Critic 1 Respond

I think my first two prototypes are kind of related but also in very different directions. I first put virtual identity and social interaction as my topic because I was recently intrigued by how technology could shift the way we perceive ourselves and others in a virtual environment, but I have to admit that after everyone helps me to pick this topic, I was a bit clueless about how to narrow down my focus. Also I appreciated that Loretta pointed out that I need to slice out the cake from this broad topic, probably ask myself about what is something really interesting to me or what problem I really want to solve. During the prototyping, I actually feel my thoughts are being confined by the chosen topic and technology knowledge, where I noticed myself constantly thinking about ideas to fit in the topic of identity/interaction and also what technology I could be comfortable working with rather than thinking about what matters more to myself. I think Sven’s feedback gives me more freedom and rooms for my 6 in 6.

Before I made my first prototype, I watched a talk about what if one day everyone in the world will have a glass that can only see others’ virtual avatars through a world filter? What if seeing a real person means being naked and invading their privacy? It sounds very ironic, but also it leads me to think about how the current social media is already like a filter that everyone presents themselves and their life in a carefully designed version to the public. People actually wear “masks” all the time in reality, to deal with work, strangers, friends and family. “Masks” could limit us for something but sometimes it could also free us in a different environment. Many of the time people wear masks to hide their real selves because of social expectations or pressure. This could also be an interesting topic to explore in 6 in 6. During my first prototype making process, I noticed that it takes much longer than I expected to render complicated graphics. Probably Blender may not be the best tool for this, or I could experiment with some alternative forms. For the second prototype, I think there are a lot of things that could be explored in interaction of gestures, in terms of its application, not limiting to social interaction. One thing I found very interesting about hand is that it could be really expressive. If technology could expand the functions of our hands by simple interaction, it could help us make complicated processes much easier. I also checked out the links that my classmates shared with me. I think one of the sources about music with gestures looks interesting to me. There are projects that mapping the table to piano keyboard, or create virtual drum sets, that could be another form of expressive interactions that I might also take a look at.