Creating a Community Dialogue
412-OCTAVIA is an interactive installation in a community garden that create an engaging tangible interaction experience for all ages. It is a digital communication system that is embedded into an analogue interface. 412-OCTAVIA operates like a telephone and answering machine, but it is for the public. Users can listen to messages left by others in the garden and contribute their own. This allows the sculpture to become a nexus of communication in the neighborhood. Its purpose is two-fold: it creates a delightful experience for users and will help to assess the needs of the community so that future design interventions in the space can be reflective of the particular needs, desires, and lived experiences of community members. While working on this project, we engaged with the principles of place-based design practice. 412-OCTAVIA allows users to become co-creators of the piece, as their narratives continuously form the meaning and value of the work over time.
Our team was tasked with discovering an opportunity for bits, atoms, and digital systems to add value to the way that people interact and connect with the Octopus Garden, a community garden in the Bloomfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh. Previously the site of a burned-down apartment building, the garden is now a thriving community space. When faced with the opportunity to design a technological intervention, we challenged ourselves to create something that enhances the way community members engage with the space without detracting from the existing connection people have with the garden.
Rhythm Agarwal, Helen Hong, Catherine Oldershaw, Jiaqi Wu, and Yueqiao Zhou
Prototyping Lab, Spring 2016, Austin S. Lee
The Octopus Garden (Pittsburgh, PA)
Concept Generation and Ideation, User Flow, Iteration on Design of the Form, Video Filming and Production
What We Made
We created two prototypes for this project. One was a look and feel prototype. The design marries the analogue form of the rotary phone with a minimal, clean aesthetic. This would help it stand out but not clash with the existing environment.
To prove the viability of the concept, we also created a partially-functioning prototyping, using an old rotary phone, Arduino, and other components. As the phone is dialed, the various prompts play through the speaker.
We also envisioned a way to access the messages left in the garden remotely. We designed a portal through which all messages can be heard. But to leave messages, you'd have to visit the garden.
How We Got There
Before generating any prototype concepts, we visited the site for inspiration and to see what space there might be for intervention. The octopus sculpture, Octavia, is the central visual component of the space. Her arms reminded us of tubes that a child might play telephone with, which inspired the idea that Octavia might act as a nexus for communication in the garden.
Based on our visit to the site and our initial inspirations about Octavia, we began brainstorming conceptions of the sculpture as a sort of operator and guardian of secrets and stories left by visitors. We ideated on the details of the user experience, including ways users might be drawn to the sculpture and what happens to the messages that are left in the garden.
We drew a storyboard to explain the process of listening to and leaving messages in the garden. Users will be draw to the sculpture by motion activated lights on the Octavia sculpture. Users will lift the receiver and begin to hear messages randomly. Users will dial a prompt and then be asked by Octavia to leave a message. When they hang up the receiver, the message is submitted.
In creating a prototype that could demonstrate how our installation would work, we worked with Arduino and physical computing to prototype the LEDs in the arm, as well as the prompts in the rotary dial. While we only were required to create a "Wizard of Oz" prototype, we believed coding certain parts of the interaction would best prove our concept.
Finally, we brought some of our prototypes out to the garden to test the concept ourselves and with a family of four. We found that this installation could be reflective for individuals but also engaging for groups, especially parents with their children. Moving forward, we would like to create a permanent installation in the garden which could involve the whole community.
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