Month: November 2019

Caitlyn Connelly — Industry Event

On September 29, I visited the Jim Henson Exhibition at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens. Jim Henson is a huge inspiration to my thesis project (and I’ll be using the “Muppet” style for all of my puppets) so paying a visit to this exhibit was the most relevant research outing I could find. Before I go into my main takeaways, here’s a photo dump of some of my favorite parts of the exhibit!

  • Entrance to the exhibit!
  • First Kermit made from Henson’s mom’s old felt coat.
  • This is exactly how I arrived at puppets!
  • Storyboards for commercial work.
  • Rolf! Omg
  • This puppet’s head and eyes are similar to one of my characters.
  • Early Big Bird.
  • Bert and Ernie sketches.
  • Henson at work.
  • Swedish Chef!
  • Folder of Muppet Show docs.
  • This is inspo for the third prototype set design.
  • Notes on Miss Piggy’s character.
  • They had an area where you can make your own puppet from Velcro puppets. Here’s me and my DFW.
  • Disturbingly accurate for me.
  • Inspo for theme/tone research.
  • This is where I cried.
  • This is where I cried again.

This exhibit was incredibly informative and inspiring for my thesis project. I already knew quite a bit about Jim Henson before my visit from YouTube documentaries and articles, but I was so happy with the exhibit’s thoroughness in exploring every part of Jim Henson’s works, including many details I hadn’t read anywhere else. On top of that, I got to see so many of his creations in person alongside their original sketches. I was really comforted and inspired to find that I relate to Jim Henson’s attitude about being an artist. He never wanted to be confined to one type of art, or one type of media, and pushed the limits of every medium he entered. As someone who has a lot of different interests and skills (which is how I arrived at this thesis project), I’ve felt pressure to specialize or choose a specific path. I love kid’s TV, but I also love adult comedy and animation, and also set design, prop design, writing, building, etc.! Jim Henson didn’t choose, and I left the museum feeling more confident in my desire to do as many things as I’m good at.

It was illuminating to see something as large as Sesame Street, The Muppets, Fraggle Rock, etc. in its early phases, how much trial and tribulation went into these projects, and how many projects Jim Henson created in his lifetime to varying degrees of success. This past summer and then this semester have been all about getting my big, vague ideas about this project into tangible results, so seeing how Jim Henson took ideas that, at the time, were unheard of, and made them into reality was so valuable. I’ve already started using his brainstorming documents and sketches as models for my own prototyping.

I think the most useful part of my experience at the Jim Henson Exhibit was going through Jim Henson’s documents for The Muppets and Fraggle Rock. It really illuminated the paralyzingly vague brainstorming process – nailing down themes, tone, and characters’ attitudes, traits, and inspirations. Inspired by this exhibit, I’ve included my own Themes, Parallels, and Connections brainstorm sheet in my Research Update #2.

~Research Update 2~

This week was focused on reading physical books, mainly selections of three: Laws of Simplicity, Emotional Design, and Don’t Make Me Think.

From reading Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda, I have learned that there needs to be a balance of complexity and simplicity. What this means is that when thinking about a solution to the problem at hand, I cannot make the simplest solution that comes to mind. There needs to some type of complexity, i.e. different sections or new concepts, with the design that can balance out the simpler decisions that could be implemented when designing.

Within Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things by Don Norman, talks about how the three-level of emotional design: Visceral (appearance), Behavioral (usability), and Reflective (rationality). Each can be used separately, but when combined correctly, can help design a beautiful user experience. For my purpose, this will help guide me when I am analyzing the collected data to uncover a possible “umbrella problem” that might be causing the failures of hidden navigation. This can also help when designing new concepts by giving new insights to help with ideation.

Finally, Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug. This focused on web design and how to ensure your website is user-friendly. It goes in-depth on how people navigate the web today and some helpful tips to ensure the discoverability and pagination are intuitive. This book will help to set some guidelines when it comes to auditing and designing new concepts.

Overall, these books will help throughout my process, from research to designing, to keep both the scope and end goal in check.

~Protoype Plan~

My prototypes are going to be a tad bit different. Since my project is more of a case study on hidden menus, I will be prototyping different data collecting methods. For each week I will come in with two versions of a Questionnaire, System Usability Scales, Surveys, and Interview questions.  The goal for each prototype is to get feedback and suggestions to ensure I can get the best possible data from each method.

Nov. 11

I will bring in two rough designs of questionnaires and surveys and test to see if the questions are clear, concise, and limited in bias. 

Nov. 18

There will be two designs of System Usability Scales (SUS) to test which format and questions will better yield fair and accurate results to see what problem points to focus on. 

Nov. 25

This day will focus on Interview questions and a sample think-a-loud test to see of the questions ad tasks are clear, concise, and will produce good data. 

After each week, each “prototype” will incorporate the suggestions, edits, and criticism from class. Therefore, once each prototype is edited and finalized, I will then start collecting responses and data to start to have some data to organize and analyze. 

3 Prototypes

At my projects core, there are 3 different processes that I will need to become proficient at in order to be successful. I need to 1) be consistently writing fully structured songs. After I have a large collection of song, I’ll need to choose which ones I want to take to the next phase. 2) Recording/Mixing/Audio Production. Do I have the equipment and skills required to make a professional sounding record in my room? After I have a collection of songs I want to release, I need to 3) develop and manage ad campaigns through Facebook ads manager.

Prototype 1

My first prototype is developing a songwriting process that will help me consistently create material that I could potentially use on my project. This is the part of my project that I am struggling with most at this point of the year. I spoke to James McDermott, lead singer/songwriter for the band Bay Faction, about his songwriting process, and used this to create my own routine that fits in my schedule.

I have 3 methods of writing songs that I rotate through during my time songwriting. These are:

  • Melody first songwriting
  • Chords first songwriting
  • Free recording/experimentation

If I’m feeling uninspired with one method I try another until something sticks. My goal is to create 2 “rough ideas/song concepts” and one structured song ever 2 days. This will give me a library of material to work with over winter break while I record. A deliverable for this could be rough demos I’ve recorded or the notebook of songs I have written.

Prototype 2

Now that songs are written, will I be able to execute my project and create good sounding recordings? What will the sonic style and aesthetic of my project be? This prototype will answer that.

I have two songs fully recorded. Right now they are demos but I think they will end up on the final project after being polished. I’ve been working with Mark in the IMM department to improve my mixes.

Prototype 3

My third prototype is to help me with the digital marketing campaign I run to promote the release. After talking to my friend who does freelance digital marketing solutions, experience is the most important thing to do to get good at this. I will be running a campaign in late November for another project I’m working on.

Research Update 2

This week for my research I read about where electronic waste actually ends up, and how it gets there. One article I read called Where does America’s e-waste end up? GPS tracker tells all on PBS news hour discusses geolocating tracking devices that were stored in old computers, TVs and printers before sending them to donation centers.

An organization partnered with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and put 200 geolocating tracking devices inside machines that were strategically sent to nationwide donation centers, recyclers, and electronic take-back programs which advertise themselves as “green”, “sustainable”, “earth friendly, and “environmentally responsible.” The data they collected showed that 1/3 of the electronics went overseas, even as far as 12,000 miles which included 6/14 trackers that were dropped off in Washington and Oregon. Other trackers ended in Mexico, Taiwan, China, Pakistan, Thailand, Dominican Republic, Canada, and Kenya. Most traveled across the Pacific to Hong Kong.

Puckett then traveled to Hong Kong where the GPS trackers say they are located, called the New Territories, an agricultural area along the border with mainland China. Along the way they passed several steam trucks carrying shipping containers from the port. When he got closer to the destination they heard power drills and shattering glass coming from the other side of a high metal wall made from old shipping containers. The journalist that Puckett teamed up with knocked on the gate and said hey wanted to fill a shipping container with printers to refurbish and sell in Pakistan, and the worker opened the door.

Behind the door workers were dismantling LCD Tvs. The ground that they were standing on is filled with broken white tubes. The fluorescent lamps were made to light up flat screens, however when they break they release invisible mercury vapor into the air. A minuscule amount of mercury can be a neurotoxin.

Workers had no idea of the risk that they’re in by being around these toxic chemicals. New Territories used to only be a pass-through for smuggled e-waste, but the Chinese government cracked down on whole electronic imports so now they’re doing the processing there.

Prototype Plan

Prototype 1: For the first Prototype I’m going to sketch/design how I want the globe to represent data that I’m presenting. I’ll either have several designs based on the different areas it’s going to cover, or one detailed plan on one of the sections.

Prototype 2: The second Prototype I’ll have ideas on if I want to project imagery onto the walls as well as the globe and how I would want them to interact with each other. This would be sketches/designs of other projection mapping not on the wall.

Prototype 3: The third Prototype will be a little hard to demonstrate, but I want to create a visualization of the layout of the room. Where the globe will be placed, the other objects in the room, and the path I want my audience to take.