This is a jacket that will start conversations for you if you are too shy to do it yourself. Get to know more people, make friends, meet that special someone or simply break down your social walls! This is NOT a Google AD…but the plain function of the parafunctional concept we’ve presented this week.
Our concept originates from a very productive and funny way of brainstorming. I read about taking words from the dictionary, randomly. It’s about opening the dictionary and reading two words. Then you have to find a way, yes a creative one, to tie the two words. It was so exciting and stimulating because you can train your creative skills and come out with very stupid ideas. And the good thing is that in this phase those ones are ok.
During this week the group has found a sort of balance between its members since it was easy to explain what you were thinking of. And it has been really important because after few days we had about 30 ideas ready to be analysed (what we called “What if…” table). Let’s talk about this weird maybe useful but surely parafunctional jacket…
The Conversation Starting Jacket
Concept by: Pietro Desiato, Adam Bognar, Layda Gongora, Andrew Simpson Plain
Function: This is a jacket that will start conversations for you if you are too shy to do it yourself. Get to know more people, make friends, meet that special someone or simply break down your social walls! Real (Para)function This jacket has speakers hidden in it s collars or shoulders and speaks conversations starting statements like “Excuse me” and “Hi, do you have the time?” at random times. The wearer does not know when the jacket will speak and hence may be thrust into uncomfortable situations at any time. The jacket will often address strangers in social contexts in which social interaction of that kind is unusual or uncomfortable. This causes uncomfortable situations for the wearer as well as the people surrounding the wearer. Because of this, depending on who the wearer is, they will be under varying levels of psychological duress and stress.
The Prototype : We got some mobile iPod speakers and recorded spoken tracks of “openers” onto it in Andrew and Pietro’s voices. We then left the iPod playing with 30 seconds to 1 minute long pauses between the openers.
The quality of the audio was such that you could tell that it was some sort of speaker played audio, however the amplitude was loud enough that it could have been Andrew or Pietro speaking. We then went and tried it in three contexts.
The Outdoor Walking Context
Pietro and Andrew managed to strike up several conversations when the jacket address people walking around in Lille Torg, Stor Torg and the surround areas. However it was often hard because stopping their walk was another level of commitment for strangers to take in this strange interaction.
The Outdoor Loitering Context
We found quite good success with the device when it engaged people that were standing around waiting for something, looking at something, or just in general not moving in any direction.
The Indoor Browsing/Waiting Context
We had mixed success with engaging people as they browsed magazines, waited in lines for ATMs or food places.
Our Findings Summerized
From the wearer’s side - For the wearer, the jacket created a constant stress because they had no idea when the jacket would speak. This stress made the wearer constantly examine and analyze their social situation and surroundings. For example, Andrew started walking wide circles around groups of pretty girls, because he was terrified that the jacket would suddenly talk when he was nearby as this would cause an even MORE awkward situation then if the jacket address a pack of old men.
Our subjects Pietro and Andrew found that at first they were extremely nervous wearing the jacket and very paranoid about what it might say at what moment. However after about 20 minutes of wearing it and several social interactions, they both found that they loosened up and started to have a more fun and relaxed attitude towards the whole thing.
From the strangers’ side
- One of our strangest findings was that not a single person questioned the devices. Almost all people that engaged in a conversation first looked at the jacket wearer in a very strange and distrusting manner. Then they looked around in a very confused manner. Then when the jacket wearer would follow up the recording with some comment of their own, the strangers would earnestly hustle to overcome their confusion and try to answer whatever question or pick up the conversation. No person EVER asked about why the wearer’s jacket had spoken, or why the wearers voice had perviously sounded like a recording. The situation seemed so unexpected and sudden that they were willing to dismiss the whole recorded voice thing, especially if the wearer seemed serious about the conversation.
- People would notice the device speaking if they were walking, but often, unless the follow up by the wearer was very good, the would keep walking. Stopping their walk is probably an extra and risky commitment to a strange situation that they were not really willing to take.
- In indoor situations we found that people were more shocked and uncomfortable about being confronted by the device. They would often notice that the device had addressed them, and then even listen to the follow up comment by the wearer, and STILL not respond. Instead they would try to get away.
From the interaction’s side
- Conversations are complex social processes with many rules and conventions.
Some we noticed are: Volume of the speaker Eye contact Proximity to the interlocutor Topic, Intonation and Lenght of the openers Context These are some crucial variables that can decide the success of the communication
From the context’s side
- In public places people want to remain in their “comfort bubble” because they prefere to avoid the stress that a new and unexpected interaction would generate. In the past public places like square where central for the social life of a community since they were the space where discussions and interactions happened. Losing their social role, they are becoming geometrical space people go through.
TAGS: conversation sound, jacket
posted by : regine on 10 Dec 2006
A pocket-sized holographic video projector will be available within 3 years, according to PhysOrg. The size will allow it to be embeded in laptops, cell phones, and any other mobile device. Invented by the engineers at the University of Cambridge and manufactured by Alps Electric Co., they claim that it will be the first mass-market application of real-time holography. The Heliodisplay made its splash a couple years ago but, unfortunately, doesn’t compete in size.
