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Evaluative Report

week 1 (20.10-24.10) :

  We were asked to choose an offline object and build a scenario of what would happen if it would be connected to the web. I wasn’t sure where to start and decided to look at the everyday objects that surround us most of our time, and that we constantly use. I thought of chairs. They surround us everywhere we go. We use them over 60% of our day time, without even paying attention to them.

    Today we see chairs in the various styles, colors, sizes and materials. But the chairs of same designs usually come in the same size and with the same leg height. That could cause difficulty to some short people, as they might wish to be on the same height level as people around the table.

   To solve this possible issue i thought of designing a chair that would be equipped with a pre-built height detector, which would adapt the chair to the eye-level of its users.

week 2 (27.10-31.10) :

 So far height detecting chair seemed to me nothing more than just a new product design. I was looking for a possible way of how the chairs can evolve into something bigger that could change the world. I researched chair's history and their meaning within the society, and came to the conclusion that for many years chairs were used to represent someone's status. So if the chairs would be given more power they could repeat the history, but in the opposite and a much efficient way; and become a reason of social conflicts and a hierarchy domination

   I lost faith in this idea, as I thought that it’s not answering the brief. However, during the feedback session I looked at the issue from the different angle. Scenario does not always have to have a good ending. The task is to uncover one of the possible variations of the situation development and see where it flows.

  week 3 (3.11 - 7.11) :

    For many centuries chair used to be a symbol of dignity and status. People from the higher hierarchy circles had more precious and luxurious chairs/thrones what was making obvious without saying which positions their owners were taking within the society.

   Today we don’t pay so much attention to the chairs and don’t judge people by the way their chairs look. But this situation might change if the chairs would be connected to the web. Imagine if chairs would get access to our personal data, to everything that we post and do in web, to everything that requires web to be performed?

   That might be fun and entertaining in the beginning, but then it would cause a significant damage to the society and a potential system destruction caused by people themselves. There will be nothing that could be kept in secret, as all interactions would be visible to other users through the height of your chair. In order to keep privacy the person would only have two options:

   1. Accept a low rated chair;

   2. Fake social identity in case if the height of chair does matter a lot to you.

   The % of people who would just not care and go for the first option would be tremendously low, what means that the half of the rest would be in the hunt for the higher number of interactions in order to fulfill their ego and rise their chairs higher; and the second half would be feeling challenged by the first half and try to fight them back by faking their profiles and trying to reach their higher levels, which would form a constant fight for never reachable 100%. Number for % constantly grow, as the demand and challenge grows.

   People are already blinded; that scenario will completely fry their brains. That will be the most stupid and easy to manipulate nation that in the end will erase itself as a self destructing mechanism.

  week 4 (10.11 -14.11) :

   As I came up with the concept and a storyline that I want to follow, I thought of coming up with the possible structure and design solutions for these smart devil chairs. Today there is nothing on the market that could work as a building material for this concept.

   However, through the research i’ve realized that the best option would be a living biofilm that grows and feeds on the data collected from the web, which is transmitted through neuroelectric signals to the cell. The cells would be programmed to the self-growth and self-reconstruction.

  week 5 (17.11 - 21.11) :

     My initial thought was making an animation to bring my idea to the audience. A series of images seemed to me like a not strong enough solution.

  During the second week I’ve made a presentation on chairs which covered their history and how and which information they will be accessing. I want to use these slides as the first half  of my animation because it feels like that’s an appropriate introduction to the concept reveal.

week 6 (24.11 - 28.11) :

  This week i spent coming up with the graphics style for my animation. I decided that the best would be to use simple 2D illustrated imagery. So I began drawing a storyboard in Illustrator.

  week 7 (1.12 - 19.01) :

     I finished term having a clear vision of what and how I am going to do. I set myself  a completely unnecessary task of creating an animation for this project. I could easily do a simple presentation, but i felt that it wouldn’t be enough to represent my idea.

  Now I got a storyboard which I am going to put in the motion and hopefully prevent The Chair Apocalypse :)

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The Status Chair

(Project presentation)

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The full storyboard for my animation

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storyboard for a small animation about how do chairs work

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Feedback

 From the feedback session comments very positive on how my illustration looks, so now I can proceed with it and make a storyboard for my animation, which will be my final outcome.

  Other comments were that I should show in my animation how and why chair height changes and what is it based on. 

  When i started looking at my icons that i've created (those that are attached by the dotted lines to the chairs) i've realized that most of them don't work and don't really have a logical sense. For example: mood, what's the connection between mood and a chair connected to web? object connected to web can't really detect your mood, as its not an online interaction. It could be only in the case if person would share in web their mood status, but besides that it's impossible. same applies to the categories such as "how big is your apartment" and "how good is your health"

  So i have to come up with some new categories based on which the chair's height will change

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I wasn't happy with the look of my initial illustration, so I've reduced the amount colors and simplified the graphics. I think now it is much stronger and works much better due to its simplicity

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  I wasn't sure from where to start, so i decided to go back to my initial idea with the eye level detective chair. When i was describing that idea to public for the example I had a story of a couple going to the restaurant. So i thought of going back to this example but adapting it to the new scenario. 

  I decided to make an illustration which will be then animated.

  I found this image and decided to overdraw it in illustrator

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Chair Hierarchy

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Feedback

  Through the research i've realized that the best option for material would be living biofilm that grows and feeds on the data collected from the web, which is transmitted through neuro electric signals to the cell. 

  This material doesn't exist yet, and the smart chair is also an object from the future, so I thought of designing a chair in a futuristic style.

  The feedback i received was slightly negative towards the design itself. Tutor advised making chair look like an organic form, as the material is a living tissue. e.g: shape of tree. But I personally don't think its a good idea. I know what he means, but still why biofilm cannot grow into some futuristic shape? especially if we are talking about material that is not even created yet, so how can we be sure that it won't work that way?

  Anyway, it's a quite arguing question. 

  I don't think my design is the best what i could do, but neither i think it should have a shape of tree. But for starting point it works

  Also tutor advised not to describe smart chairs as the personal object that people buy and keep as their item. He noticed that I'm starting taking concept into that direction and he offered me not to do it, and instead build a concept around the idea of what would happen if any chair in the world would start getting data about the person who sits on it. 

  My next step is to create an example of the smart chair in use.

equalize smart chair with an iPhone (for example 

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Slide from the presentation on chair design

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Slide from the presentation on chair design

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This article goes in addition to the "Living material could grow products". This article doesn't really have a straight link to my potential chair design and material selection, but it tells about materials that repair themselves. These materials could related to my project in the way that if the social status of a person is lower then the others - chair would have to become shorter, and then if next person who gonna sit on it has a higher status - chair will have to grow again. So in a way this process could be described as self-destruction and repairing.

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I found this article very useful, as it explains how my chair could be created.

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   That's the presentation of my idea based on an eye-level detecting chair, and on the research below. 

   Feedback was positive, and I was advised to move onto designing an actual chair.

  What would it look like? What materials will be used?

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   For many centuries chair was an article of state and dignity rather than an article of ordinary use. “The chair” is still extensively used as the emblem of authority in the British House of Commons and in public meetings. 

    In ancient Egypt chairs appear to have been of great richness and splendor.  Egyptians believed that the chairs need to represent natural forms to avoid creating chaos in the universe. 

   The earliest images of chairs in China are from sixth-century Buddhist murals and stele, but the practice of sitting in chairs at that time was rare. It was not until the twelfth century that chairs became widespread in China.

   In the times of Renaissance, the chair ceased to be a privilege of state, and became the customary companion of whoever could afford to buy it. Once the idea of privilege faded the chair speedily came into general use.

  FANCY CHAIR/THRONE = POWER/AUTHORITY = HIERARCHY = CAST SYSTEM