Week 12

Rationale: My concept illustrates the physical and metaphorical concept of how mauri helps mana flows from an object to a person. Mana being the power or essence that exists in all living things regardless of birth and mauri being the energy that binds and animates all things in the physical world. Without mauri, mana cannot flow between an object and a person. The digital technology I have chosen as part of this concept is a transparent haptic interface glass that serves as both a protective case and a way for visitors to contribute to the mana of the object. Haptic interfaces ass texture to an object usually through vibrations beneath the screen. The sculpture would otherwise feel flat because of the physical limitations of a digital screen. The rich sensation of touch is then integrated to the digital experience. When the visitor's hand is left for certain period of time while feeling the intricate details of the object, the shell-like structure begins to emit a blue light that represents the mana that is flowing from the visitor into the object. This therefore increases its life force as the mana provided by the past, present and potential future visitors of the exhibit would build up over time. The exhibit includes brief information on the Maori terminology used and more information can be accessed  by using the RFID Te Papa ring from the first assignment.

Week 11

Inspiration

After taking inspiration for more organic and flowing shapes I did another iteration of my model. I was glad to see the improvement as now it had a more elegant but not distracting presence. My model is now meant to represent the mauri that binds and animates the mana in all things and helps it flow from an object to a person. During our practice presentation some of the feed back I was given included:

- consider the use of colour in between the gaps

- explain the basics of my object, the digital aspect the narrative and how it all ties in together

- make it smaller or perhaps have the whole thing mounted on the wall to allow for that 1.2m floorspace.

- make sure there is a way for visitors who are new or foreign to maori terminologies to understand even briefly the concept behind the meaning of the words mana and mauri.

Week 10

Inspiration

I came to class with a more developed version of my exhibit from the previous week. I had the idea from looking at pressure sensor floor interactives. The concept behind this development was that every time a visitor would approach the exhibit and hold these sacred stones acting as the mauri  would then visualise the "flow of mana" from them to the object. The blue ripples are inspired by the ripples from the ocean.

This concept was however trying to do much and the narrative was confusing. It had too many thing s to consider as well because it still included the haptic interface and the washing bowl. Jason also mentioned that I strayed away for the organic shapes that I had from the previous week. He pointed out the potential safety hazards of having sharp edges being so close to the ground (eg a child might hurt themselves when they run into it).

Week 9

I came to class with the initial physical mock up of what my scaled model would fit along the space. It was an interesting class as we had to work together collaboratively to share our hypothetical space. As for my exhibit I had planned to have the sculpture encased in to haptic screens that would serve as a protective case as well. There would be floor graphics that would lead up to it.  I had also planned on using noa, a maori word which describes the action of freeing oneself from tapu (restricted, sacred etc) which in this case was a small water bowl that visitors may dip their hands in after touching the haptic interface. 

The concept was a bit lacking however as Jason provided feedback that my exhibit design needed to push further than just a traditional object encased in a wall. I began to look into more organic shapes and aiming to create a more lasting experience for the visitor. There was also the issue of height (it was too low for the 1:10 scale we were using) and space around the exhibit that would limit the flow of visitors. I was sharing the space with another exhibit and we hadn't really managed to make a 1.2m gap in between that would allow space for visitors to walk past comfortably.

Week 8

Inspirations

We presented to the class our initial concepts for our exhibits. In my case it was of Ocean Balance by Owen Mapp. I was interested in using Haptic interfaces to create a new relationship between a sculpture and a person, which at the moment is only limited to viewing. I felt that if the audience could feel the intricate and delicate details of the carving on the flat surface then it would add a whole new level to the experience. I was also interested in doing some kind of lead-in towards the object such as textured walls, floor graphics or way finding. Due to the back ground of my object Jason suggested that I look up the concept of tapu, noa, mauri and mana to develop a clear narrative.

Week 7

We were introduced to the second brief. Jason introduced us to examples of on-floor interactives and technologies (haptic interfaces, motion detection, touch enabled surfaces, projecting options, Peppers ghost, OLED screens, parabolic speakers etc. We were told to bring an exhibit we were interested in using and for my initial display I was thinking about the Te Marae:

Initially I chose this particular display because of its bright colours and interesting textures. I was also interested on the rich maori mythology that ties in with the exhibit. However after a discussion with Jason I realised my display might be too big for our hypothetical space so I was having second thoughts. During the weekend I researched for other potential objects and I found a sculpture called Ocean Balance by Owen Mapp as part of Te Papa's collection. It had all the same elements about it that I found interesting from the Te Marae except now it was more compact.