http://netzspannung.org/cat/servlet/CatServlet?cmd=netzkollektor&subCommand=showEntry&entryId=79453&lang=en
It is interesting that they are using virtual reality to put people more in touch with marine wildlife for those who don't get a chance to go scuba diving. This has a both a serene and an unsettling experience.
This is a serene experience in that it gets people to experience a peaceful underwater paradise that has all kinds of sea creatures. It is unsettling because there is also a heavy environmental message that people get out of it.
However the idea of virtual reality with those people just sitting there scares me a bit. There is actually very little interactivity except for in virtual space. Are we going to sit there like bumps on a log lazily not participating in anything? Are we going to stop working and be slaves to the machine?
However I guess it is not that different from watching T.V. I am not sure whether virtual reality is a bad thing or not I guess it depends what it is used for. I guess it is like any other machine it can be used and abused.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Exciting kids learing is back
I think that it is exciting that they are breaking with tradition and hosting a children's library with interactive spaces. http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.interactivearchitecture.org/wp-content/imagebank/libre.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.interactivearchitecture.org/interactive-childrens-library-interactive-spaces.html&usg=__QvOgkgJnJJ8TDedMQSZtTQU0G2k=&h=315&w=450&sz=41&hl=en&start=3&sig2=6FdCtkOOYOnj675uaxzlQg&um=1&tbnid=k8mhNRl5Ml4Y2M:&tbnh=89&tbnw=127&ei=sUpvSYaqJZeENabSxKYN&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dinteractive%2Bspaces%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox%26rls%3DFlockInc.:en-US:official%26sa%3DN
It uses both real and virtual space and it helps kids teach themselves without even realising how much they are learning. With kids it is often better to show them something than to merely tell them about it. There is very little in the design now but it will get more and more interactive as it goes on.
Kids are naturally curious so this takes their natural curiosity and makes them able to learn through awe inspiring technologies. People have been using technologies to divert kids for ages but this uses the latest technologies to inform inspire and educate kids.
It uses both real and virtual space and it helps kids teach themselves without even realising how much they are learning. With kids it is often better to show them something than to merely tell them about it. There is very little in the design now but it will get more and more interactive as it goes on.
Kids are naturally curious so this takes their natural curiosity and makes them able to learn through awe inspiring technologies. People have been using technologies to divert kids for ages but this uses the latest technologies to inform inspire and educate kids.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
The game of Afterlife
As I talked about in the earlier post the first game was no fun to play. But the second was a horse of a different color. You basically had to get good karma and had to go from death to rebirth. This took place in virtual media as did the previous one. It was in point of fact a dice game played on the computer. The stages were Death, Grave, Haunting, Ascent, Heaven, Rebirth.
You had to roll more on each score: one Death, two Graves, all the way up to Six Rebirths but on each you got more times you could roll each die. If you did not roll it on that try, you had to try again. There was the idea of gaining enlightenment that made it interesting. I think what made this game enjoyable was that we wanted to redeem ourselves in a fun game.
I think that this shows that people still want to be as good a person as they can be. Which is heartening although it has nothing to do with real karma. If I was writing this game, I might add a few gentle morality questions that help the score. Although that would be very easy to cheat on, so I would have to find a way you couldn't possibly cheat.
You had to roll more on each score: one Death, two Graves, all the way up to Six Rebirths but on each you got more times you could roll each die. If you did not roll it on that try, you had to try again. There was the idea of gaining enlightenment that made it interesting. I think what made this game enjoyable was that we wanted to redeem ourselves in a fun game.
I think that this shows that people still want to be as good a person as they can be. Which is heartening although it has nothing to do with real karma. If I was writing this game, I might add a few gentle morality questions that help the score. Although that would be very easy to cheat on, so I would have to find a way you couldn't possibly cheat.
Dragonfly Damselfly Knightfly
I had to play two games in class and I think that I have the same opinion as everyone else that the first game was more annoying. These games used virtual space. The first was a dragon and damsel game, and the second was an afterlife game, but the afterlife game was more fun. They were interestingly both based on ancient civilizations: the former, Ancient Europe; the latter, Ancient Asia.
The first game was invented in the early 1980s and everyone was a crudely drawn silhouette. It basically consisted of A knight (you) trying to save the damsels who had an annoying suicidal quality of throwing themselves outside the battlements, and you were supposed to catch them. There was also a dragon that breathed fire that you were supposed to run away from and not fight. Sound simple? Oh yes, there was also the fact that damsels fell out all the time, and the dragon could come from any direction, as could the damsels. And every time someone died, you lost a life, and if four lives were lost, the game ended. You were lucky if you scored a ten. I thunk I should have played as the dragon.
The first game was invented in the early 1980s and everyone was a crudely drawn silhouette. It basically consisted of A knight (you) trying to save the damsels who had an annoying suicidal quality of throwing themselves outside the battlements, and you were supposed to catch them. There was also a dragon that breathed fire that you were supposed to run away from and not fight. Sound simple? Oh yes, there was also the fact that damsels fell out all the time, and the dragon could come from any direction, as could the damsels. And every time someone died, you lost a life, and if four lives were lost, the game ended. You were lucky if you scored a ten. I thunk I should have played as the dragon.
zen Drawings
It is interesting that in a culture devoted to striving to be the best of everything people are embracing Buddhism's teachings of striving to not strive. It started as a reaction against the ultra materialism in the roaring twenties. As a reaction to WWI people were moving to the big cities and cars and telephones were becoming everyday. Then in the 1930s it was gone. This drove more people to question capitalism and one outlet was zen philosophy.
This was later revisited more intensely in the 1960s as a reaction to the post WWII us when everybody was supposed to go back to conformity. Suddenly young people were questioning the capitalist government and were drawing on things from the east. this time it actually worked for a larger less select group called by most people "hippies"(they actually preferred "freaks").
This zen drawing exercise was fascinating.I was intrigued by the drawing exercises where the whole point was to see what happened when we let go of or consciousness. I was actually being told to focus inside my head but I think I overdid it in class. This used inner space and real space . We inderectly interacted with each other as a group in doing this drawing. We didn't look at the previos artist and mada a somehow unified whole
The drawing I think could hang either right side up or upside down and it would work either way.
This was later revisited more intensely in the 1960s as a reaction to the post WWII us when everybody was supposed to go back to conformity. Suddenly young people were questioning the capitalist government and were drawing on things from the east. this time it actually worked for a larger less select group called by most people "hippies"(they actually preferred "freaks").
This zen drawing exercise was fascinating.I was intrigued by the drawing exercises where the whole point was to see what happened when we let go of or consciousness. I was actually being told to focus inside my head but I think I overdid it in class. This used inner space and real space . We inderectly interacted with each other as a group in doing this drawing. We didn't look at the previos artist and mada a somehow unified whole
The drawing I think could hang either right side up or upside down and it would work either way.
Monday, January 12, 2009
"hands on please touch"
In one site http://www.gilcrease.org/interactive.aspx about interactive spaces it had a please touch statement for kids so that they would not be afraid to interact directly with that space. This museum uses real space and virtual space. I always liked "hands on, please touch museums" as a kid and I think even as an adult I would still like them.
I think it is interesting about our society that most museums have a hands off don't touch policy even though people used to touch artwork all the time. This reminded me of hands on museums I went to as a kid and how delighted I was since I could touch everything and be a kid. I still haven't fully grown up and will always have a bit of the kid in me. If I was opening a museum for kids, it would be hands on.
I think it is interesting about our society that most museums have a hands off don't touch policy even though people used to touch artwork all the time. This reminded me of hands on museums I went to as a kid and how delighted I was since I could touch everything and be a kid. I still haven't fully grown up and will always have a bit of the kid in me. If I was opening a museum for kids, it would be hands on.
Furby keeps annoying me
The Furby is a really weird phenomenon. First of all, it uses both real and virtual media. It looks like a furry owl and the commercial makes it seem very cute, but there is a slightly darker side to the furby. It is programed to react to space just like an animal or a human being. It looks alive, acts alive, seems alive, but isn't alive. The Furby is cute but also annoying. Somehow you feel that if you don't love your furby, you're a bad person.
The furby scares me even in it's usual cute state because we are creating a new life form, playing god. This Frankenstein sense of the furby is brought home with the creepy skeleton furby shown here. It is the actual inside of a furby and programed to act like a monster. It is a bit creepy yet somehow I know it won't haunt my dreams. It's kind of an Addams family, Norman Bates, or FrankenFurby. This image has a train wreck fascination. You can't look away even though you're scared.
The furby makes me feel that we are a society both afraid of, and at the same time, ready to embrace technology. And that if it is cute, or fun, or appealing we are more likely to accept it.
Be honest- which scares you more?
The furby scares me even in it's usual cute state because we are creating a new life form, playing god. This Frankenstein sense of the furby is brought home with the creepy skeleton furby shown here. It is the actual inside of a furby and programed to act like a monster. It is a bit creepy yet somehow I know it won't haunt my dreams. It's kind of an Addams family, Norman Bates, or FrankenFurby. This image has a train wreck fascination. You can't look away even though you're scared.
The furby makes me feel that we are a society both afraid of, and at the same time, ready to embrace technology. And that if it is cute, or fun, or appealing we are more likely to accept it.
Be honest- which scares you more?
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