Project 2: A strange box

The idea behind my box is pretty straight-forward: I wanted to create something to frustrate people. It works by drawing in victims with the promise of green tea KIT KATs in some sort of a puzzle box, but never actually delivering on the promise.

The full experience involves finding the locked box with KIT KATs inside, noticing that the lock has a note on its backside stating that the combination is inside the box, then extracting the paper clips from inside the box (intentionally or accidentally) and using them to try to unfold the sheet of paper within that presumably contains the combination. The final step is either giving up on the paper or successfully opening it, only to realize that the combination isn't there.

I got a mesh box to let people see and interact with its contents without actually being able to pull them out of the locked box. I would've liked to have a sturdier box (you can see it's already a bit bent in the picture) that I could lock directly without needing to use chains, but this was the best thing I could find on the internet. It's actually meant to be a pencil box, which is why I decided to put the pen inside. (The pen serves no other purpose except to distract people, a purpose that it served pretty well for a short while.)

The chains were necessary to lock the box. It was actually really really hard to figure out how to keep the chains from sliding off the box easily, and even with all the time I spent struggling to keep it locked, the chain could still be pulled off.

I initially wanted to use a lighter chain because I felt that wrapping something so heavy around such a light box would feel weird, but my lighter chain was half a foot too short for the box so I ended up buying this one instead.

In the end, I actually feel that this chain adds a weight to the box that makes it feel more substantial, and in a way more satisfying to hold and shake (like the difference between a real coin and a plastic one). It's also doesn't feel quite as weird as I thought it would because the weight is distributed evenly around the box; it's hard to tell that the weight comes from the chain and and not the box. Unlocking the box and taking off the chain still feels really weird, but it's fine because the box isn't supposed to be openable. :P

I put the paper clips in the box to give people a way to interact with the sheet of paper. I was originally going to put paper clips off to the side, outside of the box, but then I thought that it might be flavorful to put some inside the box as another red herring, like the pen. (It didn't occur to me that people would try to count the number of paper clips and KIT KATs in the box in hopes of figuring out some code, though.)

However, when I was trying to lock the box, I realized that the paper clips could fall out of the box while it was closed. It occurred to me that this would be an interesting mechanic that would add another level of complexity to the box. I also realized that a little bit of complexity is actually good for a frustrating experience--the tangible progression makes people feel that they are actually moving towards a realistic goal and keeps them trying to open the box without getting bored--so I decided to just put all the paper clips inside the box.

I included both regular and jumbo-sized paper clips in the box; the regular ones fall out more easily when people turn the box upside down or shake it and could be used to pull out the jumbo ones, which are longer and easier to use to unfold the paper.

The lock was just a regular Master lock. I opted for a combination lock because I needed a way for people to be able to unlock the box using its contents. (If I locked a key inside the box, it would be impossible to unlock it, whereas a combination can be locked in the box but still be used to unlock it.) Also, locks with dials are nice because they're hard to brute force by trying every possible combination.

I put a sticky note on the back of the lock that indicated that the combination was somewhere inside the box; otherwise, people would have no reason to interact with the box. I made sure it stuck out just a little bit so that it was conspicuous without being too obvious in order to add another, lesser layer of complexity, giving people the feeling that it's a puzzle box that they should examine closely, but without risking people missing the note entirely.

It also served the double purpose of encouraging people to turn the box upside down (the lock is held in place tightly by the chains, to the point that it's hard to get a good look at the note without rotating the box a bit) to get paper clips to fall out in case people missed them in the box, as Jane did; they're the same color and blend in really well.

The paper was a standard sheet of 8.5 × 11 inch, college-ruled paper that I wrote the combination on, then erased to leave only a light impression. I wrote "JK" over the numbers to distract people from looking more closely, hopefully making them feel very frustrated from being lied to and having wasted a bunch of time and effort. Even on the off chance that someone decided to look very closely at the paper, I figured it would be difficult enough to read through the mesh box to generate a good amount of frustration.

I also made sure to fold it so that it wasn't too easy to open with the paper clips and so that the text inside wouldn't be visible through the paper.

The KIT KATs were just candy I happened to have that I figured people might like (and that may have melted a bit in my room before I got to present... I probably would've checked more closely if the box was meant to be opened). I had a bit of trouble thinking of ways to get people to initially want to open the box, and I certainly never expected the KIT KATs to be such an effective motivator, but I'm glad it worked out.

In the end, I my box was more successful than I imagined it could ever be; basically everything went according to plan, from Jane immediately wanting the candy to the paper clips falling out randomly. I suppose that with a goal as easy to accidentally achieve as frustration, even a slight oversight such as not realizing that people would try to count the box's contents or would suggest that the combination was hidden in the pen would work almost as well as the original plan. However, I feel that the addition of the paper clips that fall out of the box and the subsequent sense of progress gave people a reason not to give up on the box after their frustration began to eclipse their initial desire for candy, allowing me to leave people with more frustration after taking away the hope of retrieving the candy from the box. I suddenly feel the need to graph this. Enjoy this graph I threw together in five minutes in paint.net.

The Euphoric Box

For this project I assembled a box in which I wanted to portray a very substantial emotion and a profound experience. For me euphoria can be associated with a number of virtuous triggers. Most often they are at times of peacefulness, tranquility, sometimes loneliness, profound immersions, and high sensory input. Everyone has something different or perhaps even a different idea of euphoria. It is difficult to force someone into a state of Euphoria which makes this a tricky subject to pin down but in this project I attempted to replicate things that give me a sense of immersive euphoria. A person with an open mind, willingness to be immersed, and perhaps a good taste in music and art should experience what I planned with this box.

The box itself was a giant wardrobe moving box with dimensions 24" x 21"x 48". The box was tall and wide enough for someone to lay down in and not be too cramped. I wanted the person to be laying down because I figured that was what I was doing most of the time in my mind mapping. I also put some pillows and a blanket for extra comfort while laying down. I cut a screen with a 16:9 aspect ratio in the top of the box and put a piece of white butcher paper over to project on. The idea was to make the screen your full view. Inside was my over the ear noise cancelling headphones which I feel are the only way to go to be fully immersed (earbuds don't work for me).

The media I used was from my collection of wallpapers and music that I felt fit together. The idea was to play music that fit the pictures in a way that was striking, engaging, and evocative to the viewer. Initially I wanted to produce a medley that fit a large range of emotions to the pictures. I found I could do a better job by using music I have already found to produce a sense of euphoria. For instance listen to this video from 2:48 - 6:10 and view these pictures Sergio Altamura - Luna

For a different mood, try the jazzy hip hop track at the beginning of this playlist and view these images. This is the kind of stuff I listen to late at night and get a sense of euphoria from Jazzy Hip Hop 

I tried to mix the tracks in a way that flowed together nicely but they were all so different in mood and key that the transitions were not smooth enough and immersion breaking. For the box I used these images in a power point presentation and my mix of music including these songs, but I had so many more pictures and songs to work with. Most of the thought in this went into picking pictures from my hundreds that perfectly fit each of the images. Hopefully you can see how they come off in a different respect when accompanied with different music. Perhaps you felt more immersed in the picture or was immediately overcome with an emotion. When in the box with the headphones on, the goal was to be completely immersed both visually and audibly.

Reception and things to improve: Some of the people that went into the box remarked that it was interesting experience although nobody mentioned a euphoric experience. I don't think I got a large enough sample size to decide if it was a success or not. From experiencing it myself, being in the box  was immersive and made me really focus on the media. Someone mentioned that the viewing screen be more full view, almost like a virtual reality device, which I agree might be the best way to do it. If I were to do this on unlimited budget and resources I would make a VR device. I like to think about the VR chamber in the beginning of the movie Sunshine that helped the astronauts cope with space travel, as an example. Also, the track I made had flow issues and did not sync with the PowerPoint presentation because PowerPoint does not like FLAC files . If I were to make it again I would make a video in which I could sync music to the pictures. Given a person that would be willing to spend a large amount of time in the box, I would have them listen to all the songs I had in full and have them view a lot of the pictures I had to cut.

The maze with blindfold

This is an experience of maze with blindfold. The idea comes from the movie called "The Maze Runner" in 2014. The main character Thomas wakes up trapped in a massive maze with a group of other boys, he has no memory of the outside world other than strange dreams about a mysterious organization known as W.C.K.D. Only by piecing together fragments of his past with clues he discovers in the maze can Thomas hope to uncover his true purpose and a way to escape. I was really interested about this movie because i cannot imagine what will i do
if i was in the movie. I hope i can experience with this kind of maze someday.

Description
The basic rules about experience of maze is wearing the eye mask to cover the light and image. During the experience, the player has to be alone and walk through the maze. The player has no choice to say help to anyone. Even though you may face in danger during the maze, you still have to overcome by yourself. 
My goal is making people feel alone and scared to escape the maze. 

Set Up the Environment 
After this idea come out, my first perfect choice for this experience is maze in a dark room. I'm lucky that professor help me out for finding a room with many removable chairs and modern folded table. That gives me more easier to achieve my goal. I have search lots of maze picture on internet, but it is sort of different with in real life. You have to built two ways that one is exit another one is enter. It is different because the room only have one door, so i have think out this to make it happen in this room. Also, i was planning to have some sound effect by using my speaker. It was easy that i just download some scared Halloween app on my phone. Another trick is i brought my big mickey toy. It seems like a person's tall. I want him to sit on the chair in the center of the maze. If the player passed by, he may touch it and i will play the scared sound at that moment. Moreover, to make sure the person who in the maze can meet the toy, i have to built in the right way. For this situation, i have test several times by myself.

The Result
 From my project, i think the way to be successful is keep testing again and again , maybe some additional reverse. Since everyone may has different ability to escape the maze, i have to make sure the trick i made is working on most of people. As the result, Liang said once she wore the eye mask, she really felt alone. Also, the outside environment was really quiet so that she do not know what to do and which direction she can go.  

The Seattle Foodie Boxes

For my calling card project, I ended up going with the first idea from my mind map post. I created a set of 3 boxes and puzzles, each with their own theme surrounding Seattle's food scene. To unlock the box, the user had to solve the puzzles to find the code.

The "Research": Researching for this project was a lot of fun! I used my day off to go to Pike's Place Market and explore local artisan stores. I had to take a break from being bombarded by tourists and had lunch at a place called Umma's Lunch Box underneath the 5th Ave Theater. It was really great food for the price, and a nice, quiet escape from the hubbub outside. I asked if they had any kimchi I could use in my project, but sadly it was not vacuum sealed, therefore perishable. I spoke to a lot of store owners and managers about their local products and what they thought was truly "iconic Seattle" fare. The most helpful person was the manager at Eat Local, as their store features frozen meals prepared with locally sourced produce and meats. They even had local non-perishables such as potato chips, mustard, and pickles. It's not exactly fit for a college student's budget, but it's definitely a neat store to look around in! They have several Seattle locations.

Box 1: Sweets- This box contained Theo peanut butter chocolate cups, EatLocal Scottish shortbread, Dilletante chocolates, and Seattle Chocolates. This was definitely the easiest box to shop for, as I was determined not to spend over 5$ on any single item. The Scottish shortbread was sweet and buttery, which was very surprising for something that wasn't supposed to expire until October! The puzzle for this box focused around bakeries and sweet shops, such as Trophy Cupcakes or Full Tilt Ice Cream.

Box 2: Savory- This box contained jam from Maury Island farms, a beef jerky stick from BB Ranch Butcher Shop, plantain chips from Miss Marjorie's Restaurant, and salt from the Puget Sound. This was a bit harder to shop for as proteins are more expensive. The puzzle for this box made the user figure out which restaurant the picture was from. I included some iconic foods such as a burger from Dick's Drive-In and fish and chips from Ivar's.

Box 3: Drinks- This box contained a reusable Starbucks cup, local honey sticks from the Sunny Honey Company, and peach and coconut white tea from MarketSpice, a Seattle based tea company. For these puzzles, I focused on breweries or local drink manufacturer's, such as Fremont Brewing and Jones Soda.

Reflection: This project was a lot of fun to work on and really made me think about where my favorite foods came from. Most of the store owners were excited to share their knowledge about their goods, but a few misinterpreted what I was trying to do and attempted to sell me premade gift baskets. Otherwise, this project was perfect for a foodie like me to work on, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. After the presentation, I gave most of the food homeless people- and a dog, on the Ave.

Thanks for reading!

-Kristen

Calling Card: The Box | Melinda Kuei

As you may recall from my previous post, one of the feelings I wanted people to experience was "discomfort". I wanted to evoke this emotion by making the audience feel like they were constantly being watched and have the prickly sensation at the back of their neck. Due to the short time frame we were given to execute our ideas, I had to make several adjustments due to time and budget limitations. I was inspired heavily by the feeling you get when people crowd around you and it's worse if they're all staring at you. So at first, the scenario I was imagining was a dark room and the person would enter to see a ring of mannequins surrounding a table with a box on top. Inside the box would be several pictures of different paths to get to the current room, and the last picture would be of the ring of mannequins the person is currently standing in.

In the end, I settled for masks to replace mannequins as mannequins are much pricier. After viewing the room I was to set up in, I decided to get black cloth to section off the area, since it couldn't be pitch black and had several chairs in the room ruining the atmosphere. Since I was unable to set up the room beforehand, I ended up taking random "stalker" pics instead. Although there were several changes made, after witnessing people's reactions the day of, I'm relatively satisfied with the reactions I got!

Below are a couple photographs of the setup.

This is what people see when they first enter the room:

creepy row of masks

innocuous box sitting in the middle of a large wooden table

jk

It was a fun experience. Even though I spent a lot of money on this project, I learned a lot about eliciting predictable responses from the audience and how to deal with short time frames and plan B's and C's.

The You Lose Box

I knew when I heard we were gonna be making a box, that I would want to use the Useless box as apart of my project

There were two struggling aspects:

Building the actual box, and improving on the box.

Building the box was a struggle because it required a lot of soldering and I needed to get more materials than I had.

As for improving the box, that was more of a mental struggle. I didn't know which way I wanted to take it. I wanted to keep it simple, but I also wanted the feelings of curiosity, surprise, and wanting to do it again.

In the end I made it look like a game with a chance to win a prize. The idea being whenever they switch open the box it *might* say you win or you lose but in fact it can only say you lose.

Project 2: Creepy Jack-in-the-Box Experience

For project 2, the types of experiences that I wanted to elicit out of the person participating was that of being surprised/shocked while being crept out as well. The ideas that I had in mind for the project were a pop-up book where a scary image would suddenly appear out of a seemingly normal book, while the other was a kind of Jack-in-the box experience where something jumps out at you when you open the box. In the end I went with the Jack-in-the-box. The Jack-in-the-box was something I gravitated towards since it naturally brings out a sense of surprise. However, they often have cranks which often let the user know that something will pop out of the box (assuming you ever played with one before) so I wanted to eliminate this indicator by placing the "jack" in a more ordinary box.

Before making my Jack in the box, I had to come up with what would pop out of the box. I wanted people to be crept out by the "jack" in the box, so I naturally thought of a doll, as dolls are super creepy. On top of that, I think that baby dolls are ever more creepy (especially the ones with moving eyes) so that is exactly what I chose to put in my box. Even on top of that, a dismembered head of a baby doll is even creepier, so I took the head and stuck it on a makeshift spring made of a bolt, a spring and a nut some washers which I then drilled into a piece of wood so it wouldn't pop up and take out someone's eye. I then put some red paint on it for fake blood and on some torn of pieces of cloth for bloody rags, completing the inside of the Jack-in-the-box.

For the box, I first tried placing the "jack" in a electronic water flosser box since one normally wouldn't expect something to pop out of it, but also because it was the only box I had that fit the "jack" properly. I brought it to class and when I showed it to some classmates they were surprised by the "jack" suddenly popping out of the box (which I had hoped). However, after taking it over, a conclusion was made that the box was too out of place to fit the context of the environment it was placed in and the box being used wasn't really effective in enticing people to interact with it (plus the box wasn't sturdy enough for continuous use). Thus I went and scoured many stores to find a more fitting box. That is when I came across a security box with a latch and combination lock on it. I chose this box for a number of reasons. Firstly, it solved the issue of having to secure the "jack" and not have it randomly popping out of the box for a more controlled experience. Next, had a combination lock on it, which gives off the impression that something valuable is inside of it, misleading the person into thinking that by opening it, they might get something good out of it. Lastly, it fit the dimensions of my "jack" and wasn't too big or small (plus the handle was a good bonus as well).

During the presenting of the object, I had written the code to the box on a card which sat closed in front of the box which read "666". I wanted to use this code as it has very negative connotations associated with it (the "number of the beast" or devil) and was suppose to allude to the creepiness of the box. I had one person who hadn't seen my box before open it, which then caused the spring-loaded baby head to pop out of the box. When it opened, there were generally positive reactions to it (shock and crept out to be exact) so I think that overall it was successful. However, there are many things I would have liked to add to the experience had I had more time to do so. These include including a more puzzling riddle for the combination using biblical references of allusions to the number "666" instead of just giving out the code (I tried doing this, but could not come up with a good one in time). Another aspect I would have liked to change is the adding of sound, particularly a scream, to give the added sense of surprise/shock and creepiness. Lastly, putting the box in a more confined space with low lighting would have helped greatly with the experience as well (the creepy stairwell in the courtyard outside of the art building might of been good alternative to a room).

Here are some pictures of my Jack-in-the-box:

Box when it is closed, waiting for un-expecting plebeians to open it

Box when open showing the surprise awaiting for unknowing opener  

Another angle of creepy doll head

Card with the combination code in it written in (black) blood...or sharpie marker