After working with Peter and Paweena for the last couple of weeks, we finally finished our “BumBot” Project last week! After this project, we gained a new friend, Spooky.  Spooky gave us a great outsider perspective and was fun to hang out with.  Not only did people enjoy “BumBot”, but Spooky did too.  Hope you enjoy our short video and if you want to see our presentation, click here.

“Can you spare some change?” is a short documentary that examines the relationships between human-human and human-“robot” interactions. A robot, “BumBot” was created by Parsons MFA Design and Technology students in collaboration with “Spooky,” a homeless citizen in New York City. “Spooky” drove “BumBot” around Union Square, and shared his perspective on the differences between human-human and human-robot relationships for one homeless citizen — himself. The documentary created a poignant examination into human relationships and the social landscape of New York City. The viewer is also asked if they can spare some change in their hearts.

Music by: The Doors “People are Strange”

Project: Scrapyard Challenge Workshop

On Sunday, September 25, we participated in Scrapyard Challenge workshop. It was a six-hour activity where we were challenged to create an interactive musical controller out of found materials and junk. We were encouraged to take risks and focus on the process and response to the practice of what we were doing.

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Project:   “Build two mashups, one in media/software, and one pairing hardware to the Internet!”

Given this project description, you might be wondering what is a Mash Up? Fact: A Mash Up is the compilations of the songs we hear in the Fox TV show Glee,  but it is also a new genre of web applications. Although you  may not know it, Mash Ups are everywhere. There are different types including mapping, social media, news, and video/picture Mash Ups. Essentially, they all do the same thing–bring together two different sets of data into one.  New to the city I find the Google Maps option to route different MTA  trains the most useful in my life. 

alarme: A hardware to internet mashup that tracks the amount of time you spend online. Alarme works by starting with a set of time preferences you would like to control your time on. Alarme  is for the workaholic, gamer, chronic web surfer–anyone who may get carried away online. We are all guilty sometimes and alarme will help us to monitor our online activity! Alarme also has health tips included in your “alarmed” messages that will give you tips on how computer activity affects your health.

siteBITES: A daily sampler of all of your headlines from desired websites. siteBITES is an idea created for those who want to keep up with multiple sites, but don’t want the temptation to “click away” time and get distracted by other interesting links.  siteBITES will be useful because it gives the user visual images of their favorites searches or topics. Check all your fave sites at once and get a new “sampler platter” to take a bite out of everyday!

Below are some previews, but please  view my complete project presentation here!

Assignment: Complete one project a day for seven days.  This started off as a very challenging task, but as I started incorporate my new lifestyle and adjusting to New York into it, the process was much more natural.  Being far from home, a lot of people want to know what I am doing here.  Growing up in Hawaii, I have always been near an ocean so, I decided work with the idea of sending home a “message in a bottle.” Everyday, I intended to try something new, make a new observation, or do something that I could visually contain in this bottle to send home and show others.  To see where I went and what I collected, view my 7×7 presentation.

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Assignment: Re-Design a Social Network

Concept: Today, we are constantly introduced to new ways of connecting with a internet-based networks. Although this is great at keeping in touch, we are losing “touch” of what it was like to receive a hand-written, personal letter.  There is nothing more personal and sentimental than receiving a letter from someone and knowing that it traveled some type of distance to physically get to you.

Although my first thought was to create a simplified bulletin board post social network, I slowly realized in my process that what I was creating was moving in a different direction from what I believed in.  This is where “Snail Mail” really started to develop. “Snail Mail” creates a social network the “old-fashioned” way.

How it Works: The key components of “Snail Mail” was to first send a letter to three friends. When you do this you also send two more note cards and postage giving your friend the opportunity to send their own mail to another friend.  This is where the “network” is created.  Whether the person decides to send mail back to you, or to two new friends, it opens up communication through letters.  It is a conversation starter, a trail maker, and a friend connector.

View my  Snail Mail Presentation with the evolution of my idea that went from a digital to analog based network!

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