Final Proposal Concepts – Vicky
For my thesis I’m working with children in hospital areas, and since the environment is on my mind I wanted to create something that after might be implemented there in order to make the hospital experience more comforting and less painful. Also, since they spend a lot of time there, I wanted to create something to decorate but it would also be personal – meaningful to them.
1. Positive wall
Use words of incentive, wisdom, hope, etc to attach to one wall. Patients could interact by attaching these word into the wall if they “felt” or “needed” that word. The words would be attach with a pin, each individually.
(Use laser cut / material not defined)
2. Butterflies wall
Ask for children who are able to draw, to make drawings of butterflies and I would scan their drawings and create a wall with them. These butterflies could be in a corridor of an hospital that when children would pass by they would see these butterflies.
(Use laser cut or 3D to print them)
Other theme: accidents / attacks / terror
3. Fear
I wanted to create a heart or brain or even a body silhouette and project peoples fear onto them. This would be based on the attacks that are currently happening. I would interview people to collect answers and than project.
(Use laser cut or 3D print)
4. Belonging
Also based on the current attacks in Paris. I would 3D print belongings or parts the body as if they where from real people and create a story behind it to touch people. The story would be that theses belonging or parts of the body belonged to a group of people who where killed during a certain attack or incident in history.
(Use of 3D print)
I like the first one. I do think that that will rely heavily on the aesthetics, which is prob good because that’s a strong point of yours 🙂 If you’re interested in this concept, I would definitely push you to think more about scale, materials, and the actual interaction with the users (i.e., the kids). What characteristics can you bring to it to by playing these, particularly in the context of your project goals (giving agency to kids; all the studies that thinking or saying positive things makes a difference)? What about the interaction with this will give a feeling of satisfaction or positivity?
The second is cute, but I sort of takes some of the aesthetics out of your hands, which makes sense in the context of your goals, but also probably would take away from the overall power of the piece. I also think this is something that hospitals and schools do sometimes already.
With the third concept, I like the basic idea, but I would want you to give it more focus. Why a brain, heart, or body for collecting fears? Is the focus on an individual dealing with fear/worry or about the terrorist attacks? If both, how are you building the connection between the two through the visual and interactive aesthetics?
The last one could be very powerful, but also I think you’re going to have to be very careful with it. There’s a lot of ethical questions that arise when you’re trying to depict a tragic event, especially one that is most recent. What knowledge do you have of it that qualifies you to depict it? Are you dehumanizing victims of these attacks by simplifying them to body parts? I think if you have a personal angle into this or are interested in putting the attacks into historical perspective (with other terrorist attacks in history) then it might be a little safer. Just some things to think about.
Cool concepts!
I am leaning mosts towards the third concept. It is interesting to visualize all the turmoil that is happening in our world right now. The choice of a human heart can be a very powerful representation of how humanity is being lost with all the violence that is happening all over the world. You can use material that can be easily manipulated (silicon?) and the organ can change based on world news for example. Let’s say, when a certain hashtag circulates the heart can grow bigger as more people become involved in what is happening in the world.