Thesis Evaluative Blog Post

The installation is complete and my thesis project is done. It's very exciting to be complete with the project and I'm glad how it all came together. It was interesting for me to have all these ideas throughout the semester and creating this final culminating piece. What was most surprising about my project is that at many points I diverged away from my original ideas and influences, but towards the end I came back and attempted to stay rooted to my initial inspirations. Influences from Raphaelle Peale's Catalogue, A Deception is very apparent in my piece and I like how my piece could be seen as a modern day version of Peale's piece. 

My piece installed in Mason Gross Galleries

Physically and digitally, I enjoyed how it came out. One of the main ideas for the piece was in relation to interaction. I wanted to see how people responded. I noticed that the younger generation, when approaching my piece attempted to access the GalleryConnect content on their smartphones. Those who didn't have smartphones were somewhat distraught at the fact that they weren't able to interact with the piece. Yet, this whole though process they went through is something that I see as a form of interaction. To me, as long a person walks up to the piece in the first place, the design is successful, even if they decide to walk away.

I've noticed that older individuals didn't really notice that this was an art piece at all, they seemed to truly believe that "this art piece has been relocated" and instantly they walked away. During the reception there weren't too many people attempting to access the GalleryConnect interface, which was kind of disappointing to me, but the ideal situation for my piece would be during the regular gallery hours. This way, the individual has time to see the piece, walk up to it in curiosity, and actually have the time to make their decision on whether to connect to my GalleryConnect mobile website or not.  

 

Within the interface itself, something that would tell me the true success of app is the Google Analytic engine I set up to track my mobile website. The most traffic I had was on the opening night of the reception, and the second highest traffic was on April 5th. I had a total of 232 page views, 128 of those views being unique. Below shows the statistics of the overall website, and below that shows the mapping of the clicks that people have made, showing the percentage of people that clicked on various links within the website.

Thoughts on Thesis Critique 3/4/11

My most recent critique went very well, everyone understood my idea and nobody pointed out any major flaws or discrepancies. Currently, the space that is allocated for me is very large. So I have decided to take a large painting frame, and frame a piece of printmaking paper with the following printed: "This piece has been relocated to our online art database. Please go to galleryconnect.mobi on your smart-phone to access the content." My frame works in two parts: (1) The viewer thinks that he/she would be looking at a real piece of artwork, but when they go up to read the small print, they realize it is actually located somewhere else. So for the viewer the piece of art might not even exist. Yet, the art is not the missing art piece, it is the actions of the viewer going through this process. (2) The viewer has a smart-phone and decides to connect to the indicated website. There, he/she becomes in tune to the digital aspect of  my piece-- hopefully becoming lost in the app and its features.

The critique group was very interested in how my GalleryConnect mobile app functioned within the space. At first it had many activities for the user to be involved in, but it required the user to also be aware of his/her surroundings, yet I want the user to be lost in the functions of the app. So for the final version of app, it will make sure that it will keep the user busy and interested in the app, it will also be commenting on the user's habits with technology. My critique group also told me that the comments provided by the app weren't harsh enough, in order to get my message across, I would need to be more straightforward.

Response to other's Critiques- 2/23/2011

On Aymann Ismail's Blog
http://aymannthesis.blogspot.com/2011/02/thesis-proposal-change.html?showComment=1298325525572#c7164021346735856980

“I like this idea since a person's character and personality is created by views of others. Its interesting to see some of the sources of information and to see which ones you accept and which ones you omit. I think it would be cool if you had an autobiography, but also another screen showing the information you do not agree with. Since a personality is not only built upon a person's supporting views, but opposing views as well. The title "autobiography" in my opinion is a little straight forward, maybe something that explains the project and possibly its process. ”

On Bryan McGinn's Blog
http://bmcginn.tumblr.com/

“Your psychedelic patterns and designs are very interesting and original. What intrigues me the most are the hidden messages. They can be very verbally obscene, yet they are hidden, so the message becomes fluid with the pattern and design. The art is very consistent and I enjoy that you will be putting these designs on t-shirts, it would be the perfect application. One of my suggestions would maybe create a large print on the wall of one of your designs to attract gallery viewers to your area of gallery.”

On Kelly O'Leary’s Blog
http://kellyannoleary.tumblr.com/

“After further learning about Kelly's thesis project, I am very interested in finding out who the person she is following. She is sort of unsure how to present all this data, because there is so much, but ultimately as long as message is conveyed. I gave her the suggestion about maybe making a huge planner/schedule which plots out every movement and location in relation to time. She mentioned maybe making an installation which almost makes it seem like she was a detective, putting images and connecting strings. This seems like a great idea as well because it goes along with her theme of feeling exposed.”

Response to other's Critique posts- 2/7/2011

On Danielle Pozsonyi’s Blog
http://daniellepozsonyi.blogspot.com/2011/02/my-critique-response-for-friday-feb-4th.html

“I think your secrets idea is very interesting, since people don’t know the author and the content is sort of vague. But that is the beauty of the project, the ambiguity is very intriguing. I feel the Post-Its actually actually increase the seriousness of the secrets. To me, handwriting is much more impactful because it seems natural; it feels almost as if the individual personally took his/her time to write the secret in person. This may seem slightly cliché, but maybe make your whole project based on Post-its, or something similar, this way you have one consistent system giving equal weight to all secrets.”

On Lauren Morich’s Blog
http://lauven.tumblr.com/post/3016930087/thesis-post-getting-closer#notes

“I really enjoyed your tag idea, its great how you have accumulated many of them. I feel like you’re trying to say that people are more interested in name brands and design of the tag rather than the actual product. Maybe you could take this idea even a step further by creating your own tag design system. Creating tags for the tags, showing that the tags themselves hold a value rather than them being just something to be thrown out… or possibly creating information-graphic providing all the details about each tag, since you have already created the spreadsheet. Overall, no matter how you pursue your thesis idea, as long your main message is conveyed. “

On Kelly O'Leary’s Blog
http://kellyannoleary.tumblr.com/post/3042908067/class-critique-blog-1

“I feel like this is a very current issue—internet and privacy. Facebook and apps such as foursquare are letting everyone know what we are always doing. This could be a good thing, but can easily be taken advantage of. The final outcome of this project seems very promising, I’m excited to see who is being monitored, and also to what extent this individual is revealing his/her life.”

Thoughts on Thesis Critique 1/28/11

My most recent critique for my on-going thesis project was on Friday, January 28th 2011. I was sort of caught off guard and I was not completely prepared to present my ideas for my thesis project since I wasn't scheduled for the day, but it was a good way for me to quickly gather my thoughts.

I presented my self archive book from Design III-A, and showed the class my Social Life Charging Source" project to give them an intro on my ideas for the coming semester. I then presented the ideas from my sketchbook, which contains all the information on how I want to execute my thesis ideas.

My idea is to have a whole system within the gallery where viewers are able to log into a website using their smart-phones to get a new experience from the gallery. This is a play on where people are commonly going to their phones to download apps in order to "enhance" their experience, when I believe their surroundings is what is really important, not the information on their phones. Sometimes technology is interrupting our natural thought process, and through this project I want to create my own virtual distractions where viewer/users will get lost in the digital world, when they should be enjoying the gallery. I will achieve this by creating this smart-phone friendly website, where users can view a gallery map, and the user can find various things within the gallery. Rather than providing real help, the website will actually cause the user more trouble. The end result will be the user realizing that he/she has wasted his/her valuable time being lost in what this website is telling him/her to do.

I received positive feedback from my professor and peers to continue with what I'm doing, and at this stage it is important to choose which actions I want the user to pursue, and to make the project apparent in the gallery space. My professor pointed out that a viewer could overlook my sign that tells them to go to my smart-phone friendly website or they might not want to participate in it at all, so I want to spread my project in as many areas as possible to grab the viewers attention. Another idea I recently thought of, was to get different users to collaborate on the gallery floor. Maybe the website tells him/her to find another individual attempting to complete a similar task, and together they could form their own "experience".