So the next couple of projects were quite simple, and were more about working with groups of people than they were about real design. But projects they were nonetheless.
The third project was on taking a large piece of paper, and in three hours somehow getting people to stop in their day and interact with it. This deemed to be a more difficult task than it sounded.
With a group of four very different minded people, we bounced off ideas for a good hour and half. My initial idea was to make a sort of peephole that people could look through on one of the bridges over the river, and then point it at something along the bank that would make people smile or something. However, the group wasn't feeling this and decided to try and go for something quite literal.
We decided to put huge words displaying LOOK HERE and a giant arrow down to a little piece of writing in pencil that said "Thank You."
However, this turned out to be a mistake. Two big lessons were learned however:
1. Location is such a big part of design and interaction. Had we of gone somewhere with more traffic, our poster would have had more people react to it. Only a few people bothered to look at the poster, let alone go and read what the arrow pointed to.
2. Don't assume the public is stupid or ignorant, they won't react to boring or simple design. What we ended up doing was basic level design, telling the public to do exactly what we wanted them to. Not the right way to approach.
Ah well, live and learn! It was good to make a mistake though cause that is how you progress and gain knowledge.
Anywho, the next project was quite silly. It made me second guess myself that I was on a BA course at this point... It was fun nonetheless. We were put into groups and each were given a type of communication. Carrier pigeons, computers, folding paper etc. Our group got hieroglyphics. Through this we were to write and preform a song based on this form of communication. We decided to parody the theme song of Fresh Prince of Bel Air...
What we didn't know is that the group that got polaroids ALSO decided to parody that song. So in the end we both had a rap battle against each other talking about our respective subjects.
LYRICS:
Now this is a story all about how
The al-pha-bet was used and now
We'd like to take a minute
Just sit right down
We'll tell you how the hieroglyphs were used in Egypt town.
Wait x 2
In ancient Greece was where they were raised
On the playground where Zuess spent most of his days
Evolving, revolving and picture making
When Egyptians came along and decided to take
And a couple of years
To 400 AD
They started using pictures as a language key
To write all over tombs and for biblical scripts
On walls, papyrus and religious crypts.
They had no vowels so spelling was hard
And papyrus was not like paper or card
They sometimes used sound but sometimes ideas
In fact they should have discussed it over some beers
2000 symbols, how bad
And we thought 26 was rad
Is this what the language of Egypt was like?
Hmmm, it might be alright.
But wait, there's more to these hieroglyphs
They didn't use them in their every day tiffs
In fact nobody really spoke or read them at all
They were just used on tombstone walls
Wait x 2
So, it's, really as easy as 'a b c'
Instead it's more like vulture, foot and basket
Their communication skills were really quite bad
But then again, so is this song.
There's other boring stuff that you should know
Like logographic alphabetic, all that jazz
If anything I can is this stuff is rare
But we thought 'Nah forget it' - 'No one even cares!'
Wait x 1
So thank you for listening and we hope you have learned
How the language of symbolism was earned
You've been a great crowd
We are finally there
To end this rap about Hieroglyphs - yeah.
As ridiculous as it was, it was an interesting and creative way to learn about different ways of communication, and brough the group together quite quickly. As a course of only 55 people, we've all got to know each other quickly, and it's nice to know that I'll be spending the next three years with these people.
