Presented my thesis in the Starz theatre today,  basically received three comments/questions overall.

 

The first was from Bryan DeLevie, who said he got three things from my thesis, including Aversion, Diversion, and Spectacle. Considering I believe my thesis concentrates on changing or diverting aversion to technology into fascination I feel that makes sense, and am glad I at least got that across.

 

He also commented that my thesis is not what I think it’s about, but that I’m close. Apparently it’s not about getting rid of technophobia, or getting people not to be afraid to utilize things like Google or try to print off documents, it’s about changing our expectation and relationship with technology. I like this idea, about changing what we expect to get from technology and our relationship with it, I feel that that does lie at the core of what I want to spend this semester examining. The next comment he gave was that the previous way I was addressing my approach ignored other opportunities that my project presented. I suppose what he meant was that there was a much broader scope that my product could address, and that I was perhaps pursuing a problem that could be a little more applicable to today’s world. I still find my problem to be important, especially due to my relationship with my mother and sister, both of which are somewhat tech-inept, but I see the appeal of alternatively showing that everyone’s relationship with technology can be different rather than a select few.

 

Travis asked the question of how this would make people less afraid of Google, to which I responded as follows: I believe that giving people a different kind of experience with a piece of technology, one that is rooted in tactile interaction rather than a point-and-click interface, will give people a sort of primal understanding of how technology can work, and show them that they can interact with this thing without fear of doing something wrong.

 

The final question, posed by Delevie and reiterated by Michelle that was perhaps the most worrisome to both the staff and myself was how I am planning on installing my piece. I don’t have a solid idea just yet, but I’m considering a variety of options and am considering consulting people that have perhaps worked with bizarre mount systems before. Michelle suggested that I try and install outside, because I will have to be conscientious of the mess that any of my sand will make. Other options would include putting mats down on the floor as a sort of catch-all device, and hope the sand doesn’t stray too far from my piece. I mentioned that I would have to install some sort of Gazebo outside to block out excess light as a result, though I’m feeling that such a structure will be somewhat necessary regardless. After my presentation, I continued talking with Mages about it, and the subject of cats came up as something to be concerned about. If it gets used as a litter box, I’m going to be in some trouble!

 

I’m going to talk more about these ideas in my next post, however.

 

Overall the proposal was fairly well received. I got an 86% for where I am at the moment, which I feel is a fairly good place to start at if I do say so myself. People seem excited to see the end product. I would like to thank Sally for taking notes for me while I was presenting, that helped phenomenally with this post, and was a pleasant surprise!