Adam Little @ CIID

Exercise #3 from the Computational Design workshop syllabus:

In Exercise #3 we will focus on ‘people as data’ [3]. Like in the preceding exercise the
participants will be asked to take a prepared data generating object but this time put the object and the data it collects into context. While the construction of the object will not be
discussed the context will. Where do we place the object? What is the interval in which it
will gather data; a minute, an hour, a day? How does the data relate to something
meaningful?  The data will be collected and visualized. The participants will learn to
translate a more abstract intention or concept into software. The result will be a poster. It is not required that the poster is created completely from code, but should include a
substantial amount of programmed form. The participants can use tools of their choice ( like pencils, illustrator or fire arms ) to add extra meaningful layers.

The main challenge of this exercise was to represent data in a meaningful and visually pleasing way. Each student was to collect data using a Nintendo Wii controller, use Processing to compute and create a visual representation of that data and finally use that output in a composition presented on an A1 size poster.

Using the Nintendo Wii remote as our input device, a group of us recorded the head and hand movements of our home country’s standard greeting. For example, to record the standard USA greeting (a high-five), I first attached the Wii remote to my hand and performed a high-five. I then did this again but with the Wii remote strapped to my head. The Wii remote recorded acceleration on the X-axis, acceleration on the Y-axis, acceleration on the X-axis, the movement of the remote pitching up and down and the movement of the remote tilting from side to side. We had these five sets of values for both head and hand movements of greetings from USA (hight-five), India (bow with hands brought to face), Korea (bow with hands at side) and Denmark (shaking hands).

I decided to make a seperate composition for each country and present them as postcards. The top half of the postcard represents the head data while the bottom half represents data from the hand. When considering the bow from India, it is possible to see in the image above where the head stops moving and the hands come together to meet the lowered head.

In the end I decided to show the results from exercise #2 at the final presentation and because of constraints on how many students could print, I never made a poster. Maybe when I have some free time in the next few weeks I can work on incorporating more of our data to make a clearer visualization of the greetings, find ways to improve the overall look and feel and then trying printing some copies out.

Thanks to my friend Adam Shane for letting me use his travel photos.