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!

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…

Digital Immortality?

Adam Ostrow: After your final status update

This TED talk is confronting. On the one hand I see the value in virtual avatars of dead people as an interesting archival resource. They could also be a useful for grieving (not everyone’s cup of tea, but I know some friends who like being able to let out their emotions and grieve in social media). But on the other hand, this idea really creeps me out! Is this what we want? Will people ever get closure? Will people become too attached to virtual versions of others – and are these versions accurate representations of those people anyway? It signals the end of ‘resting in peace’, and I’m not sure whether that’s a good thing or not.

 

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.