Final Project Ideas

Inspirations & Concept

Every time I go to a museum, I am fascinated by how an object is elevated to a certain importance by being put in a glass box. When we look at objects from the past, whether it is a piece of pottery from ancient Greece or an Egyptian stone carving tool, we see them as valuable artifacts that paint stories of life in the past. Some time in the history of time, they used to be sitting on somebody’s table, banal, everyday objects with values equivalent to Ikea mugs and kitchen knives for us. This makes me wonder, how would people in the future archive our everyday objects in the museum and turn them into storytelling tools? What does it feel like to be viewed from a future perspective?

My concept for the final project is to create a mini interactive exhibition about life in our time and present it to the people in the future. The future museum goers can interact with the exhibition and gain audio and visual information about their ancestors, us.

                     

Ideas

There are a couple ideas that can be pursued:

  1. Screen based interaction with objects:
    Artifacts, such as an MTA card, a page from a paperback book, a piece of CD, etc. are placed inside transparent boxes. One can pick the boxes up and place them onto a screen to generate information about the object.

    Questions to ask:
    What kind of technology do I need achieve this?
    What objects should I show?
    What kind of information should I display?

  2. Non screen based interaction with objects:
    Objects are placed inside acrylic boxes sitting on top of a control panel. One can use the control panel to switch to different times of the past to listen to stories about the objects.

    Questions to ask:
    Besides switching to different times, how else can one interact with the objects?
    Can I show any visual information/feedback without a screen?
    What objects should I show?

  3. Miniature dioramas of jobs that exist now but might go extinct in the future (e.g. delivery guy) that interact with people through gaming:
    Use a few simple dioramas to display 3-5 occupations of our time that may disappear soon. Engage the user into some simple gaming while giving out information about the occupations.

    Questions to ask :
    What kind of games make sense for the occupations?
    What kind of technology do I need achieve this?
    What occupations should I show?

 

Next Steps

  • Nail down the idea and develop the details.
  • Plan out the schedule of the project
  • Start prototyping
  • Purchase materials
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