Fortune Cookies

My Project
I will be making fortune cookies. SPOILER ALERT. If you would rather be surprised for my presentation on Monday the 29th (I'll be gone on the 24th for a doc appointment) then avoid reading the spoiler section at the end!


Original Ideas
-Wanted to do something with a gumball machine involving plastic eggs that would roll down and have mysterious prizes. Then I immediately realized those already exist...
-Lead people to various places on campus only using photographs. The real location would be altered in some way to be scary, such as having Slender man looking out a window at you. I began to realize it would probably involve too much work and material.
-Then I thought of food... we all pretty much love and need food.

Original idea forming methods
-Develop something that is hidden
-Do something that already has a preconceived context (such as food, which everyone knows you generally eat)
-Something with a story or map leading to various places
-Having a set of instructions with an element of surprise/unpredictable outcome.
-Start by thinking of the result you want, and then thinking backwards on how to formulate it.

Recipe
http://www.fortunecookiemessage.com/fortune-cookie-recipe.php

Main Idea
-Take something that already exists and change it
-Decided to use food, specifically fortune cookies!
-These have a preconceived context: they are cookies (food) that you break open in order to obtain the fortune that's inside
-Decide to add an unexpected element by making the papers inside do something different other than tell fortunes

Alterations to Idea
-I originally wanted to add food coloring to the fortune cookies to make them different colors. However, making them different colors would immediately give away the fact that these fortune cookies are not normal and stun the surprise of what's inside.
-I originally wanted everyone to be doing random actions but realized that the room might become really wild and unorganized without some sort of cohesive set of actions or theme.

Design Elements Used
-Controlling the context: people know generally what fortune cookies are and what to do with them, a framework is basically already in place
-Make the paper slips elicit an unexpected behavior
-By default, the fortune cookies have a hidden feature
-The paper rewards you with knowledge
-Engages all of the senses


SPOILER ALERT!!!! Text has to be highlighted in order to be read
Inside each cookie, there will be a piece of paper. However, instead of being a fortune, it will be an instruction for a type of noise making and how often. For instance, one might contain "Clap every other second." Eventually everyone will be composing a musical sound to create a giant song. What that song is going to sound like is completely a mystery! Hopefully it will be interesting. I hope that everyone will be really surprised that fortune cookies led to making a class band!