FALMOUTH M.A. FINAL PROJECT BLOG

Week 21: More Bus and a Workshop

This week I aim to clarify my design ideas for the appearance of my energy education bus and the related game, do some sketching, and think about potential names. I also attend a workshop intended to follow up on the conference I attended a couple of weeks ago. The workshop’s focus is understanding the different types of renewable energy available.

STUDIO REVIEW

This week I take a look at the work of Make Make a52.

a52 create mixed reality graphics that make us think about what the future could be like. Projects like their Microsoft Mesh advert strike just the right emotional tone being both calming and optimistic. They give a sense of a better world by harnessing tech.

I can see from work like a52's how AR design can be used to educate and create hope. With this kind of design I could create a feeling of excitement and positive expectation for the current natural world and the human-shaped world of tomorrow.

HIGH SCHOOL FOCUS GROUP

This week I spoke to high school pupils (in years 8 and 10) to gain an insight into the educational games they like. The one representative for Year 10 said they enjoyed the games on a site calle Blooket. The Year 8 group also expressed an interest in this platform. I played the games with them using topics related to their mainstream lessons.. We looked at café styled, factor styled, and cyber styled games (the kids led the choices of games based on their favourites).

The favourite style among the pupils was the Cyber-hack game, and I saw a lot of potential for this to be adopted into my own educational design.

Figure 1: Screenshots of Blooket's Cyber-hacker game

MOODBOARDS

I started to build moodboards under the general theme of “cyber”. I used this search term directly along with “futuristic”, “cyber art”, and “futuristic art” to find inspirational images.

My moodboards are shown below.

Cyber-tech moodboard

Figures 2-13: Cyber-tech themed imagery

Synthwave/cyber-punk moodboard

Figures 14-25: Synthwave/cyber-punk themed imagery

I categorised these images based on two distinct styles: technical and synthwave/cyberpunk. The technical style seemed more appropriate to older kids (teenagers) whilst the synthwave style would perhaps appeal to a broader range of ages (because its broader range of colourr allows for a more illustrative style).

COLOUR PALETTES

I analysed one each from each of my moodboards to extract colour palettes from each. I chose each image as I thought it contained the range of colours I was looking to potentially introduce to my interface.

Figure 26: Image colour extraction using Photoshop to build colour palettes

I took a "colourful" and "muted" palette from each image and removed redunancies. This left me with the following two palettes I named "cyber-technical" and "synthwave" respectively:

Figure 27: Cyber-technical color palette
Figure 28: Synthwave colour palette

Although I realise the benefits of a restricted colour palette, I deliberately left the palettes broad to keep my options open for experimentation.

HOLOLENS

Since I envisaged my design as being an interactive AR system I also looked at existing Hololens designs. These are the ones that stood out to me most:

Figures 29-40: Microsoft Hololens interface examples

Hololens in action

The following video shows a live demonstration of Hololens 2, including an interactive wind farm:

Smart City for Clean Energy

This Hololens project by ONG Innovations deserves special mention because its a 3D interface aimed at teaching about renewable energy.

This shows that this can of product can be made. In fact, the video was posted in 2018, and Hololens tech has improved since then, so a more ambitious project is entirely feasible.

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Screenshots of Blooket's Cyber-hacker game. [screenshots by the author]. Available at: https://www.blooket.com/ [accessed 19th November 2022].

Figure 2: Second Truth. 2016. Fragments: Design for Mixed Reality. [game still]. Available at: http://secondtruth.com/2016/05/fragments-design-for-mixed-reality/ [accessed 16th November 2022].

Figure 3: Arthean. n.d. Animation + Illustration. Available at: https://99designs.com/profiles/arthean/designs/1893169 [accessed 16th November 2022].

Figure 4: Ants on a Melon. 2022. Available at: https://antsonamelon.com/ [accessed 16th November 2022].

Figure 5: Miami Dade College. 2022. Available at: https://www.mdc.edu/cybersecurity/about-us/mdc-cyber-range/ [accessed 16th November 2022].

Figure 6: NVIDIA. 2022. Available at: https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/accelerating-connection-tracking-to-turbo-charge-stateful-security/ [accessed 16th Novembe 2022].

Figure 7: The University of Tulsa. Available at: https://engineering.utulsa.edu/capture-the-flag-cybersecurity/ [accessed 16th November 2022].

Figure 8: Vector Stock. 2022. Available at: https://www.vectorstock.com/royalty-free-vector/cyber-security-theme-with-futuristic-eye-vector-20616461 [accessed 16th November 2022].

Figure 9: Skift. 2018. Available at: https://skift.com/2018/07/08/tokyos-new-digital-art-museum-wants-to-draw-global-tourists/ [accessed 16th November 2022].

Figure 10: Security Brief. 2022. Available at: https://securitybrief.com.au/story/cyber-security-innovation-has-stagnated-and-we-need-a-new-approach [accessed 16th November 2022].

Figure 11: Medium. 2016. Available at: https://medium.com/startup-grind/9-innovations-that-could-become-the-next-big-thing-842f4bf6e324 [accessed 16th November 2022].

Figure 12: USC Viterbi. 2021. Available at: https://viterbischool.usc.edu/news/2021/04/riding-the-quantum-limit/ [accessed 16th November 2022].

Figure 13: Woodruff Sawyer. 2022. Available at: https://woodruffsawyer.com/cyber-liability/cyber-101-liability-insurance/ [accessed 16th November 2022].

Figure 14: Oskar Woinski. n.d. Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/RN4br [accessed 16th November 2022].

Figure 15: Shutterstock. 2022. Alley at night cyber punk theme vector illustration background. Available at: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/alley-night-cyber-punk-theme-vector-1618790542 [accessed 16th November 2022].

Figure 16: Brian Miller. n.d. Space Park Board Game. Available at: https://www.behance.net/gallery/60660623/Space-Park-Board-Game [accessed 16th November 2022].

Figure 17: Emmanuel Shiu. 2013. Neo Seoul concept for Cloud Atlas. Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/9KAL [accessed 16th November 2022].

Figure 18: Ozzyvill. n.d. Project X-30. [digital art]. Available at: https://99designs.com/profiles/ozzyvill/designs/1734742 [accessed ].

Figure 19: Animal Logic/Warner Bros. Pictures. 2020. Still from The Matrix showing three figures displayed as code in the simulation. Available at: https://physics.mit.edu/news/are-we-living-in-a-simulated-world/ [accessed 16th November 2022].

Figure 20: neutralart. n.d. [vector illustration]. Available at: https://www.vecteezy.com/members/neutralart [accessed 16th November 2022].

Figure 21: CAE. n.d. Available at: https://www.cae.edu.au/news/speculative-reading/ [accessed 16th November 2022].

Figure 22: Hokyoung Kim. 2022. [digital illustration]. Available at: https://medium.com/together-institute/community-as-a-place-to-practice-a-better-future-6c6bd56b40ae [accessed 16th November 2022].

Figure 23: Hazem Asif. 2020. The Walled City. [digital illustration]. Available at: https://www.talenthouse.com/item/2308463/8ff15032 [accessed 16th November 2022].

Figure 24: Kelvin Degree. n.d. Retro Futuristic Background 1980s Style. [digital art]. Available at: https://www.allposters.com/-sp/Retro-Futuristic-Background-1980S-Style-Digital-Landscape-in-a-Cyber-World-Retro-Wave-Music-Album-Posters_i16177882_.htm [accessed 16th November 2022].

Figure 25: grandfailure. n.d. Sci-fi scene of robot using futuristic computer in city street,illustration painting. [digital art]. Available at: https://www.freepik.com/premium-photo/sci-fi-scene-robot-using-futuristic-computer-city-street-illustration-painting_20474419.htm [accessed 16th November 2022].

Figure 26: Image colour extraction using Photoshop to build colour palettesImage colour extraction using Photoshop to build colour palettes. [screenshots by the author].

Figure 27: Cyber-technical color palette.

Figure 28: Synthwave colour palette.

Figure 29: Invelon Technologies SL. n.d. Available at: https://invelon.com/en/microsoft/ [accessed 18th November 2022].

Figure 30: Microsoft. 2022. Available at: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/mixed-reality/develop/features-and-samples?tabs=unity [accessed 18th November 2022].

Figure 31: Microsoft. 2022. Available at: https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/industry-blog/en-gb/health/2022/02/11/how-the-healthcare-sector-is-innovating/ [accessed 18th November 2022].

Figure 32: Smithsonian. 2022. Available at: https://naturalhistory.si.edu/exhibits/critical-distance [accessed 18th November 2022].

Figure 33: PC GAMES. 2017. Available at: https://www.pcgamesn.com/microsoft-hololens-games [accessed 18th November 2022].

Figure 34: PC GAMES. 2017. Available at: https://www.pcgamesn.com/microsoft-hololens-games [accessed 18th November 2022].

Figure 35: Micrsoft. n.d. Holoflight Available at: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/holoflight-beta/9nblggh51384?activetab=pivot:overviewtab [accessed 18th November 2022].

Figure 36: Microsoft. n.d. Insight Heart. Available at: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/insight-heart/9nblggh435kd?activetab=pivot:overviewtab [accessed 18th November 2022].

Figure 37: Geospatial World. 2016. Available at: https://www.geospatialworld.net/blogs/silicon-valley-partnership-on-ai/ [accessed 18th November 2022].

Figure 38: Microsoft. n.d. Available at: https://pulse.microsoft.com/en/industry/manufacturing-en/ [accessed 18th November 2022].

Figure 39: PC World. 2019. Available at: https://www.pcworld.co.nz/article/658774/what-does-hololens-2-mean-mixed-reality-vr/ [accessed ].

Figure 40: Microsoft. 2022. Available at: https://news.microsoft.com/en-xm/2022/07/20/microsoft-launches-hololens-2-in-the-uae-empowering-organizations-with-the-innovation-of-mixed-reality/ [accessed 18th November 2022].