Monday, 12 November 2007
The Blind Room
Having decided on what would happen within the room in terms of a hospital narrative, we needed to make a move regarding the props that will be present in the room. These will obviously have to be in-fitting with the hospital theme, hospital beds, drips etc. The first move to try and get hold of this sort of material would be to contact hospital suppliers, easily accessible through yellow pages etc and then to try to contact actual hospitals themselves, and in particular the maintenance departments within the hospitals. We considered the maintenance departments because obviously hospitals wouldn't be willing to just hand over perfectly good beds to us, especially considering the bed shortages currently in NHS. The maintenance departments may have access to broken beds and equipment that could be fixed to a level suitable for the piece, as obviously the equipment in the room does not need to be to the high standard that you would expect in a hospital. Northwick Park hospital would be an ideal resource due to its location, as any equipment borrowed would be easily transportable.
Friday, 9 November 2007
Examples
Dans Le Noir:
Guests are led to a pitch-black dining room and served food that they cannot see. They are guided by blind waiters. Many supporters include charities for the blind, who believe that it will open up other senses and liberate their tastebuds.
Edouard de Broglie, the man behind the British venture after launching the Paris restaurant, said his interest was in the sensory, not the social aspect of dining.
"The preconception of what food tastes like because of how it looks is gone," he said. "All your other senses are abruptly awoken and you taste the food like you have never tasted it before."
Yet Dans le Noir, which opened in Paris more than a year ago, remains packed most nights, serving three courses for £39 per person, without wine. The Independent on Sunday visited it last week to discover what the attraction of eating under cover of darkness is.
We made our choices from the menu before shuffling into the blacked-out room in single file, hands placed on the shoulder of the person in front. Immediately, the world felt both infinite and claustrophobic, as we found our seats. But with a gentle reassuring touch, the waiter, Benoit, explained that there was a napkin, knife and fork and an unbreakable glass on the table. Then he disappeared.
You cannot signal your waiter, but calling his name brings him to back to your side. Soon, the food arrived. With our hands, we discovered that the vegetables and scallops had been neatly presented, which all seemed rather pointless.
The pudding - chocolate fondant and ice-cream, apparently - left us perplexed. It could have been anything mousse-like. Our tastebuds may well have been aroused, but they were confused. After an hour and a half, we were desperate to return to the people and colours outside.
But the owners of Dans le Noir are confident that it will be a huge success in the UK. And it has already won praise from the Royal National Institute for the Blind and Action for Blind People for creating jobs for the blind.
The chef, his team of three, and a handful of front-of-house staff can see. But the 10 waiters are all officially registered blind, and have been subjected to a rigorous training regime.
Nicolas Chartier, project manager of the London branch, insisted that diners would have nothing to fear from blind waiters carrying hot dishes.
"It may seem, at first, a recipe for disaster, but the waiters are highly skilled," he said. He added that diners would learn about life as a blind person. "The waiters show us what it is like to experience their world," he said.
"When you cannot see, you depend on the waiter to guide you, so a special relationship develops between customers and the blind. It makes you rethink everything."
Guests are led to a pitch-black dining room and served food that they cannot see. They are guided by blind waiters. Many supporters include charities for the blind, who believe that it will open up other senses and liberate their tastebuds.
Edouard de Broglie, the man behind the British venture after launching the Paris restaurant, said his interest was in the sensory, not the social aspect of dining.
"The preconception of what food tastes like because of how it looks is gone," he said. "All your other senses are abruptly awoken and you taste the food like you have never tasted it before."
Yet Dans le Noir, which opened in Paris more than a year ago, remains packed most nights, serving three courses for £39 per person, without wine. The Independent on Sunday visited it last week to discover what the attraction of eating under cover of darkness is.
We made our choices from the menu before shuffling into the blacked-out room in single file, hands placed on the shoulder of the person in front. Immediately, the world felt both infinite and claustrophobic, as we found our seats. But with a gentle reassuring touch, the waiter, Benoit, explained that there was a napkin, knife and fork and an unbreakable glass on the table. Then he disappeared.
You cannot signal your waiter, but calling his name brings him to back to your side. Soon, the food arrived. With our hands, we discovered that the vegetables and scallops had been neatly presented, which all seemed rather pointless.
The pudding - chocolate fondant and ice-cream, apparently - left us perplexed. It could have been anything mousse-like. Our tastebuds may well have been aroused, but they were confused. After an hour and a half, we were desperate to return to the people and colours outside.
But the owners of Dans le Noir are confident that it will be a huge success in the UK. And it has already won praise from the Royal National Institute for the Blind and Action for Blind People for creating jobs for the blind.
The chef, his team of three, and a handful of front-of-house staff can see. But the 10 waiters are all officially registered blind, and have been subjected to a rigorous training regime.
Nicolas Chartier, project manager of the London branch, insisted that diners would have nothing to fear from blind waiters carrying hot dishes.
"It may seem, at first, a recipe for disaster, but the waiters are highly skilled," he said. He added that diners would learn about life as a blind person. "The waiters show us what it is like to experience their world," he said.
"When you cannot see, you depend on the waiter to guide you, so a special relationship develops between customers and the blind. It makes you rethink everything."
Tuesday, 6 November 2007
Premonition (2007)
In looking at the Afternoon story, it reminded us of a movie called Premonition (2007).
This was a similar story line that involved a housewife who in a depressive state figures out that her husband is dead the day she wakes up, then awakens the next day to find him alive and well at home. Although this isn't exactly what we are dealing with for our project, it was something that made me think about other ideas.
Afternoon: A Story by Michael Joyce
After consulting with Peter we looked at a electronic computer based fiction piece called Afternoon, a story; by Michael Joyce.
This story is about a technical writer Peter, embarking his afternoon with a premonition that the ruins of a car he saw hours, initially might have be held by his former wife.
Afternoon, is a opulent and effusive review of the twisted movement of knowing and reminisces. This allows to connect and unravel lives of its postmodern individuals.
With afternoon story, we have adapted a similar way. This relates to our project in a way that we want users to have a different pathway (movement) wherever the user decides to go. It will have two sides of the story and which ever movement you choose you will end up with a different voice.
With our room we will be planning so that when someone presses pad 2 first then it will be different to then if you press on pad 1 then 2. so in it will be contrasting. It will then allow the user to trigger sound differently.
We are doing this because we want this to be as interesting as it can be by providing different voice when stepping on different pads. This will allow the participant to have a different experience for each pad pressed.
With afternoon story, we have adapted a similar way.
Saturday, 3 November 2007
Statement of Intent
Following the questions that we asked ourselves after the tutorial and before the presentation about our idea we needed to be more direct and precise with our idea. As a result we produced a statement of intent:
Once you’ve lost a Sense, What Are You Left With?
Imagine what it would be like to be blind? This is extremely difficult, even for the most imaginative, because how could you possible imagine a life without something that has been there since birth? Our project sets out to give the user an experience of becoming blind, and the confusion surrounding it. The piece will be set in a hospital environment, following a car crash, in which the user has become blind.
The users will be several different students from around university. An individual will enter the room one at a time. The idea behind the individuality is an attempt to highlight the lonely experience that many people who have become blind feel. We thought that a hospital experience would add to the confusion, as the user wouldn’t understand what had happened and why they were there until later into the piece.
The user will enter a room, which will be pitch black where they will soon realize that they have been in a car crash and that their family has been admitted to intensive care in a critical condition. As the user moves around the space, obviously disorientated by the lack of sight, they will trigger different sensors (a series of pressure pads), which will in turn reveal more about the crash and what has happened to the user. The sensors will either trigger a sound, which will reveal further information about the narrative, i.e. conversations with doctors. The other sensors will trigger a rapid flash of slight light across the walls of the room. Many blind are not totally blind and can in fact see either specks or movement in light. We also decided that a quick movement in light would add to the disorientation of the user, adding to the frustration of not being able to see. The sensors will be hidden in several tradition hospital props, e.g. hospital beds, surgical counters, drips etc. Most of the piece’s in the room will have sensors attached which can be triggered by the user engaging with them in a certain way, i.e. lying down on a bed will start sounds that will correspond with a different member of the family.
We decided to use a dramatic situation in the piece in order to fully submerge the user into the piece, as oppose to random sounds being triggered and the user not really knowing what is happening. Through conditional statements the user can progress through the situation, so if they move to somewhere in the hospital before they go somewhere else they will find out certain information that wouldn’t have been accessible without going to the first position in the room.
As this is a dramatic situation that involves the user, i.e. they have lost their sight in the crash; the user will take up a partially acted role in the situation; their movements around the scene will determine what they learn has happened. The piece makes it possible for different users to take different things from the piece, as if they take a different route they may miss certain parts of information that somebody else may receive.
Once you’ve lost a Sense, What Are You Left With?
Imagine what it would be like to be blind? This is extremely difficult, even for the most imaginative, because how could you possible imagine a life without something that has been there since birth? Our project sets out to give the user an experience of becoming blind, and the confusion surrounding it. The piece will be set in a hospital environment, following a car crash, in which the user has become blind.
The users will be several different students from around university. An individual will enter the room one at a time. The idea behind the individuality is an attempt to highlight the lonely experience that many people who have become blind feel. We thought that a hospital experience would add to the confusion, as the user wouldn’t understand what had happened and why they were there until later into the piece.
The user will enter a room, which will be pitch black where they will soon realize that they have been in a car crash and that their family has been admitted to intensive care in a critical condition. As the user moves around the space, obviously disorientated by the lack of sight, they will trigger different sensors (a series of pressure pads), which will in turn reveal more about the crash and what has happened to the user. The sensors will either trigger a sound, which will reveal further information about the narrative, i.e. conversations with doctors. The other sensors will trigger a rapid flash of slight light across the walls of the room. Many blind are not totally blind and can in fact see either specks or movement in light. We also decided that a quick movement in light would add to the disorientation of the user, adding to the frustration of not being able to see. The sensors will be hidden in several tradition hospital props, e.g. hospital beds, surgical counters, drips etc. Most of the piece’s in the room will have sensors attached which can be triggered by the user engaging with them in a certain way, i.e. lying down on a bed will start sounds that will correspond with a different member of the family.
We decided to use a dramatic situation in the piece in order to fully submerge the user into the piece, as oppose to random sounds being triggered and the user not really knowing what is happening. Through conditional statements the user can progress through the situation, so if they move to somewhere in the hospital before they go somewhere else they will find out certain information that wouldn’t have been accessible without going to the first position in the room.
As this is a dramatic situation that involves the user, i.e. they have lost their sight in the crash; the user will take up a partially acted role in the situation; their movements around the scene will determine what they learn has happened. The piece makes it possible for different users to take different things from the piece, as if they take a different route they may miss certain parts of information that somebody else may receive.
Friday, 2 November 2007
Research Ideas!!!
We are hoping to find similar artists who do similar projects. Interviews will give us an idea of what to research on so we hope to have progress on interviewing and finding out information soon.
Thursday, 1 November 2007
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