We (me, Luca Migliore, Martina Maitan, Fiona Yu) worked on Loquor, an interactive soundscape instalaltion, setted in Venice, whose aim is to raise people’s attention to the problem of abandonment of the city.
Venice, although unique and fascinating, is nowaday under a big threat, because more and more people leave for inner land. The danger is that the city will soon become an amusment park with opening and closing areas.
So we decided to create an installation that could show the people the importance of their presence to give life to the city.

How it works
On the input side, sound data are collected from the different places in Venice, and then played back in one single place, as if it was the center of the world, Campiello del Remer, a little jewel of the city.
Sounds value control a generative graphic system where each light is a sound and its brightness and movement indicates how loud the sound is in that place. The graphics are located accroding to their geographical position on the map of Venice, so that on the campo floor we have a impressionistic map of the city.
Users can interact with the installation with their feet, listening to the sounds.

Prototype
At the end of the lab we had to protoytpe a wokring version of our installation. That was the aspect that intersted me the most since I was responsable for making the thing work.

Since we required a lot of calculation power, we splitted the work to three computers and made them comunicate with OSC protocol.

Coding the prototype was quite a challange. I was mainly responsable for the generative graphic section and part of the camera tracking code. Pdf files and compleate processing sketches are available to download here.

The concept is that of a competition against the tide. You have to run faster that the rising tide to reach a common finish line.


The program calculates the positions of all runners and create a special path for each one of them, leading to the same ending point. Through GPS technology the system is able to understand if you reached the target dry or wet since it calculates in real time which zones are already floated.
The resul is a fun and entrertaining event, gathering runners, courious people and normal tourist.


Project development
We started the project by doing research on the target group and on existing services. We were attracted by the surfing mood, since it represented freedom and nature.
We then set off to define the fuction of the app, creating a flowchart.





On this we started to buil the interface design, each one of us proposing some solutions. We had a great deal of trouble before finding the final solutions that should enbody the mood of californias’ surfers plus some aspect of the Venice location.





We finally came up with a satisfing design using an illustraded style, defined forms and plain colors.





The last part of the course was dedicated to prototyping. We had two weeks to set up our application working in Processing and then move it to the iPhone with PhoneGap. We worked quite straightforward with the programming, and produced a code that worked well and implemented most of the function we had thought about. A pdf of the commented code can be dowloaded here:Tide’s up pdf code


Function and Stepthrough
Our app has two main sections: the event mode one, and the trainign mode.
In the event mode, the one that actually is used during the run against the tide, gets activated automatically by the system when the tide is high. In normal days, there is a countdown displayed either by a graphic rising wave or by a numerical countdown that comes up when only one day is left. Here you can see a detailed video stepthrough.

The training mode can be used daily to run on different tracks. We thought that one important thing for runners is that of experiencing always new route, so we integreted soemthing like a social system where people can upload theis track via gps and share them.

The interaction during the run is done via hearphones. The runnes do not know, both in the event and the training, where the path is going to lead. There is no map. Instead we developed a navigation system that uses music and sounds to give instructions: left and right are triggerd by panned sound in the hearphones, wrong road is pointed out by a distortion in the music. This can be seen quite well in the context video at the beginning of the post.


My Contribution to the team
This teamwork helped me understand in what fields I need to improve. I still have to work a lot on my graphic skills. Although I am capable of delivering good quality graphics, I must try to be more flexible and inventive. On the contrary it’s easy for me to think very productively, making it simple to keep in mind the various aspect of the project, to keep the concept effective, and create a working prototype.
In the design phase I proposed three different graphic styles, focusing on how to display the countdown in a different way. During the prototyping phase I made the final stepthroughs. My main task in this phase was managing the development of the Processing program to achieve a working prototype. I also was responsible for the editing required to make the application run on the iPhone.


Further infos
A very detailed description of the project can be found at the Interaction Design Lab website, where all the teams uploaded their project.

To visualize the details we use a fake timeline, under the real one, in which every box has a different color. This is useful to detect when a box is clicked. All the details of the days are imported from a text file that is read by processing and in this way we programmed the detail view only one time.

This here is only a prototype, but, if I ever get time, I would like to improve it and make it a really working application.

My story was inspired by some old letters I found at home which belonged to my grandma and were love letters of early ’900. I was so touched by the sweetness of those that I decided to elaborate them and create a piece of graphic.

The most difficoult war to make type and image communicate.

I wanted to give the idea of time and of speech. I tried to enphatize the conversation between the two lovers. I used photos of the two and postcard of the time. The book is actually divided in two: the first section that rappresents the engagement period, in which text and images are fused into conversation, and the marriage period, that corresponds also to the call to the arm of the man Angelino and the pages are structured more on the postcard model, not anymore to united in converstaion, but single units indipendent.

Professors leading the course were Enrico Camplani and Daniele Balcon

Purpose of the thesis was, firstly, to describe the whole context of tecnologies and services. Consequently I described how media content is used on the mobile devices, through technologies such as Cloud Computing and Streaming.
I analysed the social implications of such technologies and I focused on the developing opportunities offered by Live Streaming, a tecnique that allows to take part live to events and performances.
The final result of the thesis was the design of service that combines in a new way the research elements.

live streaming for mobile devices from ornellagiau on Vimeo.

In the project phase I used the User Centered Design method and its tools: target user, personas and scenarios and quick prototyping tools like Wireframes and Flows.

This thesis set itself in a context of great development. Infact, mobile devices being always more present in life took the birth of a new branch of marketing: the mobile marketing. This term identifies all the servecies for mobile devices.
Acquiring informations is something that is moving constantly to a portable dimension rather that a fix, domestinc one.
Many companies are now investing in this field to bring their product and services on mobiles. Functions as GPS or Augmented Reality give them the opportunity to deliver a very specific information to a very specific user and increase the selling possibilities.
The market is constantly raising and offer every day new prospectives.

After the visul design I was also involved in the assets production that had to be delivered to the developing theme.

It’s during this six months that we followed the interior design course. Aim of the course was to project and visualize a living structure; the students were free to create whatever shape and volumes for their homes as long as the basic principles of fine living where respected.

Me and Francesco decided to realize a modular structure, made up of cubes, that grew in towers of different height, earning the name of “the Crown”.

Being the towers of different heights and being often connected only on corners, placing homes and apartment inside our structure was really challenging. We had to deal with practical and conceptual problems: where to put the elevators, how to connect the rooms, illumination, and so on. What resulted at the end of the process in a structure where on every floor the plan changes, allowing to satisfy needs of different users.

Of a sample loft we realized some 3D renderings to understand how the light and the spaces where working and if it was really possible to live there. This sample unit is based on the flow of communication between different environments, where the divisions are minimized or created with furniture which allows the existence of an open space with the areas enclosed in a simple and natural way without forced partition dividers. A virtual path connects all the rooms starting from the sleeping area and arriving to the living one.
The existence of large windows allows to enjoy the height of the tower where large gardens can be used as individual and private spaces enjoying the view and the great skyline .

During the second accademic term we approched 3d modelling with maya for the first time and each student was requested to present a personal model of an exsisting object with renders.

I chose to model an old corkscrew since I was very attracted by the particular mechanism, different from more common corkscrewes.

I started from schetcking the object to understand it better, than I moved to maya, combining polygons and nurbs modellation.

A crucial part of the process was the shading and the lighting, since the object it self was quite simple, aiming at highlight the object as much as possible.

Here you can see some rendering of the object in a peculiar context.

And some more graphic/cartoonlike renders…

During the last four month of the second accademic year we worked on 3d animations with professors Nicolò Ceccarelli and Andrea Brogi.

Me and my group worked on a simple but funny story that had the aim of answering a critique question: what happens to a ball once it falls in the hole?

BALLE from ornellagiau on Vimeo.

We started with the storyboard to get a clear idea of how the story should developed; we focused on the most interesting and chatching parts eliminating other extras.

Then we proceded to the aniamtic in with we started placing the cameras and moving the “characters” and setting up the music.

Here below you can see the animatic.

animatic gruppo biliardo from ornellagiau on Vimeo.

Around the World from ornellagiau on Vimeo.

The concept behind the video come to me while watching the video of the popular dance song “Around the World” by Daft Punk. I thought that combining the paintings and advertisements by futuristc artist Fortunato Depero with this song could be a effective and nice way to explain a little bit of the artist to today people rather that making a boring video with pictures fading staticly into one another.

The video has been projected during the performance on the 18th of June 2009 in the Teatro Civico in Sassari.

Disclaimer: obviously neither the music (Daft Punk) nor the pictures (Fortunato Depero) are mine.