Observing Energy Use

Studio Work

In this studio session, we were divided up into small groups where we would go off and research a certain topic which was given to us by our tutors.

In my group we had to research "Social Networks and Comparing Personal Data" This is the information that we found:
 A social network is a social structure made up of individuals called "nodes" which are tied (connected) by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.
 The first type of social network was to allow users to compile a list of friends and search for other users with similar interest.
WHO: 51. 90% of internet users know at least one social network. This influences quite a lot of people.
WHAT: photos, videos, personal info eg DOB, name sex. Also competition on game scores.
WHERE: Everywhere.
WHY: Keep updated with friends. Competitions between people. Businessess
It makes life easier eg you are able to talk to people all over the world.
Easy to find friends and family. You can literally find anybody.
HOW: (how do we share personal data?) Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Flickr, myspace, nike, blogging.
Learning sites for young people eg maths. They are able to share their intelligence with other people. Competition as well as a learning site.

Examples
http://www.funbrain.com/
http://www.apple.com/ipod/nike/
http://www.facebook.com/
http://www.youtube.com/

Project 2

In this project you are asked to design an interactive application, service or tool that helps people to reduce their energy consumption. You can either decide to design the interface for an energy- monitoring device for a certain user group, or you can design a social networking service that allows comparison of energy usage amongst specific users, or you can address the problem in a more visionary way and come up with your own ideas.

Written Description

Sub-conscious Tester

For my project I looked into something call ‘habituation’. Habituation means is a decrease in response to a stimulus after  repeated presentations.  For example, a novel sound in your environment, such as a new  ring tone, may initially draw  your attention. After you become accustomed to this sound, you pay  less attention to the noise  and your response to the sound will diminish. So with my project I want people to feel this sensation. To do this I created a sound  that plays for a long period of time. The sound is constant and in order for this to work  you would have to listen to it over a long duration of time.  It should be used in an environment where you are busy.  You should feel Relief once the sound has stopped. Instruction The sound has been put on to an IPod.  All the user has to do is press play and listen over a long period of time. Then stopped the sound to feel the relief. The effect is greater if a person plays it to someone else with out them realizing.

Final Sound - Reasoning

I chose this sound for numerous reasons and it wasn't just by random choice

When experimenting i discovered some interesting things.

First I found that high pitched noises do not work for what i was trying to achieve.

when this was tested people found it irritating and it also caused headaches(I personally experienced this my self). Because of this it made it impossible to drown out. So i decided to make the sound mid pitched

Second was the relaxing sounds. The relaxing sounds were nice to listen to which was precisely the problem. It was to hard to to ignore so it didn't fit well.

Third was the wave fluctuation. This did not work well because of the wave sound that was made. It cause quite an imbalance making it a lot more obvious when the sound was playing. I found that sounds that were constant and on going were much more effective.

So this is the final sound. I couldn't fit the whole sound on because it goes for 30min so I shorted it down to 1min.I sound has a fade in which lets the sound into peoples ears a little slower then if the sound played straight away.

 

5 High Resolution Photos

Photos turned out to be very challenging for this project because essentially it is impossible to take photos of sounds so i am going to justify the reasoning for the photos I have taken.

Photo 1 - I got the idea of this photo from my story board and thought it would be a good place to start.

This it the begin of the sound when it first starts to be played by someone.

Photo 2 - This photo is to show the set up that i have made to produce my sound in a sneaky fashion

Photo 3 - This photo is to show that the sound has began to play while someone is unaware what is going on

 

Photo 4- This photo is to show the tension the person gets from listen to the sound.

 

Photo 5 - This photo shows the end of the interaction where the sound has stopped and relief has taken its place

Development of Sounds

Sound 5
With these sounds i was exploring obscure and strange noises that you wouldn't here very often.
Sound 5A - High Pitched, Strange

Sound 5B - Low Pitched, Strange

Sound 4
With this sound I wanted to explore the opposite direction by making an annoying sound that drove people crazy when listened to.With this sound i used a sub synth bass instrument and used a phaser which alternates the volume of the sound between left and right.


Sound 4 - High Pitched, Annoying

Sound 3
With this sound I wanted to to get away from pitches and waves so I changed the sound to a more relaxing sound. I did this because I didn't just want to test one sound with different pitches .I want to experiment with different sounds that provoke different emotions to see what kind of sound is easiest to drown out.

Sound 3 - Mid-High Pitched, Relaxed

Sound 2
Since the first experiment can back with feed back about the pitch I made a high pitched noise and a low pitched noise for my second sounds. I still used the bass but the difference is that i filter will be playing meaning the sounds will raise and fall in volume making the sound a little more interesting.


Sound 2A - High Pitched Wave

Sound 2B - Low Pitched Wave

Sound 1

I have begin to start off with a simple low pitched sound that is constant and looped over its self. I want the sound to stay simple so it could be background noise that is easily tuned out. If the sound was complex it may be to musical which would then stay in the conscious mind.

Videos are the only way to upload sounds to blogspot so i will be posting videos of my sound
This is the first sound I have made

This noise seemed to be quite hard to tune out on the people i experimented with.It was then compared to a higher pitched noise and the majority of the testers said that the higher pitched noise was easier to tune out.