analogue to digital

Fig (left to right):
1) Drawing out my analogue and digital interests
2) observing ways gardens and architecture work hand-in-hand
3) coding different rules and aesthetics with particle simulations

















My thesis branches off from Digital Gardening, an initiative of mine that unites residents to a once-cherished piece of urban property that used to produce a very positive interactive community prior to its demolition by city government. Gardens. These were community gardens. These precious green patches populated urban corners and lots in the 1970s and onward. Soon they were bulldozed one-by-one when realty companies began to buy off these corners and lots to put up new condominiums and apartments accommodating the large influx of new residents. These patches of social gathering and support fell to a lost. I'm interested in restoring where interaction used to take place - through my thesis process, I would like to argue how technology and design (a new medium to physical gardening) can mimic community gardens. In this project I do not need to buy property nor mess with city officials. This garden will exist. You'll see.

I am currently supported by some outside sources that identify themselves as green activists - one is a faculty member of NYU Gallatin. I plan on user-testing higher-quality prototypes with these activists when I return to American soil later on in my process.

More Notes (from sketchbook):
Mechanism: Motion Detection
User Interaction: Accidental
User Pre-recognition: None,
Application: Educational, Gaming, Awareness

Mechanism: SMS-Call in Visualization
User Interaction: Non-accidental
User Pre-recognition: With anticipation
Application: Social networking

fleshing out into technical and nontechnical prototypes

I am currently stationed in Johannesburg, South Africa - where the digital divide is apparent between the rich, the poor, and the "hopeless." Despite being the most advanced and progressive African country in terms of technology, economy, and politics, South Africa is an extreme case of victimized citizens in the midst of the digital divide, thus social exclusion. While I never thought I would be user-testing in intense oppressed conditions (and maybe even too intense for my typical targeted audience), there is no harm in testing with my neighbors a couple of motion detection, tracking, and updating applications I am currently coding .

Currently, I have limited access to resources. I'll be testing the simple applications through my laptop and webcam, while other prototypes will be simple tools meant for play and observation in the urban environment. My interests can be simplified into studying tools or applets that educate the urban individual about his or her environment. Such knowledge to be gained would regard abused politics or economy.