Dec. 2 - Dec. 9, 2021
Partners: Dany, Greta, Ramya, Rylee
Brief: Design an experience of paper that explores its material, cultural and emotional qualities
Research Method: Literature Review
Takeaway from Interim Presentation
After the feedback from our interim presentation, we were excited to jump back into the project and think more about the human imprint on paper.
Although we intended for the volunteers to use the provided paper as postcards, the volunteers chose their own way to alter and augment the paper. From this, we saw that the size of the paper and the texture didn't play a big role in the way the volunteers used the materials. It was time to rethink other ways to show the human imprint.
Receiving/Sending Letters
We each thought about the experience of receiving a letter. First, there is the anticipation before opening the envelope. We wanted to look more closely at the emotional experience of opening a letter.
How Does Paper Create a Living Emotional Connection?
With the feedback from our interim presentation in mind, we had to revisit the entire process that went into making a letter. We agreed that the contents of the letter mattered the most. The paper acted as a vessel carrying the message, memory, or feeling from the sender to recipient.
Paper as Vessel
With more thought and discussion, we realized that the idea of paper as vessel was key. It held human emotions. This was what we wanted to focus on, more so than the act of creating or receiving a letter.
Augmenting Paper
After landing on this foundational concept, it was time to exaggerate these qualities of paper with our prototype through augmentation. We thought about all the different possibilities for augmenting paper, such as smells, sounds, and other materials.
Directed Storytelling
To explore what a person might want to convey to another person, we did some directed storytelling with our friends and flatmates. We told the interviewees that they could pick any elements that they wanted and to not be constrained by the physical aspects of paper. My flatmate said she would write to a friend in Spain and transport snow in her letter so that her friend could get a taste of winter in London.
After sharing these stories with our group, we chose three that moved us the most. These three happened to be the ones with the most emotional depth.
Why Three Vessels?
We decided on three vessels instead of two in order to give our volunteers a range of experiences. We were afraid there wouldn't be "enough" for them to experience. This later proved to be an unnecessary concern, as sometimes the depth of experience is more important than the quantity and range of experiences.
Design We wanted to distill the contents of the letter to the main elements that make the letter personal. So after interviewing our friends, we collected the main sensory elements that brought their memory to life. We included smell and touch and programmed Arduino to augment the paper with sound. We also bought portfolios in which the volunteer could open the vessel, akin to opening a letter.
Experience
We asked for one volunteer to experience the augmented letters. The volunteer could smell, touch, and push the buttons to trigger the sound, and Rylee narrated the stories behind the letters as the volunteer went along. The pacing was important, as we wanted the volunteer to experience each element closely rather than coasting through.
Feedback
John, Al, and Tonicha asked us to think about what would happen if we removed the narration and let the volunteer experience the letters at their own pace and reach their own conclusions. Our experience was quite directed and we had an answer for every question. What if we opened up the experience instead of adding limitations to it? Would this lead to a richer experience for the volunteer? I liked this suggestion, as it reminded me of my own experience with art. Oftentimes, the most surprising and moving experiences are those where I land upon a discovery on my own accord, rather than having someone tell me the exact way to interpret a work of art.
Our classmates and tutors did say that we brought the emotional elements to life and found the project to be quite moving.
Key Takeaway
Al noted that we did a good job of concretizing the elements of the letter, but then where would we go from there? This gave us much food for thought and showed us that design is a continuous process. There is always room to go deeper and ask more questions, which is both daunting and exciting at the same time.
Bibliography
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