CONVERSAT ION

~JAMES C ARBUTT

CONTENTS

Initial ResearchAnonymous Conversation ResearchAnonymous Conversation ExperimentationContext ResearchContext ExperimentationTanslation ResearchTranslation App IdeaTranslation Animation Idea

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CONVERSATION

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CONVERSATION

IN I T IAL RESEARCH

S TUDIO: MONIKER

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Your line or mine is a crowd source project by the studio Monika. It was an ongoing creation at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Participants were given a page with dots and asked to join them up following specific rules. The pages and rules changed with each participant and

so the result was an animation made up of different shapes and patterns unique to each participant. The exhibit was interactive and constantly happening. So participants could add they’re frame to a live video.I really like the idea of a kind of ongoing

conversation between people that people contribute to. I think it would be cool to explore this idea, maybe creating a way people can converse without actually knowing each other, to create something of visual interest.

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ANONYMOUS CONVERSAT ION RESEARCH

S TUDIO: LOOK MIS TER

Look Mister are the studio behind the music video and group collaboration ‘Bubbles in Space’. They work with 3D and 2D animation as well as on graphic design projects, but whilst working on this project they were helped by 100 high school students.

The students traced frames from the existing music video to create a massive group collaboration that is way more creative than the original. This differs from ‘Your Line or Mine?’ in that the students worked as artists and were given much more room to express themselves.

I’d like to create something similar to this and I plan to explore the idea of group collaboration and the way in which participants are conversing with each other.

I think what makes these projects interesting is the rules put in place to ensure an interesting visual style.

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ANONYMOUS CONVERSAT ION EXPER IMENTAT ION

I was really interested in the way that this conversation occurred between strangers, and I wanted to explore this idea. I wanted to see if I could get strangers to create something in the way they did in ‘Your Line or Mine’. However I thought it would be interesting to allow participants

to express themselves more, hopefully outputting something more interesting.So I decided to try and start a conversation of my own. I put up posters asking people to write a poem together and draw any kind of hat. I actually got some responses. I asked

a friend to put the same posters up in the girl’s bathroom as well so I could compare the responses but they stole theirs. The results can be seen above. However I don’t feel like they have much visual interest. I’ll have to explore this idea further.

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ANONYMOUS CONVERSAT ION EXPER IMENTAT ION

I wanted to explore this idea of people conversing without talking to each other further, so I experimented with this in the form of animation. I liked the way the Your Line or Mine gave the participants stimulus so I decided to do the same. Although I wanted participants to express themselves, and so instead of giving them rules I just

painted a water colour blot that changes colour and size before becoming a cube.I gave people on my course a frame and a graphics tablet and told them to draw what they wanted. This was sufficient stimulus to get some interesting responses. However I found that as an animation it really didn’t make any sense, because none

of the frames lined up.Also there was no story line or purpose to the animation. If I were to explore this idea, I think I would maybe write a plot. I could give instructions to people on what to draw and then give them and area to draw in. Ensuring that the frames at least lined up.

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ART IS T RESEARCH: JENNY HOLZER

Jenny Holzer is an artist most famous for her ‘truisms’. These are short statements that she presents in installations, graffiti and most strikingly, by projecting them on massive landscapes. She uses these short statements to get a reaction and provoke thoughts. Often her

themes have social and political themes with an emphasis on feminism.I really like the way these are just short statements that wouldn’t have much of an effect in writing. But when put in a different and radical context the meaning is changed.

I’d like to explore taking short parts of conversation and taking them out of context. Putting them in a street art context for example would give them a more socio-political meaning.

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CONTEXT RESEARCH

If I want to create some designs based around the idea of context I figured I’d need some content to work with. So I’ve been keeping a kind of field note like record of things that people say that I find interesting in this note book. Basically as certain points in the day I open this book

and write things I hear that I think might be of value later. I’ve kept a record of who said it and what they said. I plan to create some designs exploring the idea of context using these quotes. I think it might be really interesting to create a typography piece using these, and then

placing that in an interesting place where the meaning can be interpreted differently. It might also be interesting to make a conversation out of these fragments of other peoples conversations. Perhaps combining them randomly to make nonsensical conversations.

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CONTEXT RESEARCH

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CONTEXT EXPER IMENTAT ION

?!GURU

WHAT?!

MIND

READER

Created using ink and a brush

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get ridget ridget ridget ridget ridget ridget ridget ridJ U S T

O F T H E

get rid

Created using Illustrator

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CONTEXT EXPER IMENTAT ION

Created using a scalpel and several layers of paper

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Edited version using photoshop

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CONTEXT EXPER IMENTAT ION

Using my booklet of things I overheard people say. I created some typography experimentations using a number of different mediums. The idea would be to place these designs in an environment where their meaning would be interpreted as a social or political narrative. I didn’t get the chance to do this but I plan to in the future.

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Created by editing the image code in text editor

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APP IDEA RESEARCH

Building on the idea of translating what people really mean in a conversation. I thought about creating a concept for an app that does this. In theory the app would translate what people say into what they mean. This would give me the chance to design and develop a GUI which would be interesting. It would also give me chance to Here I’ve researched a few translator apps and how they present the information.

I really like the look of ‘flat’ design as opposed to skeuomorphic design, which mimics the look of real objects. I think this keeps the app looking simple and easy to use. And when coupled with a well thought out layout and colour scheme it can look really effective.A common theme of these translator apps is the speech bubble text box. This communicates the idea of speech really well and I want to include this in the design.

I think I could play around with the idea of a thought bubble too as the app effectively translates thoughts. This concept gives way to some really interesting visual themes. Mind reading, confusion, emotions, the brain and thoughts in general and translation. I think it would also be fun to create a logo and app icon for the app to root the idea further in reality.

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IN I T IAL APP IDEAS

Above are some initial ideas for the format, layout and visual style of the app. I want to try and keep the design simple and easy to use, as I feel any app should be. I had an idea that I could play on the idea of mind reading, and that the app worked as some kind of mystical guru. But I feel

that this idea may be a little frivolous for a translation app. One theme I like the idea of is the sky. This suggests clarity but I can also hint at thought bubbles using clouds. This keeps the style clear and relevant.I have to consider the functionality of the app as well as the design so I’ve explored

different screens and layouts above. I imagine there’d be an initial menu screen, a splash screen, several ‘question’ screens and then a translated screen; displaying the translated message. Opposite are possible logo ideas.

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DEVELOPED APP IDEA

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?!GURU

WHAT?!

MIND

READER

?!GURU

WHAT?!

MIND

READER

?!GURU

WHAT?!

MIND

READER

?!GURU

WHAT?!

MIND

READER ?!GURU

WHAT?!

MIND

READER

?!GURU

WHAT?!

MIND

READER

I’ve developed some of the visual ideas and themes for the app concept. One idea I worked with is the theme of mind reading and gurus, which I think would be a cool juxtaposition between old and mysterious and new and simple. I thought about calling the app something

simple and straight forward like ‘WHAT?!’ or ‘What was that supposed to mean?!’ This gives me the chance to develop logos around the ?! symbol.I also wanted to look at themes that suggest clarity. I think that the theme of sky a clear sky does this pretty well. This also

gives me the chance to hint at thoughts using the similarities between clouds and thought bubbles. Also blue is regarded as the colour of communication.

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You can see here my finished prototype of a translation app. I decided to call it ‘What Was That Supposed To Mean?’ as a kind of rhetorical question. I decided to keep my app as simple as possible and used only a subtle sky texture. I thought this would help portray clarity which is desirable in a translator.

You can see to the right I’ve created prototypes of what the different screens would look like, and how the app would be used. It would ask an number of questions, and then find a suitable answer from the data base of answers online, then show you this answer (pictured above). If I’d have had more time I would’ve animated

this or created an advertisement for the app showing in more detail how it would work. Obviously this concept is near impossible and almost definitely wouldn’t work. But it was interesting to create the graphics for it.

F IN ISHED APP CONCEPT

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Title screen; this displays the name of the app and would swipe the next screen. I used a blue sky as the theme because I wanted to put across themes of clarity.

The idea behind the app is that user would be able to translate other people’s queries in a Yahoo Questions inspired feature.

I tried to keep the UI as simple as possible, and utilising simple icons like these helped me.

The input screen.

The screen asking the user how the person said the comment.

The translating screen, featuring a loading bar and if this was a real app, suitable sound effects.

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TRANSL AT ION ANIMAT ION

I decided to build on the idea of rtranlating what people say by creating an animation. Above are possible scenarios which can be translated. I think I should keep the animation specific to one location to make sure it

doesn’t get too random. I think a good location would be the work place, as this is where people tend to be very polite and lie to each other. Above I’ve sketched out wehat the layouts might look like but I need a style

to make the animation in. I think a subtle colour pallatte will emphasise content and this is paramount, as I won’t be using any voices but probably speech bubbles.

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F IN ISHED TRANSL AT ION ANIMAT IONYou can see here my finished prototype of a tranlsation app. I decided to call it ‘What Was That Supposed To Mean?’ as a kind of rhetorical question. I decided to keep my app as simple as possible and used only a subtle sky texture. I thought this would help portray clarity which is desirable in a translator.

You can see to the right I’ve created prototypes of what the different screens would look like, and how the app would be used. It would ask an number of questions, and then find a suitable answer from the data base of answers online, then show you this answer (pictured above). If I’d have had more

time I would’ve animated this or created an advertisement for the app showing in more detail how it would work. Obviously this concept is near impossible and almost definitely wouldn’t work. But it was interesting to create the graphics for it.

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F IN ISHED TRANSL AT ION ANIMAT ION

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