Dot and the Kangaroo: Project Proposal

Because of my frequently changing ideas and project development, a lot of my relevant information is scattered throughout this blog. So here is a more cohesive summary of what I intend to do, with further details in each linked blog post.

Synopsis:

This will be an interactive website/iPad App which is essentially bringing new life to Ethel C. Pedley’s children’s novel “Dot and the Kangaroo”, originally published in 1899. Taking the form of a cross between an eBook and digital archive, I will create a prototype version of what I’ve been calling an ‘augmented eBook’ – giving users a traditional book experience with extra educational resources, interactive information and historical and environmental material.

Research information available here: On eBooks, audiences, pirates and kangaroos

Purpose:

The online doco has two main purposes: firstly, to re-introduce an old book and history to new audiences. The 1900s and 1910s were a fascinating time in our country’s past, but is not well known or accessible to today’s society. By digitising and renewing this accessibility, the site will hopefully pique new interest in the area and potentially inspire dialogue with the elderly, addressing the digital generational divide.

The second purpose of the site is to draw attention to Australia’s conservation issues and environmental causes, as per Pedley’s dedication to ‘the children of Australia’. The site will aim to highlight the current problems and encourage environmental activism.

Research information available here: Old books – the new adventure
More research about purpose here:  Old books: further development

Intended Audience:

The primary are Australians and those interested in Australian history. I’ve decided not to focus on children, because I want to be able to make it accessible for adults who may be interested in literature, Australia, history, wildlife and conservation issues. Its medium should appeal to the tech-savvy but I’d like it to be accessible for older audiences, wanting to reconnect with the old days. Although intended for children, the book is simply and artistically written so that ‘grown-ups’ can still enjoy it – and sometimes, looking back on things from childhood, people go ‘oh, now I understand’ – and this is what I hope to achieve. The website should still be able to be accessed by younger audiences if they are interested, as well as non-Australians – the key environmental messages really are applicable to the plight of animals throughout the world.

Content:

There will be three areas of content: the eBook itself, a section about childhood in the early Australian era and a section about modern day conservation issues.

Research information available here: Dot and the Kangaroo: The book, the era, the issues

Design:

Navigation of the content will be via the book and a desk interface, with items which can be scrolled-over and clicked on for other pages of information. There will be some items ‘tucked in’ the pages of the book, to be discovered at the reader’s pace. Interactions will be small but engaging with the content. The style will have a natural aesthetic, including images of found items and articles, and designed with a soft bush colour palette. The sound design will be minimal but relevant to the narrative and issues raised.

More research information available here: Dot and the Kangaroo: Design aspects
Images of the Dot and the Kangaroo book available here: Old books: further development

Feasibility:

My content is using material from the public domain and citable sources, so that is also feasible. The potential scope is quite wide, however, so for the sake of this assignment, I will limit it to the first two chapters (with the intent of doing more), and four sections about the early Australian context, and four sections about modern conservation issues and endangered species. The construction of the site would be in Adobe InDesign 5.5 and Flash, with embedding in WordPress. Technical specifications would be investigated for converting to an iPad App format. User generated content will be considered, but at this stage it would only make the project more challenging.

Dot and the Kangaroo: Design aspects

While writing about the users and content I’ve had some time to come up with some of the elements of design I could include…

I’m envisioning the site to be made in InDesign 5.5, and be available as an iPad App and website. Users would be introduced to the site with an original illustration and the dedication to ‘the children of Australia’ (as citizens, we are Australia’s children), and a small introduction to the site. The main interface while reading the story would look like the old-school book open with double pages, and viewers click on /swipe the pages to flick across. There’d be a few items surrounding the book on a table, which move or glow when you hover the mouse over them – like the interface of JK Rowling’s official site perhaps, but less busy. A few items would be found nestled in between pages – like the newspaper clippings I found in Webster’s Dictionary. Each item would be significant and transport users to a more in depth section about the issue – in the two categories of ‘the era’ or ‘the issues’. Across the bottom there’d be a more standard menu of the extra resources – I’ve learnt from the Waterlife doco that there’s lots of benefit in multiple methods of getting to content.

An interesting way to access the extra categories might be like Adobe’s Digital Publishing: Transforming the Magazine Experience with Wired. I’d love to have this kind of interaction with the book, but I would have to develop my technical skills somewhat. So I guess I will have to keep to the structure of a desk with things that can be delved into, for now. Here’s a really rough version of the wireframe. The extra content will also be available throughout the book, where relevant.

I’ve thought of a interaction design idea which I really like, but am not sure how to actually create… but I’m going to talk about it anyway. I like the thought of books as pre-loved treasures, and absolutely enjoyed discovering little things like Bern McClintock’s drawings in my copy of Treasure Island. So, I thought it could be cool to create some kind of interaction where users can draw some little pictures in the margins if they like – and if they’re appropriate, a moderator could approve them and they would appear on the site. As more people view the site, there’d be more evidence left behind. The idea is sort of like a strange combination of the sites ‘Doodle or Die’ and “Le Catalogue”. Doodle or Die is a fun online version of game I know as ‘Captionary’, where you are given a sentence and try to draw it and pass it on – the next person only sees the image and tries to come up with a caption for it, and so the chain continues. It’s revealed at the end like this:

“Le Catalogue” was an online art exhibit I saw at the beginning of the year, but I don’t think it’s available anymore? The link doesn’t work, anyway. Basically, whenever anyone viewed the images, they were altered. It’s described like this below:

“In “Le Catalogue,” the mastermind behind x-arn.org has created a database of documentary images (an archive) of art projects between 1990-1996 that’s available for public access. Every time an image is viewed, a horizontal and a vertical line that always intersect are added to the archived image, which is then again stored for access by another user. The more the images are accessed, the more they are abstracted or – if one thinks of preserving the object of art – destroyed. … The image is unique in time and space because next time the same file is accessed, there will be two more lines added, and so on. In this way, “Le Catalogue” takes on the idea of destruction as a progressive movement marking time, bringing on the new: one can look forward to destruction as a type of online collaboration between the author and the end user, where the archived information is not preserved but rather reinterpreted constantly—it is a constant remix, moving towards destruction. History is here dependent on linear traces that expose the instability of interpretation; much like tree rings, traces are left behind, marking time, leaving us with an allegorical database presenting destruction (death) as an inevitable part of life.” (Navas, E. 2006, ‘Remix: The Bond of Repetition and Representation’, remixtheory, http://remixtheory.net/?p=361)

Whereas I would prefer to see what people would be adding to my website, I think this could be a cool feature of the overall experience. People could have the option of turning the ‘scribbles layer’ on or off, according to their taste/disposition. But I don’t know how to make this! So: also technically unfeasible I suppose.

In terms of UI design, I’d like to keep quite a organic and intuitive layout. The colour palette will be like the bush – natural hues of browns, greens, blues, yellow, white etc. In that way, it will draw inspiration from the original illustrations:

Also, I really like the colours used Minnie Pwerle’s artworks:

The typography in ‘the era’ sections would be ‘old-timey’, but still readable on the screen. The typography in ‘the issues’ sections would be simple and readable. Both sections would include a few short paragraphs each, with accompanying images, basic interactions, links to further information, quotes from relevant people (eg elderly people reflecting, environmental experts). I’d like to keep a realistic aesthetic for these sections- faded black and white photos, yellowing newspaper clippings etc. I’m thinking of species profiles and little animated animals around the issues, with a more modern style but still matching the rest of the site.

Sound design will be kept fairly minimal, but I think it’d be nice to have an underlying bush track while the story is read. As in Gross’ film, I could insert some scroll-over sound effects of real recordings of the bird calls and other audio aspects of the book- such as Dot’s song (p.14-15) and the Platypus’s sorrowful tune “Oh, Troglyodites obscure – oh! oh!” (p.63-64). There’s frequent mentions to sounds which users may want to hear, like the Nightjar’s calls of ‘Mo-Poke’ (p. 26):

“I say, Nightjar,” she said, “I’m a little sad to-night, please go and sing elsewhere.”
“Ah!” said the Nightjar, “I’m so glad I’ve given you deliciously dismal thoughts with my song! “

The era section could include reconstructions of typical audiocscapes and some Australian folk songs (mentioned earlier) – which play if users choose them. In general, though, the sound design would be minimal and unobtrusive.

These design aspects are quite feasible. My content is using material from the public domain and citable sources, so that is also feasible. The potential scope is quite wide, however, so for the sake of this assignment, I will limit it to the first two chapters (with the intent of doing more), and four sections about the early Australian context, and four sections about modern conservation issues and endangered species.

Dot and the Kangaroo: The book, the era, the issues

Time to settle on the content and user experience design for Dot and the Kangaroo! I’ve researched a bit more about the book and its story, enough to know that this would work well as a website on its own and I would not consider expanding to other old children’s books- there’s so much to cover here. Before I go into the UX design, time to settle on who the users are and what the content is…

Audience profiling:

Primarily Australians and those interested in Australian history. I’ve decided not to focus on children, because I want to be able to make it accessible for adults who may be interested in literature, Australia, history, wildlife and conservation issues. Its medium should appeal to the tech-savvy but I’d like it to be accessible for older audiences, wanting to reconnect with the old days. The book is simply and artistically written so that ‘grown-ups’ can still enjoy it – and sometimes people looking back on things from childhood go ‘oh, now I understand’ – and this is what I hope to achieve. The website should still be able to be accessed by younger audiences if they are interested, as well as non-Australians – the key messages really are applicable to the plight of animals throughout the world.

The story:

Dot and the Kangaroo tells the story of a young girl called Dot, who gets lost in the bush but is befriended by a red kangaroo. When it feeds her some berries she becomes able to talk to animals, and has some adventures before making her way home. She finds out about the ways humans interact with the environment through her discussions with the Kangaroo, Willy Wagtail, Platypus, Satin Bower Bird, Emu, and many other birds and native Australian animals. According to ‘Bottlesnikes and Other Lost Things: A Celebration of Australian Illustrated Children’s Books’ (Juliet O’Conor, 2009, The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, p.66-7), Dot and the Kangaroo’s strong conservation message deals with Australians’ treatment of wildlife in the late 1800s. In ‘Revisiting Dot and the Kangaroo: Finding a Way in the Australian Bush‘ (2007, Australian Humanities Review), Ulla Rahbek asserts that one of the key messages in the story is of the importance of security and having a safe home.

Yoram Gross made a film version in 1977, combining live footage of Australian settings with animations of the characters.

A truly Australian film, it makes use of some great ideas for incorporating our culture and locations. I like the way it uses found recordings of the bird calls and animal noises. My material will stick with the book’s original illustrations I think, because of the issues with copyright and not over-complicating things more generally.

The era:

I’ve been researching further into the life and times of Australian children in that era. Like in the old books I found, I’d like to include some little artefacts about the times, as if they were tucked into the book’s pages. Old photos, newspaper snippets, letters, scraps of paper, perhaps a small toy – those kinds of things.

The ABC provides succinct interesting timelines of the historical context and local events.

The Government website also provides some fascinating information about colonial history (eg the changing face of early Australia). But what was childhood like?

The UTS library provides some interesting books which I will enjoy delving into further:
–The Endless Playground: Celebrating Australian Childhood
–Australian Childhood: A History
–Stories of Herself When Young: Autobiographies of Childhood by Australian Women

From books and oral histories in museums and other sources, I will glean some stories of childhood for Pedley’s original audience – what life was like at school, at home, some clips from Australian folk songs from the time, what kids did for fun. I’d also love to include some pictures and old photos. I managed to track down some photos of my Great Aunty Bet:

Great Aunty Dot as a baby

Great Aunty Dot (Dorothy Jones) on the right, with siblings, c.1915

Girls at ‘Empire Day’

Either Dot’s mother or grandmother: Eliza

Hopefully, by exploring the personal histories shown in the website, users may be inspired to try and chase up their own pasts. Finding these images have shown that if these kind of things aren’t recorded, they just aren’t known, and are lost in history.

The issues:

I’d also like to include some sections on the current climate for conservation of Australian animals. I think it’s striking and rather sad that the conservation issues in Dot and the Kangaroo are still pertinent more than a century on. I am passionate about environmental issues, and I think that using this book as a exploratory method could be a good way of introducing the ideas to a new audience. Waterlife is a brilliant example of an online documentary which shows how these kinds of ideas can be presented (see earlier post). Australia’s endangered species are still very much under threat, and there isn’t enough money to conserve everything. How do we choose which species receive funding and which are left to fend for themselves? I could create small profiles or ‘scenes’ of a number of issues, with links to further information and ways for the audience to actively address the problems.

Several organisations/websites are very helpful for this information for this section, including:
–Australian Conservation Foundation
–World Wildlife Fund
–The Wilderness Society
–Earth’s Endangered Creatures: Australia
–Caring for our country
–EPBC Act List of Threatened Fauna

And there are many more. A simple search of the SMH archives reveals many topical issues, such as:
–Unregulated wildlife trade 
–The logging industry and forestry
–Recreational hunting 
–Natural disasters and pesticides 
–Lack of action 

These are the kinds of topics I would like to address, and I believe that exposing audiences to them though a documentary via a story like Dot and the Kangaroo will help the cause.

Gosh. The scope of my project has become rather huge. For the sake of this semester, I would only be able to provide a few examples from the history and issues, and probably only be able to cover a few chapters of the book. However, it would be nice to make a complete version one day…

On eBooks, audiences, pirates and kangaroos

I think it’s now timely to discuss eBooks. I can definitely see the value in digitising books and making them available online – for availability and access, production costs and time amongst other reasons. They’re certainly rising in popularity too, with Amazon saying its Kindle eBook sales are now greater than traditional books. The Australian website ebookish is a great source of information about local developments in this area.

Project Gutenberg is a wonderful free site dedicated to providing a huge digital library / archive of eBooks, of works in the public domain. I think it’s a very worthy cause, and it’s amazing and encouraging that there’s so much support for it – 36ooo documents so far. Project Gutenberg have a mobile version, and the texts are available in variety of formats. Here’s what the converted classic looks like: HTML Treasure Island.

So what do I mean by Augmented eBook? I guess I want to have more than the book itself, with links to other information readily available and ingrained in the site. Tagging could achieve a sense of nonlinearity if people would like to read it according to themes (like in Stephen Fry’s myFry App, see earlier post). I’d like the users to be able to navigate the additional material separately too. Also, essentially, It’d be nice to be able to bring some of the pre-loved, treasured feelings you can get about books, and bring that to an digital book. So its other resource material will make it more than a printed book, and its aura and user interactions will make it more than an eBook. Does that make sense?

Rightio, Treasure Island: I need to nut out who the book is for, and who my website would be for. In the preface to the novel, Robert Louis Stevenson writes:

               TO THE HESITATING PURCHASER

               If sailor tales to sailor tunes,
                  Storm and adventure, heat and cold,
               If schooners, islands, and maroons,
                  And buccaneers, and buried gold,
               And all the old romance, retold
                  Exactly in the ancient way,
               Can please, as me they pleased of old,
                  The wiser youngsters of today:

               —So be it, and fall on!  If not,
                  If studious youth no longer crave,
               His ancient appetites forgot,
                  Kingston, or Ballantyne the brave,
               Or Cooper of the wood and wave:
                  So be it, also!  And may I
               And all my pirates share the grave
                  Where these and their creations lie!

I guess my website would be creating a means for “the wiser youngsters of today” to access the book- it’s not so much the themes that are increasingly irrelevant, it’s their outdated format. The pirates and buried treasure will continue to entertain young minds, and the literary value of the book alone is worth sharing. But something I still have to figure out for my doco are the era and context disparities… with the story set in the 18th Century Europe and mysterious places, written in England in 1881 and Bernie McClintock read his copy in Australia in 1936. Hmmmmm. Is it getting too convoluted?

Unless….. I go with ‘Dot and the Kangaroo’? It was written in 1899 and published/read by Great Aunty Dot in the 1910s, so a bit more contained. Should I change to this book?
Pros- it’s contained in the one era. It’s Australian. It serves a cause (wildlife conservation). It’s intended audience is potentially clearer- children and people interested in that specific time in history. Whereas Treasure Island has heaps of versions and is possibly relevant to younger generations via other media, Dot and the Kangaroo is more due for a revival.
Cons-  I can’t remember anything of the story- but it’s shorter than T-Island and I can skim and refresh? Plus, I already know a lot more about Australiana than pirates. It doesn’t have the reader’s illustrations – but I can make them myself? And/or the original book comes with its own beautiful illustrations….

Things seems to be swaying in Dot’s favour. Luckily a lot of my research and conceptualisation applies to this new old book. Here’s Project Gutenberg’s version: HTML Dot and the Kangaroo. Oh hey, also, whereas Pedley dedicates her book to ‘the children of Australia’ for a specific and ongoing cause, Stevenson seems a bit more laissez-faire about whether his book stands the test of time, with his “so be it”s and being apparently willing to submit to the grave. I reckon if I were to ask the authors, they’d tell me to go with Dot. So be it!

Old books: further development

I’m really quite warming to this Treasure Island idea… I feel it’s more of a “goer” than what I’ve been talking about in earlier posts. I hope that its combination of fiction and historical details makes it a stimulating and worthwhile experience of a doco. By making it an online piece, hopefully I’ll be tapping into and interacting with a new audience – and hey, if they have a technology addiction then maybe this’ll provide a distraction from their online time-wasting… “A successful novel should interrupt the reader’s life, make him or her miss appointments, skip meals, forget to walk the dog. In the best novels, the writer’s imagination becomes the reader’s reality.” – Stephen King, cited here.

As “research”, I decided to call my Granma this afternoon. After a good ol’ chat about adventure books and how girls’ boarding schools were portrayed and illustrated fairy novels, she told me about some of her key memories from childhood. They used to play a lot of hopscotch, with complex rules with balls and things. She tended a ‘Victory Garden’ – personal vegetable patches to help the war effort. She also made felt brooches for the war, and had to save every skerrick of silver paper, which wrapped lollies and things. Children liked to collect things, like stamps and bottle caps. Isn’t that sweet? I’m not suggesting we necessarily start to live like this, but I think it’s important to preserve and learn about personal history.

Before I can really start to develop UX and UI design I need to figure out my target audience. You know what, I think I’m going to go with a fairly broad spectrum, not so much children as young adults perhaps – people like me I guess, who like reading and could share the site with older relatives (who ideally would be able to pick up the computing skills and then find other benefits of being online). I’ve decided against making a site for young children for now, because I want to preserve the aesthetic of the old books and curiosities from the 1930s, and I feel that their appeal is more suited to a slightly older audience. Ideally, most people (including middle age adults as well) will be able to find benefit – afterall, we were all children once!

Further “research” today – I scrounged around a bit in the garage to try and find any more old books from the McClintocks, and came up with some amazing items! Particularly noteworthy was Webster’s Popular Illustrated Dictionary from 1933, which included a handful of photos, newspaper clippings, a letter etc tucked in certain pages. It was an adventure!

I told my mother about what I was doing, and she found an amazing book for me in the cabinet. It’s a 1913 edition of Ethel C. Pedley’s Dot and the Kangaroo, originally owned by my Great Aunt Dot who first read it in 1918 and gave it to me in 1992. It’s really wonderful.

Its dedication reads:

TO THE
CHILDREN OF AUSTRALIA,
IN THE HOPE OF
ENLISTING THEIR SYMPATHIES FOR THE MANY
BEAUTIFUL, AMIABLE, AND FROLICSOME
CREATURES OF THEIR LAND;
WHOSE EXTINCTION, THROUGH RUTHLESS
DESTRUCTION, IS BEING SURELY
ACCOMPLISHED

I would love to make an online documentary about this, with all sorts of links about Australian animals and modern day conservation issues. I think if I were to choose this book, it would be more child-orientated… but unfortunately I can’t remember much about the story. So perhaps, if this project went large scale, I would do other sections in the website about different books like this. But for the purpose of this assignment, I think I’m going to stick with Treasure Island because of Bernie’s drawings and the richness of pirate imagery (a treasure map could be a really great interface) and the era he’s from. Stay tuned for more info about design aspects!

Old books – the new adventure

(I’ve decided to scrap the serious alternate reality game thing – I really wouldn’t be able to make such a thing and none of the ideas were really shining for it anyway.)

So: Completely new idea!

Something that came up in my other research was that some old things, past-times, stories etc are being lost to new generations of children because of technological developments – but there’s no point in trying to fight this, I’ve decided we should work on ways to embrace the ways people use the Internet etc, possibly in order to revive these wonderful old things.

Earlier this year I discovered and read a really old book in a box at my parents’ house – it’s Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Treasure Island”, owned by a schoolboy in 1936. His name was Bernie McClintock, and was the husband of a lady I used to know when I was young. I really loved reading this book because of its age and because of all the scrawling little drawings and notes Bernie made.

I’d like to use the book as a starting point (and possible navigation tool) for a website with a potential range of functions: firstly, to re-introduce old books and history to children, to open up the Internet and its possibilities for the elderly, and to inspire appreciation and dialogue between grandchildren and grandparents. Brainstorming, a site based on the book could:
-help children discover the Treasure Island world of pirates etc, re-invigorate the story for a new audience
-follow the fictional story with links to other stories and historical backgrounds of the work (like Re-Enchantment)
-help children discover the life of school boys in the 1930s
-be used as a connection method between generations  (could I make a site they could navigate together?)
-be a portal for old people to rediscover and remember their childhood. I remember reading somewhere that the Internet has become a great medium for the elderly- it provides access for so many things that have been lost to them for decades (songs, historical items and icons, snippets of media, etc) as well as providing social connectedness (here’s a psychological study ‘Using the Internet to improve the wellbeing of the elderly’)
-close the generational digital divide? It’d be lovely to make a site that acts as a catalyst for grandchildren to be curious about their relatives’ childhoods – I know that when I watched the Up series I became a whole lot more curious about my parents’ earlier lives (as they’re the same age as the series’ participants)

So, I guess the product I would be making would be an augmented eBook / interactive kind of digital archive, preserving and providing access for life before our modern day gadgets. At the moment I’m thinking of using the book as the main navigation somehow, possibly animating Bernie’s little drawings, and providing links to other information about childhood in the 1930s, such as school life, home life, contemporary music, games (see previous post), photos, the local and historical context, and personal stories. There’d also be more information about the book’s story and relevance, other versions of the work (looking up Treasure Island on Wikipedia shows heaps of  film and stage adaptions), interesting words and concepts that arise from the book, etc.

Some questions and initial areas which I’ll need to work out:
-How will I distinguish between the era the book is about, the era in which the book was written and the era in which it was read and decorated by Bernie? Is this getting too complicated?
-For a larger scale project, should I include other books with histories imbrued in them? (different classic children’s books, read in different eras…)
-Is it possible to make a site that is designed appropriately for both the elderly and the young? Simple layout, easy navigation, large text etc are fine strategies, but will there be a style that is suitable for both? And if not, which is the main audience I should choose?

Back to the drawing board?

World Without Oil was successful because its purpose is based in dealing a potentially real issue: petrol is not sustainable. And that’s why I’m not happy with any of my brainstormed ideas so far: they don’t have the urgency or usefulness I would like. What’s something interesting and potentially threatening about new technologies to humanity?

I’m not happy with the idea of complete restriction of social media / phones etc, but that’s just silly and they’ve proved to have many virtues (not to say I think my previously mentioned gripes are no longer valid). As with any major innovations, there’s just changes to the way we operate and communicate…

Eg: 10 Most Extraordinary Twitter Updates

50 things that are being killed by the Internet

Psychological effects of Internet use

I’m also not happy with the idea of forcing people to use technologies in excess, because that does not sound fun to me, who would want to watch it, and turns out similar sites already exist- “lifecasting” is already a thing, it seems.
Eg: Justin.tv

New Idea: Going back to my original concern – addictions to the Internet – I could maybe make a game where users have to get by in a world if there were AN EPIDEMIC of technological addictions…
-people working inefficiently because of online distractions
-children being neglected due to parents being more concerned with screens (similarities may be drawn between other addictions like gambling and certain substances)
-other duties and services not performed as a result of people spending more time online than planned
-et cetera.
But I dunno, this doesn’t seem particularly enthralling to any audiences…

New Idea 2: What about a world where artificial intelligence is as powerful as our own? It’s got HEAPS of background in science fiction which, you know, is fiction, but often the concerns are drawn from concepts in the context of the times, and it could be interesting to see how people would actively change their lives. And this concern isn’t too abstract it seems… I just searched some journal databases via UTS library and came across these interesting articles:
-Allenby, Braden R., and Daniel Sarewitz. “The accelerating techno-human future: technology and humanity are co-evolving in ways that past generations had never imagined possible, according to the authors of the techno-human condition. This is not necessarily a good thing, they warn. With unprecedented levels of innovation come new societal tensions and cultural clashes. People everywhere are challenged to adapt to accelerating change.” The Futurist Sept.-Oct. 2011: 30+. Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 22 Sep. 2011.
-Shaker, Steven M. “The coming robot evolution race: Homo sapiens may have ‘won’ the evolutionary race to perfect humankind, but artificial intelligence and robotics will evolve faster and farther. Rather than compete with them, we may do well to make them our allies and co-evolve, suggests a technology trend analyst.” The Futurist Sept.-Oct. 2011: 20+. Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 22 Sep. 2011.
I could appeal to a sci-fi loving fanbase (and of course there are plenty of these online) by creating an alternate reality game if robots were to really co-exist in society- how would people change? What different behaviours, values, choices?

Is this an online documentary, or just speculation? I don’t even know anymore. I’m tired, and it feels like I’m clutching at straws. Perhaps I need to pursue a new train of thought entirely…  sigh!

Brainstorming

I need to get a concrete idea for my project about people and technology. Activate brainstorm!

-Serious alternate reality game: Participants are given week by week instructions of restrictions to their technology use, intended to make them appreciate the ‘real world’ but also the true functions of the technologies. They contribute their stories and share their revelations on a website.

-Alternative serious alternate reality game: Participants are given week by week updates of how much technological interactions they are allowed, in a future where technology is the main conduit for personal communication- Second Life as main life. If people are forced to live solely through devices will they appreciate returning to ‘normal’ life?

-Second alternative serious alternate reality game: “Digital native” participants are given weekly descriptions of the state of technology going back in time, eg week 1: 2011, week 2: 2001, week 3: 1991… They learn about technological advances in reverse, experience the satisfaction and inconveniences of doing things in the old days – simultaneously learning to appreciate what they have now and weaning from their dependencies.

-Self-performed data aggregation: Participants are given an easy device to record and keep tally of the number of times they find themselves wasting time on Facebook or checking their phones… the idea that if they have to keep track of these things they will have to reflect on their current usage. Data could be collated and graphed in appealing ways, different categories on a scrollable timeline kind of thing?

-Augmented reality game: A different thought on the issue… People love gaming and can achieve amazing things through it- why not use it to help themselves? If they made existing tasks for themselves (doing the laundry, writing that essay) as game achievements, would they be more willing to get them done? (…But is this an online doco? Probably not.)

-Another alternative for a serious alternate reality game: Heard of the group of hacktivists claiming to be from Anonymous who say they’re going to kill Facebook on the 5th of November 2011? What if this were to happen? Participants could track their activities up until that date, and share how their behaviour changes if Facebook suddenly disappeared from their lives. (Would I impose a complete social media restriction maybe? Seeing as the purpose of this is more to do with people’s lives rather than the protection of their privacy…) Could be an interesting experiment.

Ok, not entirely happy with any of these so I’m going to mull over some ideas a bit more… but I feel like I’m making some progress. I hope!

The vice of devices…

So I feel I need to clarify my position on the social impact of technology a bit more. By technology I mean modern interpersonal communications- social networking, phones, the Internet, etc. I know they facilitates so much, and can be used in really inspirational ways. But like anything that is used to excess, too much is simply that: too much. I think that this particular obsession is an especially relevant issue for today’s society, with younger generations using technology as an integral part of their lives.

Amber Case: We are all cyborgs now (I’ve included the link as well because the threads of comments are really interesting and engaging.)

This talk raises some challenging thoughts – is technology making us more human? I think there are both benefits and disadvantages, which come simply through the different forms of interaction. Yes, as a society we have greater means to become more connected, but at what cost? I’ve heard that some children’s games, usually passed down through word-of-mouth, are being lost because of the rise of Game Boys and things. For better or worse, society is changing and I think it’d be good to be more aware of it.

I guess my main problem with technological obsessions is that it’s a matter of whether we have control over our devices -whether we can direct our attention to them when we want, and from them to enjoy quiet moments of reflection. The vice of devices isn’t that they exist or any of their functions in particular, it’s how we use them.

So. Why am I talking about this? An alternative reality game / serious game format could be great way to introduce and challenge users to consider the impacts of their technological dependencies. Here’s an interesting company aimed at training people to be more aware and therefore productive in this technological climate  http://regainyourtime.com/attention-management/ … I feel that I need to do more research into the psychological implications for this topic, and real life as a medium. I’m also going to start thinking of an overall strategy of what I’d want the participants to experience in the online doco…

Disconnect (from time to time)

So here’s a new idea I’ve been thinking about. Somewhat ironically considering the subject and my degree and everything, I’ve been questioning the role of communicative technologies in our lives. People spend SO MUCH of their time on social media. People are GLUED to their phones- a met a guy the other day who proudly showed me his 200+ Apps on his iPhone- they were all games. Why so many?! I am certainly not exempt from this, but people feel the need to fill every spare moment with headphones in their ears or maintaining the lives of some creatures in some needy game in a device. It’s been making me think about what we could be missing out on. My friend’s mum went on a holiday and was so snap-happy that we calculated that she took one photo every 6 minutes… how much attention did she pay to the the places she went to? How much did she allow herself to just experience some moments for what they are? I don’t want to be too judgemental, but I feel that our lives are starting to be too dominated and mediated through technology. If you’re interested, here’s an interesting TED talk about the value of boredom:

So, my idea for an online documentary is this. In a similar vein to World Without Oil, I could create a serious alternate reality real-life simulation thing where people have to learn to live their lives without relying so much on their devices. There could be weekly updates about their next steps in the weaning process, which again ironically, I guess people would have to go online to access. Participants would be still permitted certain things- I wouldn’t want to restrict people from important information or the many very practical, helpful sides to technology. On the site they would be able to submit their stories about how they’re coping, what activities they’ve been doing instead, tips and responses.

I haven’t thought the idea through too much just yet, but I just want to make it clear that I’m not anti-technology by any means. I’m anti- addictions-to-technology. One of my friends attempted to not go on Facebook for a month – she lasted 10 hours. I think we need to get more in touch with the world just as it is.