Project title : Sensation : Artifice + Desire
Member : Foo Chun Khong (myself)
Chan Si Khei
Sang Li Lian
Cheng Choryi
Cheah Pei Yung (Debbie)
(view this site for project proposal)
What would you think of when people ask, "What is sensation?"
Goof question though, because a team of 5 like us was wondering around during the idea development stage based on the phrase "Sensation: Artifice + Desire".
SENSATION | Defined by dictionary.com as below:
1. the operation/ function of the senses; perception/awareness of stimuli through the senses.
2. a mental condition/ physical feeling resulting from stimulation of a sense organ/from internal bodily change.
3. a general feeling indirectly attributable to any given stimulus, as discomfort, anxiety & doubt.
4. a mental feeling, especially a state of excited feeling/interest caused among a number of persons/ throughout a committee.
ARTIFICE | Defined by dictionary.com as below:
1. a clever trick/ stratagem; a cunning, crafty device.
2. trickery;guile;craftiness.
3. cunning;ingenuity;inventiveness.
4. a skillful/ artful contrivance/expedient.
DESIRE | Defined by dictionary.com as below:
1. a longing/craving, as for something that brings satisfaction/ enjoyment.
2. an expresses wish;request.
3. something desired.
4. sexual appetite/ a sexual urge.
06 January- 10 January, 2011
Honestly, when we first received the project brief, it was like "What The Hell!" shouting in my heart. At first, we were linking the sensation theme to a traditional games in Malaysia such as congkak, wau, ting-ting, so on and so forth. The initial idea was to create a machine/device that coach future young generation on how to play traditional games as these traditions sooner or later will be vanished. By the way, we know that the idea doesn't work after very first consultation with relevant tutors because "THE IDEA WAS SUCKED!" . We were advised to read and explore the project brief which is with all the bombastic wording plus confusing assessment criteria, again and again, like more than thousand times in order to get back on track, to seek for what the brief actually want us to do. >,<>
14 January, 2011
5 of us were scratching our heads during the discussion of idea & concept. The word "SEX" seems to be like a magic word for us as it leads our discussion to an excitement. *hurray* At least we found a direction, a topic that allow us to explore more rather than just traditional games (lame joke). We manage to sketch initial ideas of having two devices which both of them are actually toilet-looked in appearance but there are hot spots that trigger sensation and feeling of excitement. For instant, we may design a toilet with a mirror, a basin and a sanitizer container where sensitive significant inner parts of female are hidden beneath. What do you think? "It sounds great!", for all of us. We targeted youngsters sexual desire which tend to be more wide in the future. But it is still lack of something that considered as the soul/ essence of the entire device, which is MR.Concept! *dang* This is the crucial part of idea & development for a project, especially group work, because we need to listen and accept but not fight back aggressively or feel offended.
p/s: We are a group of harmony. *thumbs up*
17 January, 2011
It was a "so so" idea after the consultation. We find that we are still lack of content and the impact is not powerful enough to be delivered to targeted audiences. Meaning that we need to research more to backup our idea and create impact final message. *headache* Jazmi approached to our group and suggested to us on how to execute the idea in more creative/ more multimedia way as if we can add some sound effect, display the avatar with some reaction and so forth. By the way, an avatar can be said is a graphical image that represents a person. Those suggestions help though, we manage to reconstruct the idea in a better structure where the device emphasize some kind of fetish and yet tackling some issues. Thank GOD!
20 January, 2011
Lilian and I were typing the content of proposal while waiting for others in base room. When they are all here, we started the discussion again. This time, we discussed about design of the device itself. We were inspired by a gif of vending machine which animated a japanese buying a girl from sex vending machine. It is so interesting. The device is ideally for one user because fetish is a very personal preference and this is the reason that we plan to use headphones instead of speakers. There are four options that leads to 3 random endings. As it stated in the proposal, by interacting with this installation, users are able to experience the pleasures of simulated satisfaction sexually where sensation such as sight, sound and touch affecting the emotions of displayed avatar in the screen. *wohoo*
24 January, 2011
Today meant to be a presentation day for proposal but it turned into "DOOM DAY" as we were told to redo the poster because the information structure is different than others. "Can't we be different??", shouting in my heart unwillingly. The idea was acceptable but still, lacking of content. =___=||| Showing a "sweat" face because of redoing the poster! After warfare of presentation, we back into discussion with injuries (mentally). The content of proposal is already there, just that someone need to reorganize the information structure for readability. No big deal! We can do this!
p/s: Chinese New Year holiday is coming, I wanna Eat, Sleep, Play, I don't care~
31 January - 08 February, 2011
Within these holidays, I have done research of programming. Mouse click event is the major concern for the overall programming. The mouse will be hidden underneath a pair of nude bras, symbolize breasts of female. By squeezing the nude bras, it then trigger mouse click. There are 5 stages of orgasm in total when the mouse click reach certain count. Well, the big picture of the device would be a user touching the hidden "boobs" and displayed avatar on screen virtually react to their touch. Simulation of sexual desire by applying methodology of "act and react". When user action was detected, the computer device react to their corresponding action. *haha* This may also relate to the essence of Multimedia, which is "Human Computer Interaction".
09 February, 2011
We sit in a group of 5, discussing about the final message. We need to enhance user experience and deliver message at the same time. By using the concept of vending machine, there would be reward for consumers but what could it be? Must it be excitement? No no no no, we decided to pull back the excitement of users by rewarding series of circumstances when a man addicted to prostitution. We wanna show side effects of prostitution because we design the device to tackle sexual desire issues but not provoking/ promoting prostitution. As we stated in the proposal, we targeted men who are driven by a compulsive need for sex, or fear of intimacy & commitment and instead turn to prostitution. The device is meant for create awareness among men who are obsessed with prostitution. Research on graphic & programming is going on.
p/s: Finally the proposal was done ~
14 February, 2011
It was a day for alpha testing. As usual, we demonstrate the rough programming without any graphic because we decided to video shoot girl expression with 4 different characteristics. The date of exact shooting is coming Thursday (17 February, 2011). At the same day, we noted down measurement of the device and space. And production of graphic and programming started.
18 February,2011
We research on materials that going to form a vending machine, which is polystyrene board with 2inches of thickness. We paint and cut according to the design in proposal. It was the toughest process of production as the polystyrene boards are uneasy to cut with ordinary cutter. And we also concern about the stability of the whole device as polystyrene board is very light weighted. A lot of considerations..... *headache* >,<>
21 February, 2011
Early in the morning, we have reached incubation center (location of beta testing) but it was locked until we seek for It department to open it up. What a waste of time~ Choryi and I were building the cupboard whereas Si Khei, Lilian and Debbie busy merging the polystyrene boards. We spent around 2 hours to build up the rack as we are not professional carpenters. *claps* After that, I have started my programming which is to refine the previous version by adding in video clips. Although the outcome of video clip looks not convincing, we were glad to have another volunteer to redo video shooting. And the programming runs smoothly. *phew~* After receiving comments from first beta testing, we have pin points that need to be refined. Here are the details of refinement:
INSTRUCTIONS
• must be clear throughout the program (introductions + in between slotting coin / pressing button / squeezing breast)
comments from the beta testing; final outcome
• combine the fb + camera ending
• hiv ending text - change typography + clearer + shorter
• add audio to the knock scene asking users to bend down to collect their 'reward'; or use visual triggers (eg. arrows)
PROGRAMMING
• meter bar - make it go vertical (upwards) instead of horizontal; edit the colour of the bar to match the theme of the machine
• add more clicks, as users are clicking too quickly that they miss viewing the videos
• certain videos must finish playing before going to the next video (the orgasm > knock > final outcome scenes)
• if the machine is untouched for a certain time, it needs to reset itself
VIDEO CLIPS/AUDIO
• background music too loud (and loops) / girl's voice audio needs to be louder; users can't hear the girl's voice audio
• must remove background / white noise from the video audio
• have a separate audio (from a mp3) to attract users towards the machine
• needs editing to make it more attractive
• model requests to edit the video more to make it look less obviously like her
• display girl's name at her first scene to make it clearer to the users
MECHANISM
• more solid + stable for the final presentation
• screen + breast mechanism positioning - too high and too low
• buttons - not 'porny' / sexy enough; might need to light up if the room is too dark
• clear room before the final presentation
p/s: overall it was an "okay" beta testing.
24 February, 2011
Reconstruct the wooden rack, video shooting refinement, graphic refinement are all in today. I have to dismantle the built rack due to height of screen is not proper. Since Choryi is absent, I have to do this alone because I am the only guy here. *sobs* When I was about to take another piece of wood from Kah Li's car which she parked at Pyramid hotel, rain falling heavily. =__=
What a bad day. I was running in the middle of rain with a piece of wood on my head! *!@#$%*
Sticking the polystyrene boards is the most troublesome work because it requires pairs of hands to do so. Using a glue gun to stick parts by parts of those boards takes hours. At the end we manage to refine everything until dinner time. We decided to continue by tomorrow.
p/s: my hands were red and "bengkak"~ but the structure is much more stable compared to last one .
25 February, 2011
We have finally constructed the wooden rack with proper heights. Everything looks great. Now we need to concern about the video clips. The art style needed to be concern as well. Replacing the video clips causing my laptop lagggg..>,<..
28 February, 2011
This is the day for beta testing. As usual, we reached college early in the morning although beta testing start after lunch. A lot of preparation need to be done before the show start. For me, I am handling the programming where I have to replace edited video clips, make sure the sound detection script is working and also the energy bar (refinement). Overall it is a busy day to set up everything and then dismantle again. How nice it is if there is a space that provided specifically for installation. =___= I bet it would never happen. *crack* Sound of cracked heart~
02 March, 2011
After receiving comments from beta testing, we decided to do refinement within this week since everyone has to rush for other project submission as well. In my scope, I need to do experiment on timer event to make the video clip transition works better. Within a time frame given, the ending video clip will automatically change to the reward scene and then reset the whole program by itself within 13 seconds. So far the sound detection is working well. To ensure the continuity of scene transition, we used timer event. It helps to humanize the kiosk where by it reset automatically and it would be ideally artificial intelligence.
05 March, 2011
Working on my individual blog. Working processes are written here in order for future references. By the way, publish working processes via internet is an alternative method for documentation. We can actually upload digital data such as images and video clips through blogging space, help to save paper and ink as well. You would not need to worry about loss of documentation because it appears in cyber space. So why not blogging?
07 March, 2011
Weeee~ Final presentation was held on today, 3p.m! I was one of the observer during the presentation and documenting the process of user interacting with our installation by video recording. Overall the final outcome is a successful exhibition where programming run smooth, the kiosk was not falling apart and the most important is the kiosk brought laughter (meaning users enjoy it in a sarcastic way of telling). Well, the project is nearly done, back to writing for 1k words about working processes and member analysis.
