Remix Me

By using the theories and work i have read, watched and seen in my research I plan to create more of a participatory outcome which involves me making the initial structure then the audience creates the work which they then apply and interact with. If it was just my initial structure there would be no work to it, by making it participatory it becomes a whole lot more.

First Approach (quick process to get the project started):

Using this original piece of graphic commercial work by A.M Cassandre, a Dubonnet advertisement from the 1930’s I asked a handful of people to look at the image and recreate to suit the modern climate, to modernize it. Here i choose to use Balloons as the initial background for the audience to draw upon. I chose balloons to be different and also to see where it takes in within the project what possibilities and challenges it may bring up as a choice of media.

Hanging up the balloons in a row on the wall turned out to be unsuccessful as they tilted away form the wall towards the ceiling. A better idea would of been to hang them directly from the ceiling so that they can be viewed properly. Although this attempt is a very simple one it still showed a participatory element. Just in my opinion not a strong one.

This picture was taken a week later and shows also the how time has a participatory effect on the work. this was an unexpected effect.

Moving on from my first idea I've tried to develop the idea further, to give it more depth and a more personal involvement and also looking back at what I learnt from my theory research and how the authorship title is challenged with the element of culture is introduced and how it argues originality, therefore taking that into consideration I asked a few people to draw on a balloon with a marker pen the first thing they thought of when prompted to think of culture. Then with these balloons i planned to hang them from the ceiling at a height that could be interacted with when people are surrounded by them and walking through them. Before implementing this idea fully I decided that the outcome could be more interactive, more action and decision could be placed in the hands of the viewer.

These balloons are the outcome of asking people to draw the first image to come to mind when thinking of culture. I really like how diverse they are so i want to try to take this idea further and develop it.

When taking in to consideration the level of interaction with the last idea I thought about keeping the balloons with the culture drawings on them but then having them then put on to wheels which could then be spun round and the balloons could be put into a sequence of some kind, the viewer would be able to link the ones they felt would go together.
I then made a small prototype with the materials I had around me, paper, cardboard and string. The outcome worked but was flimsy and looked quite low grade. when considering making to prototype real the materials I considered using a small motor to turn the wheels but that would detract from the interactivity. Then when considering making the wheels i decided against it for lack of suitable materials, this i think is a good thing as it is making me develop another idea.

My fourth idea was to blow up balloons and tie 3 together, then place them on the floor, give someone a needle and ask them to pop which ever balloons they wanted, to think about it before they did it and then to arrange them as they saw fit. When implementing this idea the subject had a lot more influence over the balloons and interaction was defiantly a key element. After the experiment the feedback was that the exercise was fun and that they enjoyed the interaction and the pre-thinking involved before the action of popping the balloons.

For my final idea i have again tried to develop previous ideas further, this idea consists of a wall of balloons and the idea is a lot similar to a traditional word search but the element of interaction is introduced when the person has to view the letters, find a word then pop the balloons that are not relevant to the word they are trying to spell. The feedback from this was that again the interactivity was successful and that its taking an already established game and changing it was again perceived as an achievement. This mirrors my research on interactive narrative where Penguin take 6 authors and they tell the stories with different uses of modern technology. This idea takes a traditional word game and adds new elements such as interactivity and also being more of an installation it adds to the overall success of the outcome.