Jaaga

Our first trip to Jaaga (the place where we are supposed to put our installation up for display)
was a bit of a shock. The space we had been alloted was tiny! Myrthe could barely fit, this was going to be a probelm.


After a few negotiations we finally managed to get a slightly larger space. The important thing was that it was almost as high as our previous room. Of course it has its drawbacks but it had its brownie points too.
For instance we could place the projector much further away now and the floor is just gravel which could give an interesting effect. Since the structure is mainly a scaffolding putting up our panels would be quite simple.


The scaffolding did have a drawback though. Closing up the space to make it dark was going to be a problem. Also the sound would travel and since more intermedia projects are going to be displayed there will be a lot of disturbances while the viewer is inside.


To conclude it all we now had a space. It was time to get all our glitches sorted and get to work.

The project brief

This project is aimed at translating concepts in to experiences involving senses. 
Sensorial Design, An interface to any experience, whether technological, physical, or conceptual,
must have a message and a reason for communicating it and begin with the creation of meaning and the development of appropriate types of interactivity. 
Any product or art installation need not stop at being visually rich; it can interact with all the senses.

Brainstorming

After being given the initial project brief we were told to individually come up

With twenty ideas as to what we would like to do for our final installation. Based on common themes we split up into groups.

Once we started sharing our ideas we came to a consensus that our theme 

would revolve around magic and fantasy.

We wanted to create another world based on memories of those imaginary games 

one played as a child. It should feel like you were escaping to some place else for just that moment.

When it came to how we wanted to articulate our idea we decided upon using video, sound and fabric to try and get as close to a complete sensorial experience as we could.

Chalking out the idea

Chalking out the basic direction as where we wanted to go with our idea 

was a smart thing for now we could narrow it down and come up with something more concrete.

We eventually agreed on a cloak. The two ends of the cloak would be attached to the ceiling blocking of the room from the viewer. When the person comes in he/she puts on the cloak and it falls starting a projection and sound; thus transporting the viewer to a different place.

He/she can see herself in a mirror with all this happening around her , making the viewer feel like he/she is a part of this world. After a few minutes the cloak rises and the music and projection stops.

We then collected images that would inspire the look and the feel of the experience that we wanted to create to be able to develop our ideas further. While doing this we stumbled upon a quote by Roald Dahl which perfectly described what we wanted to say with our installation.

Discussion with Faculty

When we ran our idea by our faculty they gave us some interesting ideas

as to how to proceed; 

Below are the questions and thoughts that came up after the discussion.

•   To make this installation effective we have to make it large scale
•   Does what the person wears necessarily need to be a cloak?
•   How are you going to prevent the person from looking behind?
•   Our project is something that can very easily get tacky and overdone.
•   What kind of imagery is appropriate? Do research on what children imagine when they play.
•   Concentrate on the look; give it something brings it all together.
•   How is the mechanism going to work with minimum human intervention?

Left with a lot of things to think about we divided into smaller groups.

• Nupur and Ishita would work on the projection.
• Diya and Moumita worked on the mechanism.
• Myrthe and Mana would work on the cloak.
• Mana would start figuring out the sound.

The Projection

Our first step was to do a youtube crawl and see what found footage we could use thus giving us the look and feel of the projection. Our search ended when we found a music video called twice by little dragon. We decided that our video would use silhouettes to create the mood.

Ishita began searching for videos that would fit our criteria while I took a crash course in after effects to put it all together. We also had to figure out a good place to put the projector so as to not disturb the persons viewing experience.

Some of the videos that inspired us were:

The Mechanism

Working with the mechanism was a huge challenge for someone who has deliberately 

avoided mechanics all her life. Thankfully our product design teacher offered to help us. 

What we needed was a mechanism that would get the cloak to move up and down

without any human intervention inside the space.

Sudipto(our product design teacher) suggested we use a step down motor.

This motor would be inserted into the pipe that would turn 

as a result of which it would lower and pull the cloak up and down.

Attached to this would be a two way switch which the viewer would control.

The Sound

The sound was one of the major aids towards creating the experience. 

It had to be mellow along with found sound so as to bring about an atmosphere.

Some musicians like Air, Telepopmusik and smooth jazz inspired us.

Prakash, an established musician helped me with creating this piece. 

We used elements from Air and found sound to which we created a track over it.

The Cloak

Since we were looking at a large scale product we decided to use muslin, as it was cheap 

and had an interesting texture and feel to it. The construction of the cloak came from an image Meera showed us.

It would essentially be a panel of cloth with a long collar cut into the center. The viewer would get into the panel and drape the collar around his/her neck thus creating a full drape when the cloak falls to the ground.

After stitching the panels of muslin Meera thought it would be a good idea to meet Kris. Kris is a fashion/accessory designer with an incredible knowledge of fabric construction, fit, drape etc. When we told him about the fabric we were using he told us that muslin would not provide the drape needed to feel like the viewer would be wearing a cloak. He suggested we use some sort of busy lizzy or art silk so as to give it that sheen and drape.

The muslin panels we had stitched would not go to waste! We decided on using the panels to project on. This would also give the projection some depth.


The collar would be a hint as to what was to come. This would be painted with fabric colours   using imagery from fantasy and dreams.

A prototype of the cloak

The collar

 

The background

While we worked on everything else Moumita began work on what would happen in the background. She worked on the panels that would be used for projection and
Some flowers that we wanted to hang from the ceiling.
These were initial iterations that weren't used later on but they were taken forward
to create the final look.

The Flowers

The panels

Putting it all together

After each having done our part, it was time to start putting things together.
Once we started this, we realised there were quite a few things that we had failed to see the importance of before.
After a meeting with Victor in which we discussed the functioning of our installation, it was clear that we had a lot to do.


The mechanism to make the coat fall and rise on which we had spent a lot of time, was clearly not going to work. We had to find a different way to do this.


Another problem that we faced was that we were alloted a space different from the one that we had hoped for. This lead to having to change measurements and placements that we had planned before. Entering and leaving the installation as we had planned was not going to work in the space we had and so we had to think of alternative ways to make it work without having to alter the installation too much.

Placing the projector in the right place was also a challenge because we were told that it was not possible to mount the projector on the ceiling as we had planned earlier. We had to find a way to place it in such a way that it would not be visible once the installation was functioning but also as far away from the panels as possible so that the projection would be big enough.


Having realised all these things we were all a bit discouraged. How were we going to be able to pull this off in a week?


We saw that we had to get our act together and look at what was most important. Our installation is all about the experience, and there was no way that we could compromise on that. Having a functioning mechanism and electronics, with out the right look and feel would be of no use. So we decided that we would put the mechanism and electronics on hold for a while and work on creating the experience first.


For the first showing of the installation we would work all the mechanism and electronics manually. We figured out a way to work the cloak by attaching two pulleys to the ceiling. We attached a long piece of rope to both sides which we pulled through the pulleys to lower and raise the cloak.


Luckily for us there were a lot of hooks on the ceiling to which we could attach our panels. After hours of balancing on ladders putting up, taking down and putting panels back up again they were finally in the right place.

In the mean time, another challenge was to attach the collar to the cloak. We were hoping to be able to attach everything and complete the cloak without the help of a tailor, but after hours of fighting with the fabric that was extremely heavy and slippery we decided that it would probably be better if we got help from someone with a bit more experience. Even the tailor seemed to have some trouble attaching the collar in the way that we had hoped but eventually it turned out quite nice.


Now that the major parts had been done, we had to pull everything together. We felt that there was a need to add something to the panels to make it look more interesting. So we took balloons and tried filling them with various things to create the effect of drops. We finally decided water had the best effect, although the weight caused the balloons to start leaking after a point of time.


We placed the projector on a stool right behind the spot where the person would be standing so that it wouldn't be seen in the mirror. After trying to project we realised that it was going to be a bit smaller than we had planned but there was no way around that.


The entrance had to be through the back of the installation, but we had to make sure that the people walking in wouldn't be able to get an idea of what was behind them once they were in the cloak. This was a bit difficult because one had to walk through panels of of fabric to get there, but we managed to get the area so dark that nothing could be seen clearly.

The installation was now pretty much up and running, with a few hitches here and there that have to be worked on. Overall we were quite satisfied with the look we had managed to create, especially after the amount of mistakes and failures that we had been through. There is still work to be done but we definitely feel that we have managed to achieve what we had in mind, minus the mechanisms and electronics.

The final Installation

Despite all the hitches Our installation came off quite well. These are a few images of the final set up.

Feedback

Our course faculty Meera's feedback on the project


Concept: Very Good, Iterations: Satisfactory,

Final outcome: Good which can be better

It is very obvious from the how the group functioned and who worked on what.

It is interesting to see the compilation of ideas in to a dream like quality to the whole experience. 
This installation is experiential as the audience actually experiences the installation. 
You need to work now on the finer details and get the mechanisms work well. 
Much higher level commitment from each member could have resulted in highr quality work. 
manage time consciously



Good effort and very interesting outcome.

The next step

While our installation was on display, and when we heard that it had been chosen to be displayed at jaaga we realised that there was a lot of work to be done before it would be professionally complete.:


The first thing was that the cloak needed to be mechanized. On doing it manually we weren't able to synchronize the speed thus resulting in one end of the cloak going down faster than the other. Also it would be impractical for someone to stand there and man it for everyone that came in.


- Secondly we realised that people were not willing to to stand inside the cloak and watch the complete projection, it has to be edited and worked on a bit to keep the viewers attention.


- We would have to find another option for the balloons filled with water because we can not afford water falling on our panels nor do we have the time to fill and hang new balloons everyday. We decided to make similar forms out of fabric.


- Figuring out the available space and finding different options for entry and exit.


- The collar that we made is beautiful, but it was getting lost completely when we put up the installation. we would have to find a way to attract more attention to the collar, because it adds to the look and feel.


-Different ways of placing the projector so that the projection on the panels would be larger.


- Finishing and making things look more professional. Seams, fraying edges of fabric, visible threads hanging from the ceiling etc.


- Lighting, placement of the mirror etc.


- Thinking of an innovative way to make it clear that people need to wear the cloak.