for those of strangers. The Barter Box not only works to expand peoples’ knowledge of music, but it may also be used to promote local musicians.
By setting up a communal Bartering Box, music lovers are given the chance to not only share their own tastes with their neighbours, but also to explore and discover new sounds, and possibly a new favourite artist!
My scenario:
Terry the no-sleep sketcher is looking to promote her new, experimental band, all while needing a few new tracks to listen to on her commute to school. So it’s off to the Bartering Box!
Mom is going crazy again. She can never sit still. Always has to be cleaning something. Always so busy picking wavy crisp crumbs out of the couch, defending 2% milk instead of 1%, and denying us her ritter sport minis and candy and creme that she completely forgets to buy kitty some food and litter. That’s why whenever mom goes shopping for kitty she stocks up. Were talking mountains of kitty food. Poor kitty, constantly slipping her busy mind. I remember finding kitty licking all of the berry syrup off our breakfast plates one morning and drinking milk from an old mini coconut, only to see mom walk in the kitchen immediately after with her hair to the ceiling. Was it the hairspray..? Nope. Mom stressing explains everything under this roof. I need a cigarette..
The toy I choose is the Newton’s cradle. It consists of 5 metal spheres of the same size and weight hanging alinged on the frame. It is shiny and sleek, but I find most people are attracted to it because of its well known behaviour of transmittion of motion between the spheres. Almost everyone knows how to operate it (lift one sphere up then releasing it and expect the one on the other end to go up), but no one seems to know the reason behind it.
this toy practice the law of conservation of momentum and energy. many people misunderstood it to be perpetual motion, when in fact it is not, because the collision between spheres aren’t totally elastic and there are energy lost as forms of heat (friction) and sound.
In the Third Stage (Scenario Storyboarding), you will each develop one experience for presentation to the class. This presentation will take the form of a user scenario storyboard: a graphical narrative of the experience through the senses of one or more specific persona(s).
“In a sense, scenarios are prototypes built of words. Scenarios are, at their heart, simply stories – stories about what it will be like to use the product or service once it has been made. The protagonists of these stories are the personas. Using a scenario, designers can place their personas into a context and further bring them to life. Indeed, scenarios are one of the factors that make personas worth having. Running through the same scenario using different personas is an excellent technique for uncovering what needs to be included in the final product. . . . Once a scenario and sketches have been created to show what a product or service could be like, designers can create a storyboard (figure 5.10) to help illustrate the product or service in use. Storyboarding is a technique drawn from filmmaking and advertising. Combining a narrative with accompanying images, designers can powerfully tell a story about a product or service, displaying its features in a context.”
(from Designing for Interaction)
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For next class, propose an experience that would be appropriate for Project Three. Storyboard the user scenario experience: a graphical narrative of the experience through the senses of one or more specific persona(s). You may use the personas we began to develop in Class 8, or you may develop your own. Your graphics may be hand or computer drawn. It is likely though not essential that your storyboard include text; like a cartoon or graphic novel, your storyboard must narrate itself. Post your storyboard, as well as any necessary supporting information (sketches, personas) to the blog, and bring a hard copy of your storyboard to class. We will be reviewing each of your storyboards as a springboard to our collective development of a single proposition.
Your individual storyboards are due at 15:30 on Friday, March 18. Their evaluation will form a significant proportion of your mark for Project 3.
The psychological basis of the metropolitan type of individuality consists in the intensification of nervous stimulation which results from the swift and uninterrupted change of outer and inner stimuli. Man is a differentiating creature. His mind is stimulated by the difference between a momentary impression and the one which preceded it. Lasting impressions, impressions which differ only slightly from one another, impressions which take a regular and habitual course and show regular and habitual contrasts – all these use up, so to speak, less consciousness than does the rapid crowding of changing images, the sharp discontinuity in the grasp of a single glance, and the unexpectedness of onrushing impressions. These are the psychological conditions which the metropolis creates.
Georg Simmel, The Metropolis and Mental Life, 1903
The production of psychogeographic maps, or even the introduction of alterations such as more or less arbitrarily transposing maps of two different regions, can contribute to clarifying certain wanderings that express not subordination to randomness but complete insubordination to habitual influences (influences generally categorized as tourism that popular drug as repugnant as sports or buying on credit). A friend recently told me that he had just wandered through the Harz region of Germany while blindly following the directions of a map of London. This sort of game is obviously only a mediocre beginning in comparison to the complete construction of architecture and urbanism that will someday be within the power of everyone.
Guy Debord, Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography, 1955
Read and briefly ponder the above pair of excerpts regarding the psychological basis of our experience of the city.
Now: shake your arms, spin in a circle, and do a jumping jack: clear your mind.
Using the set of arbitrary directions you were provided with in class, trace a path departing from the Queen Street gates of Trinity Bellwoods Park. On a single sheet of paper, take sketch and prose notes of everything you see, think and feel. Scan your sketch and post it, unedited, to the blog.
Upon completion, re-read the collection of excerpts. How does the psychogeography of the city affect our ability to map its characteristics? You may find the psychogeographic approach useful in getting to know your Project Three site. Make an active effort to clear your mind of preconceptions and explore that which conspires to remain unexplored.
Hans Meißner was a man in his late fifties. Unmarried, overweight, and depressed. He was losing his hair and had a crater-sized bald spot on the top of his head. What little traces of hair he had left were all white. Hans led a very dull life and he was starting to doubt that his life had any purpose at all.
Hans would usually begin his day before work by going to the local Aldi grocery store for his daily mealshop. He would buy the same food every day: Apple juice and fruit yoghourt for breakfast, liverwurst for a sandwich at lunch, and meatloaf along with Gouda cheese for dinner.
In 2003, Hans became an alcoholic. Suddenly beer and wine were the main ingredients of his meals. He would usually drink beer at lunch and wine at dinner or on a day like February 21st, 2003; he would drink both at dinner.
Hans hadn’t showered in a week so he made sure to pick himself up a stick of deodorant that morning (even though he had basically given up on personal hygiene altogether). He also grabbed 3 tallboys of Grafen and 2 bottles of sherry pale before heading to the checkout.
That night, when he got home from his job at the European patent office, he took off his work-clothes and stripped down to just his boxers and an undershirt with yellow sweatstains on it. He cooked himself some dinner and ate it in his usual spot in front of the TV. Like usual, he was alone.
After finishing the 2 bottles of wine at dinner, he chugged the first can of Grafen and finished the other two within ten minutes. He needed to get drunk that night. He had barely finished the last beer when he passed out reclined in his Lazyboy. His favourite show, Marienhof had just started when he began having difficulty breathing. He was choking on his own vomit and there was no one around to help him. Less than a minute later, he completely stopped breathing.
Hans Meißner died on February 21st, 2003. He was 58.
PROPOSAL: Pencil Bored will be a multi-use product that will attract artists and students alike. It will be available in a variety of sizes with different choices of backdrops. The solar system, a grassy lawn with bugs are some examples. The board can also be blank and you can write your own targets on it like a to-do list for homework. Not only is is fun being able to play a game of darts in your room, you can can also use it to store your pencils altogether. The Pencil Bored will breathe some life into your boring student routine. I included a rough sample ad below that could be used in magazines.
Mr Teddy is a collectible toy. The name is come from the fact that the stuffed figure is a representation of a bear. Mr Teddy are most often sell individually in “blind box”, in which the toys are packed in small boxes, and the only way to know which particular figure is inside a particular box is to purchase and open the box. The different between Mr Teddy and other toy is that when you press the body of the bear, Mr Teddy will shout out with an animal voice. And it could be a cat’s meow, or a dog bark, it really depends on your luck. And the other reason you would want to purchase our Mr Teddy is because he is stitched by hands 100% without any machine help. The size of the figure is 6 inch high and 7 inch width. The combination of fabric with two button eyes and a ribbon on the neck gives a sense of classic bear look, and that selling point would attract many teenagers to purchase this cute product.
Comments Off on Project 2 my toy design: Mr Teddy | 3.2 - Project Two | Permalink Posted by Hung Hei Tse
Probably not the best idea to give the kids kebabs, look they are running around. If they fall and lodge that stick in their throat it won’t be good… Maybe I can convince them to eat this fruit. Unlikely, it’s from china. They won’t eat it unless they’ve seen it on tv. I should have just gotten that stupid chicken salad for all of us…
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2.9 - Exercise Nine | 
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Posted by Fan Zhang
Emergency Dog Disposal Squad
