Categories
New Making

Fly club wrist band

Introducing the fly club wrist band; a wearable wrist band that allows people attending fly events to create a personal souvenir to remember the events they have been to, by allowing them to choose their favourite DJ playing. Attendees can do this in the form of a little ‘pin’ that they choose on arrival and insert to their wrist band for safe keeping.

Where did the idea come from? Well I started by doing some background research on fly open air, looking at things like dates, locations and line-ups, to see if anything would be changing from usual, and to see if anything sparked initially in terms of ideas.

From what I could see, it was basically the same, Hopetoun house May, Princess street gardens September. However, the only thing that had changed was the days the events were held. The first couple of years, fly was held over one day, usually a Saturday. But since the last event, fly have started hosting it over the whole weekend, presuming due to growing popularity. This is where my first idea stemmed from; all these events, now two days at a time, now even more DJ’s, making it increasingly harder to be able to remember key parts from the events that people enjoyed, such as who they enjoyed the most. Initially I had thought about digital ticketing and redesigning what we would perceive as a ‘ticket’ but this strayed a little too far from the souvenir aspect I was looking at bringing.

I researched into existing festival souvenirs, and quickly found that most souvenirs given at events like this, come in the form of ‘merch’. Collectable things like clothing, mugs, bags. All which had nothing to do with the actual event they had just experienced. This is what I wanted to try achieve; something that would create a memorable link between the two for the user. Creating a more immersive experience both at the event, and looking back. I ended up landing on the idea of wrist bands.

Wrist bands are something used a lot of events like this, however always over looked as just a way of keeping track of who has bought and ticket and who should be attending the event. Most commonly made from a material called ‘Tyeek’. Which is that weirdly strong, paper-like material you get stuck on your wrist at event and spend ages trying to rip of when you get home. For one, its destroyed when the user has to rip it off, but then the memory of it is also destroyed when it gets thrown in the bin and disposed of.

So I looked in to a material that would allow users to use it over and over again, very common one that came up was silicone. Which works great for my ideas as; its flexible so allows for once size fits most, durable, weather resistant and is very cheap and fast to produce. However, one thing that was missing, how does this differ from any other wrist band? How does it create a souvenir? How does it give data to fly club? As well as wanting to add this element into my design, I also really wanted to make use of the wasted bottles and litter that ae left at fly events. Having previously researched into brands such as 4ocean. So many bottles and cups are left over every year, so using this in the new product is also such a good proposal for fly club’s reputation.

This is where my idea of the ‘pins’ came from; they serve a dual purpose. They allow the users to customise their bands by choosing one based on their favourite DJ and inserting it into the holes on the band, and also allow fly to analyse data such as popularity of the DJ’s, through the bar graph style dispensers which would be at the entrance to the venue.

The pins are colour coded to a DJ, to allow people to customise their band aesthetically, without having a physical connection to the DJ playing as this would not be very nice looking. The pins slide into holes on the band and stay there well due to the properties of the silicone.

Through attendees taking one of these pins at each fly event, they begin to build a band of memories for this great event, while also helping fly club with data analysis, while simultaneously making a dent in our fight against global warming.

Categories
New Making

Pocket of Memory

Pocket of memory is a portable origami shaped structure which gives the user the possibility to collect little glimpses of their favorite times at the Fringe Festival. The structure is composed of 3D printed parallelograms with inlayed fabric layers. The layers are composed such that they create a sleeve within the 3D print. This sleeve is the “pocket” where the memories are stored. While developing the product, I  did a series of experimentations combining different fabrics and 3D prints. Trying out different types of fabric was necessary in order to understand which type adheres better to the 3D print. The printed parallelogram shapes are not connected to each other initially. Instead,  they are held by the added fabric, creating a fish scale appearance. To create the pocket, I cut through sections of a single layer of fabric within the parallelogram sections.

Fringe visitors are constantly being given information both verbally and visually, making it difficult to retain single memories of their own. Taking inspiration from the project ‘Dear Data’ and how the two artists make their weekly data set, I have chosen to approach the human scale data gathering path. Contextualizing human scale data within the Fringe Festival, I have decided to represent the personal locations of visitors through the flyers or tickets collected during their visits. It shows, in a non-obtrusive way, where a person has been and what they have liked about their stay. 

Categories
New Making

Light Up My Fringe

Souvenirs can so often be unsustainable objects of loose relevance to an experience with little to no function; Light Up My Fringe is an attempt to change that through a personalised, reflective and functioning product.

Aimed at developing young people’s skills of reflection, the product is a rotating light that the user interacts with by punching holes of different shapes into the side panels, before construction. The holes punched correspond to how the user felt about the different shows and experiences they had that day, creating a unique, personal souvenir with meaning.

One of the key things required to hold memories of experiences is reflection and this product is designed with that in mind. The Edinburgh Fringe festival is an incredible experience and encouraging children to engage in the present and in looking back will only enrich their experience and the memories they hold. Self-packaged and with the option of local manufacture thanks to its simple design, this product is a new take on sustainable souvenirs.

Categories
New Making

Emotional Technology

Connecting the worlds of psychotherapy to technology is a delicate balance to reach, however, the realm of our emotional health is rarely touched upon by the powerful tools we have the power to create. My project is creating a system to use user gathered data following how we grow and change emotionally, and then bring it into the physical world, as if holding up a mirror to your own habits.

The writing sections focus on your past, then your current mindset, and your aspirations and worries for the future. Using prompts and professional therapist workbooks you can work to understand yourself through writing.

The writing forms the emotional tracking, the habit tracker helps the user work toward their goals. With the option to privately connect with a professional so you can ‘check in’ and know you are headed in the right direction.

The key to this system is that a physical product responds to the user’s emotional journey. This is modeled to respond to how well the user follows their planned journey, growing with them.

Categories
New Making

ENCOUNTER

ENCOUNTER is a personalised souvenir which transform intangible experiences of the Fringe Festival into solid memories through adjustable algorithmic patterns. Taking up the shape of an abstract trophy, each stack correlates to an event that visitors wishes to remember. Encounter is designed to establish quality connection between the user and their precious moment, an experience recorded in a unique manner.

Through the use of interactive screens which will be placed in various locations throughout Edinburgh, visitors will be able to design their own souvenir!

Creative Technology

By utilising algorithmic modelling and visual scripting, various forms can be made through the adjustments of dimensions from data collected.

ENCOUNTER introduces a new making process, 3D printing, an emerging paradigm that allows the urban metabolism to be rendered sustainable. It does not only involve a different way of producing goods, but also contributes to the development of a green urban economy.

Coupled with magnets on the surfaces of each unique stack, visitors can channel their creativity by the different ways of stacking patterns.

The souvenir will be available in black and white colours. After the printing process is done, the souvenir will be shipped to their respective addresses.

Categories
New Making

Data-Driven Embroidery Souvenir

When we go away for a holiday or festival events, then we will probably come home with a few souvenirs, then never touch it again. Following the assignment context that aims to consider the complex entanglement of digital information and digital fabrication processes in material practices and material culture in the context of the Edinburgh Festival.

My design started by asking a question that how might we design a festival souvenir that beyond mass-manufacture, and focuses on carrying memory possibilities.

The Data-Driven Embroidery Souvenir design explores the design of using data embroidery as a new medium of personalized in the context of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe souvenir. More precisely, the design creates visual data patterns and embroiders onto personal items to present data in a personal context. The project challenges the traditional three-dimensional souvenir, encourages sustainable lifestyle and aims to translate digital data into a tangible textile as meaningful souvenirs.

The visual pattern example here is based on the map route and the visiting duration per shows, it states that sharing family activities and time in the Festival. Additionally, the representation of Edinburgh Castle will be presented in any the Festival Fringe embroidery pattern as a symbolization.

Keywords: sustainable, souvenir, data, embroidery, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Categories
New Making

Restricted Data

Through the increase in digital devices coming between us as People, the capture of data has become a prevalent tool to learn more about the routines of day to day living. These personal devices have disrupted the Souvenir marketplace, through offering the capabilities to record, track and capture the unique elements which make-up each individuals experiences.

‘Data-trope’

This project looks at how the art of data visualisation can be brought to traditional product design. Offering the consumer a personalised data-set through a tangible interface, which can only be interpreted with permission from the individual.

By creating a Data Animation Kit, it offers a gateway to show consumers the importance of their personal data.

In the beginning, I took interest in a study investigating the location that souvenirs are placed across our homes, drawing focus to the function a souvenir offers when back at home.

My focus throughout this project considered the interaction across the Fringe period through to arriving back home. Exploring how the perceived value of the product can change once it’s taken out of context. This lead me to propose a multi-functional Animation tool and Memory Box.

The art of data visualisation provides a universal language enabling each individual to create a unique set of data identifiable to only themselves. By developing a guide to introduce the users into the curation of personal data, it provides them with a platform to explore their data portrait, what sort of data they value about an experience.

This Zoetrope kit embodies an essence of the fringe with posters from previous years and captures the present by animating personalised datasets to timelessly capture their unique experiences across the city.

Categories
New Making

The Edinburgh International Book Festival Journal

The Edinburgh international Book Festival itself does not offer many souvenirs, apart from bookmarks and passes or tickets. This may be because a signed book will always hold the highest value to an attendee of the EIBF, as it provides a personal connection between the author of the literature that an attendee may have owned previously or felt connected to.

Moving forward, I knew that I would not be able to create a souvenir that would replace the value and experience that comes with a signed book. Instead, I decided to create a tool that allowed attendees to document their experiences at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

The design concept I decided to develop was to create a festival journal that allows users to document their experience at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in creative ways. Taking inspiration from Wreck this Journal and the general concept of journals, I decided to assign each page to a different event at the book festival, with each page containing the same elements. The elements that I thought were important to include were a section where the name of the event could be written, a section for signatures from authors and speakers, as well as section that varied with each page, where it gave small writing challenges to the user. 

Another feature that I decided to include was a section for venue stamps; each tent at the book festival village would have 3D printed stamps that correspond to their names. When the user attends an event in that tent, they can stamp the page they documented that experience on using the specific venue stamp. I thought it was important to include the stamp because it provides a sense of physicality and proof that you actually attended the event; the only way to attend an authentic stamp is by actually going to the event. 

Alternate pages that are included in the journal function as storage and display for bookmarks and postcards, other common souvenirs collected at the book festival. The arcs represent cut sections that allow the items to be slotted in; as bookmarks come in two standard sizes, there multiple slots to allow for this.

Categories
New Making

Edinburgh Fringe Posters

Data encapsulates our everyday lives, affecting us in  both positive and negative ways. This project makes use of your data whilst at The Edinburgh Fringe and creates a personalised poster as a souvenir of your experience.

I wanted to create a personalised souvenir that encompasses the Fringe’s lively nature and traditional, iconic posters. Through the use of an app, users document their festival experience with shows and dates. After they have finished their time at the Fringe, a unique poster is created. Each shape in the design correlates with a show the user has been to, with a large organic shape representing the location of venues throughout the city. The app allows users to customise their poster before ordering, with shapes and colours being adaptable. 

Flyers and posters are such an iconic element of the Fringe, however they create tonnes of waste each year. I have decided to create my posters out of recycled flyers and posters from the previous year to help reduce  the festival’s overall wastage.  This project contributes towards The Fringe Society’s goals of a more eco- friendly fringe whilst providing attendees with a personalised souvenir that they can collect year after year.  

Categories
New Making

The Fringe Music Box

The ‘fringe music box’ explores a more interactive way of creating souvenirs. By taking cues from traditional music boxes and applying rapid prototyping methods, each Fringe venue can have their own unique punch pattern. Memory and nostalgia are tied with the more sensory and tangible so by utilising the physicality of the ticket and adding an audio element the user can build a more personalised souvenir from The Fringe. 

As the user travels around the different Fringe venues, their weekend pass gets punched upon entry. This builds up a storyline of their own unique Edinburgh Fringe experience. 

User Journey…

We live in in a digital where more and more interactions take place on the screen. This project aims to counter the notion of being restricted by the screen and open up a more tangible and sensory way of experiencing the festival both during and afterwards. All the festival goers will have a storyline but often it’s hidden. The Fringe Music Box unlocks this and allows them to not only enjoy the experience of creating their own souvenir, but the experience of reminiscing afterwards. 

While the music box is very much focussed around process and tangibility, the actual data captured and portrayed is very digital. The ticket builds up the timeline of holes; either on or off. This music then becomes the data of the user’s own individual experience.