DM-UY 1143 IDEATION AND PROTOTYPING FALL 2020
PROCESS BLOG
Card Sorting
The themes of a world 20 years from now that I was most interested in are shown above: technology, advertisement, COVID-19, climate change, and Government/surveillance. While there were some ideas I came up with that are beyond my capabilities of creating (along with the limitations of the technology we have today), I was able to come up with some interesting ideas from a future world.
Regulations came up twice in Government and Technology. I was thinking if time travel is released to the public in the future, how would it be regulated and how would people prevent paradoxes? In the next 20 years, it's pretty obvious that most if not all of our data will be collected into a personal ID including information from cameras. I was thinking about making a camera that symbolizes this by making it not look like a camera but just an everyday object.
Advertisement touched pretty much all the subjects as I could put different articles about each topic in an advertisement/magazine cover or something.
In terms of COVID-19 and life evolving along with the pandemic, I wanted to explore what an interconnected world would look like. I assume there would be virtual environments of real-world places people could use VR or AR to work in or just admire. I was also curious about how the performing arts would adapt to a non-contact world with masks.
In relation to masks, climate change will likely be the cause of bad air quality and thus increase the need for filtering masks. The melting ice caps will cause rising sea levels which will affect places on the coast (NYC is one of them). I was thinking about a fountain on the top of a globe in which the water covers most of the land but that would be more like a sculpture representing a possible future rather than a device from the future.
**I added an idea cart to the "advertisement" theme - Holographic media (i.e. news and ads) which I could do with VR.
Progress (week 9)
I was inspired by many of the unreal sculptures and designs in Speculative Design Chapter 7. I wanted to focus less on the traditional future casting where I am restricted by the reality of a possible future. Thus, my ideas for this week were a little more fantasy based, most of which still exist in the realm of the probable but step away from modern aspects of thinking about the future. Although I doubt technology will go a biological route (as we are already far down a different scientific path), I found it liberating to think about a possibility for a different route science could take in the next 20 years.
Another path I took in order to think of more fantastical/surreal aspects of a future 20 years from now is through the window of comics. I have been interested in comics for as long as I can remember (mostly DC and Marvel comics) because they hold designs that push the limits of modern technology in a dystopian world. I thought it might be interesting to think of how comics would push modern technology, in a future where technology is even more advanced than it is today. This week's Constant Input also greatly inspired the addition of this topic after I had so much fun creating a fictional world around the character Joker I dressed up as for Halloween.
In the past, comics have been used to explore the implications of emerging technologies (such as Avengers: Age of Ultron, the comic not the movie) where Ant-Man creates an AI (Ultron) programed to protect the human race. In the comics, Ultron realizes (through news and media) the biggest threat to the human race, are humans themselves; the comic illustrates a dystopian world where humans are hunted and killed by an army of robot AIs each with a piece of Ultron's consciousness built to carry out his programming.
Comics have also been used to inspire hope in nationality in times of war. The most famous example: Captian America, whose first appearance in comics was fighting in WWII against Nazis. In a possible future, a war could influence comics to side with or against the American government, creating all sorts of superheroes fighting with or against the US.
Framing Story/Message
(Notes)
- Future dystopia where surveillance technology has advanced so much to the point that the government monitors its citizens 24/7.
- Comic book from the future: man vs machine // man becomes the machine
- backstory: undergoing an experimental biotechnological eye which unintentionally allows the main character to see through all surveillance cameras at the same time. Calls themself "The Eye of Providence" and believes they are an extension of God.
(Story)
Comic books often depict aspects of the real world turned to the extreme. For instance, Gotham city (the home of the Batman) is based on the Mafia/crime-infested city of New York around the 1970s-80s while representing it in a very extreme way.
Decades from now, surveillance technology will have advanced so much that cameras are everywhere, and most times, citizens don't even notice them. Cameras take the shape of birds, statues, toys, flowers, etc. The people have just accepted that this is a part of their government's job to keep them safe. Along with surveillance progressing with the times, biotechnology has replaced the need for phones as people can have AR connected straight to their eyes. Comic books and their tradition of questioning and radicalizing the world around it has also passed the test of time. In this world, a comic book comes out called "The Eye of Providence, issue #1". The comic is about a person who gets into a car crash by wandering into a busy street after their biotechnical eye gets hacked by a terrorist organization trying to get into the government's surveillance networks through the person's eye. The hacking is stopped once the eye shuts down after the person is hit by the car, however, the hacking has messed with the eye's base programming and now allows the person to see out of every surveillance camera in America all at once. After the person wakes up in the hospital, they are startled as the waves of security information flow into their newly opened eye. After a long time of suffering from this newfound gift/curse, the person gains control over the eye through their religious faith and believes themselves to be an extension of God's all-seeing Eye of Providence (which becomes their alias). They become power-hungry and end up using their eye for their own purposes, for a child of God has the rights of a god over all other humans.
Evolution Timeline
Annotated Bibliography
Bob Mesnik. "Evolution from Closed Circuit TV to Ubiquitous IP Camera Surveillance." 20 Jul. 2016, Web, https://kintronics.com/the-history-of-video-surveillance/
- Overview history of CCTV and other video surveillance systems.
Early Television Museum. "Early Television Broadcasting: General Precision Laboratories PA-303 Video Recording Monitor." Web, http://www.earlytelevision.org/gpl_pa-303.html
- General Precision Labs video recorder initially used for television but derived from security camera technology at the time
Rick Delgado. "From Edison to Internet: A History of Video Surveillance." 14 Aug. 2013, Web, https://www.business2community.com/tech-gadgets/from-edison-to-internet-a-history-of-video-surveillance-0578308
- More detailed timeline of video surveillance until 2013
Matthew S. Schwartz. "Paradox-Free Time Travel Is Theoretically Possible, Researchers Say." 27 Sept. 2020, Web, https://www.npr.org/2020/09/27/917556254/paradox-free-time-travel-is-theoretically-possible-researchers-say
Adam Bannister. "Watch how to hack a security camera. It’s alarmingly simple." 7 Oct. 2016, Web, https://www.ifsecglobal.com/cyber-security/how-to-hack-a-security-camera/
Miss Chatz. "How to Make a Comic Book Cover." 17 Apr. 2020, Web, https://design.tutsplus.com/tutorials/guide-to-making-a-good-comic-book-cover--cms-32567
Bizhan Khodabandeh. "PANEL LAYOUT: THE GOLDEN RATIO." 7 May 2014, Web, https://www.makingcomics.com/2014/05/07/panel-layout-golden-ratio/
Medium Timeline/Framing story
Time Capsule: Ever since the notion of time travel was formed, it has always been very dangerous or just impossible for people to travel through time. There are a few reasons for this. Most importantly: the only way to time travel is to move at faster-than-light speed in order to reverse time. The only particles that can move at or even near the speed of light are massless particles. For the foreseeable future, people will not be able to rip their atoms apart to move as massless particles, just to get reassembled in another time. The process would be too painful and it would likely kill any living thing. However, most inanimate objects can be easily transported for an easy $20 by the year 2044. My future self chose this comic because it represented my future, his world, and what we should prepare for.
Lo-Fi Prototype Presentation Notes (+ pt. 2 of previous info)
Below is a list I organized from my feedback and criticism I found most helpful (or anything I would like to address) of the comments I received after my lo-fi presentation...
I got confused on why you are gonna burn the comic book cover
- I wanted the medium to simulate what this reality would perceive as "time travel". (As I will explain) it is the deconstruction/obliteration/disintegration of an object in this reality to be (theoretically) reassembled in another time.
Maybe including how the government reacts to this person with an Eye of Providence, if they're even aware of this.
- The government would probably recruit them to work for the government's own interest...unless he already works for them...
Perhaps tie in all these themes of surveillance, time travel, and AR a little more together or choose one to focus on the most.
- I need more cohesion between my themes of surveillance, time travel, and AR. That's what this section is for.
I was confused about if the medium was time travel or just the cover
- The medium is the bottle that would transport the comic through time. If the comic book is Marty McFly, then the bottle is The Delorian.
I don't have the most clear imagery on how your 3D comic will look, but I'm sure you'll create in a way that makes sense and looks visually amazing/intriguing
- I was planning on just layering the different parts of the image to create a sense of depth.
At first I thought you were gonna do the security device but I probably just missed your explanation of focusing on the comic book cover in your presentation tbh^^
- The comic book cover is a representation of the world where surveillance is everywhere. I could've made a security device but I thought that would be too genaric and easy. This way I can capture the art of the future along with the story behind it.
I think this will best include the framing story and message. I'm sure you wouldn't want to use so much effort on style and realize that the audience is still confused about your themes.
- I need to reorganize my framing story and message to mesh with my themes more cohesively. That's what this section (below the purple line) will be.
Make the cover point to the future it comes from. What material is it printed on? Is there a barcode? Does it pose a threat to the government or is it covered with propaganda disclaimers?
- I will definitely be exploring a different "futuristic" barcode design, I really like that idea. The comic was made not to protest or threaten anything but just to highlight the dangers of giving one person (or one group of people) this much insight into civilian lives.
I understand how the comic book will convey your future of surveillance, but I got confused when you mentioned time travel because the comic book itself doesn't address time travel directly, right? but it's the idea that comic books can sometime predict the future/reflect society? and the plasma tech is used to send the comic book back to send the message. i think the time travel part confused me cause I focused more on that than the surveillance part in the end, and thought time travel was part of your message
- Yep, the plasma tech will be used to simulate sending the comic book back in time. My idea was: comic books take a surreal and dystopic view of the world they inhabit so they convey the fears of this future society. The time travel part is just the medium of how my future self is sending it back to the past.
Framing story:
Comic books often depict aspects of the real world turned to the extreme. For instance, Gotham city (the home of the Batman) is based on the Mafia/crime-infested city of New York around the 1970s-80s while representing crime and villainy in a very extreme way.
Decades from now, surveillance technology will have advanced so much that cameras are everywhere, and most times, citizens don't even notice them. Cameras take the shape of birds, statues, toys, flowers, etc. The people have just accepted that this is a part of their government's job to keep them safe. Along with surveillance progressing with the times, biotechnology has replaced the need for phones as people can have AR connected straight to their eyes. Time travel has been commercialized and opened to the public. It is still very painful and dangerous to transport living organisms across time by obliterating them in the present reality just to be reassembled in another time. However, most inanimate objects can be easily transported for an easy $20 by the year 2044. My future self chose this comic because it represented my future, his world, and what we should prepare for.
Comic books and their tradition of questioning and radicalizing the world around it has also passed the test of time. In this world, a comic book comes out called "The Eye of Providence, issue #1". The comic is about a government employee who works in the surveillance branch of government in Washington DC. His biotechnical eye gets hacked by a terrorist organization hoping to use his eye as a jumping-off point to get into the government’s surveillance system. This messes with his sight (as the eye is a part of his physiology) and causes his vision to go black. Wandering around a busy city blind, the man inevitably gets into a car crash which shuts down the eye before the hackers get into the government’s surveillance. With the hackers fended off from the government's network, all is well...until the person wakes up. The base programming of his biotechnical eye was messed up in the attack and it now live-streams a feed of every surveillance camera in America all at once. He is startled at first as the waves of security information flow into their newly opened eye. After a long time of suffering from this newfound gift/curse, the person gains control over the eye through their religious faith and believes themselves to be an extension of God's all-seeing Eye of Providence (which becomes their alias). They become power-hungry and end up using their eye for their own purposes, for a child of God has the rights of a god over all other humans.
Time Travel:
I will be using plasma technology to simulate what this reality would perceive as “time travel”: the obliteration of an object in this reality to be (theoretically) reassembled in another time. Messages to past loved ones or notes to one’s past self are common in the time travel industry in 2044 and travel through time in a bottle (as a homage to the way messages were sent across the oceans during the age of exploration). This way, the receiver won’t be as surprised to receive a letter from the future and it can blend into reality across all of time.