Weighted Shoes

One idea I have is a pair of shoes that appear to be regular shoes but once they are on the user realizes that they are both different weights, one light, one heavy. This will play with the users preconceptions of footwear.

I have inestigated some materials that I could attach to the bottom of the gumboots.

My first thoughts are bricks on the heavy shoe and aluminium cans on the light shoe.
Bricks are obviosly heavy and aluminium cans are lightweight and strong enough to support your weight if you distribute your weight on them evenly. The cans will crumble if they are stood on with an uneven weight; this will show if a person has failed.

Other objects I am yet to investigate are toilet paper and cardboard; these could potentially be on the light shoe as materials that will support a person and are lightweight.

Gumboots

 I will most likely be using a large sized pair of gumboots for my final object. This is so people of most sizes will be able to use them, and also so they can slip onto a foot without being moved.

Images found at

http://moon-boots.blogspot.co.nz/2011/09/gumboots.html

Sensory Experiences

Studio two for interaction design required us to bring in five items, with each item relating to a good or bad sensory experience, one item for each of the five senses.

My items were:

Flowers, a visually appelaing item. (Sight)

 

Balloons, An audibly interesting item (hearing), these squeak or sputter when air is released from them.

Pepper, an item with a displeasing scent (smell)

Toilet Paper, A soft tactile item, with a generally good, or at least not negative, experiences (touch),

Bubblegum Sherbet Eggs, sweet, sour, and an overall pleasing experience for myself, yet some people may find the sherbet overpowering and therefore have a negative experience. (taste)

Senses

The first project of DSDN112 requires us to explore at least one of the five human senses of sight, taste, touch, hearing and smell.

It is important to know a bit about each sense, for example, where in the human body are there sensory areas.

.Touch or feeling can happen anywhere in the body where there are nerves, most obviously the hands but even the feet, scalp, knees, etc. Touch is also responsible for pain.
.Sight happens primarily in the eyes, it is assumed that all humans can see only the light spectrum which includes colours from violet to dark red.
.Hearing happens in the ears and may change over time as people lose their ability to hear certain frequencies of sound.
.Smell occurs in the nose. The nose can smell the difference between hundreds of different substances
.Taste occurs on the tongue. There are only five tastes, bitterness, saltiness, sourness, sweetness and umami.


During our studio time we were asked to come up with some interesting sensory experiences that we had experienced. These could be positive or negative. I came up with several:

The worst thing that I have experienced smelling was a dead, rotting pig that was washed up on the beach.

Sherbert can be so strong that when eating it it is so sour that ones face may cringe or shrivel and tears can be brought to ones eyes, how is it that some people love this sensational experience but others dislike it?

I think it is interesting that things such as music can appeal to some people but not to others. In this project I would like to explore things that some people like but others do not. One example of this is music from the band Korn; at first I disliked it, it was just noise to me, but now when I am in the mood to listen to heavy music I like it. My parents still don't like it.

Other areas that I could explore could be to do with textures of food when it is eaten.



When searching smell into google I found a device known as the Nasal Ranger which is used for measuring smells. Who Knew?

Nasal Ranger