Cycle 2: It Takes 2 Magic Mirror
Posted: April 12, 2025 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Cycle 2, Interactive Media, Isadora Leave a comment »My Cycle 2 project was a continuation of my first cycle, which I will finish in Cycle 3. In Cycle 1, I built the base mechanisms for the project to function. My focus in this cycle was to start turning the project into a fuller experience by adding more details and presenting with larger projected images instead of my computer screen.
Overall, there was a great deal of joy. My peers mentioned feeling nostalgic in one of the scenes (pink pastel), like they were in an old Apple iTunes commercial. Noah pointed out that the recurrence of the water scene across multiple experiences (Pressure Project 2 and Cycle 1) has an impact, creating a sense of evolution. Essentially, the water background stays the same but the experience changes each time, starting with just a little guy journeying through space to interacting with your own enlarged shadows.
Alex asked “how do we recreate that with someone we only get one time to create one experience with?” How do we create a sense of evolution and familiarity when people only experience our work once? I think there is certainly something to coming into a new experience that involves something familiar. I think it helps people feel more comfortable and open to the experience, allowing them the freedom to start exploring and discovering. That familiarity could come from a shared experience or shared place, or even an emotion, possibly prompted by color or soundscape. Being as interested in creating experiences as I am, I have greatly enjoyed chewing on this question and its ramifications.
I got a lot of really great feedback on my project, and tons of great suggestions about how to better the experience. Alex mentioned he really enjoyed being told there was one detail left to discover and then finding it, so they suggested adding that into the project, such as through little riddles to prompt certain movements. There was also a suggestion to move the sensor farther back to encourage people to go deeper into the space, especially to encourage play with the projected shadows up close to the screen. The other major suggestion I got was to use different sounds of the same quality of sound (vibe) for each action. Alex said there is a degree of satisfaction in hearing a different sound because it holds the attention longer and better indicates that a new discovery has been made.
I plan to implement all of this feedback into my Cycle 3. Since I do not think I will be creating the inactive state I initially planned, I want a way to help encourage users to get the most out of their experience and discoveries. Riddles are my main idea but I am playing with the idea of a countdown; I am just unsure of how well that would read. Michael said it was possible to put the depth sensor on a tripod and move the computer away so it is just the sensor, which I will do as this will allow people to fully utilize the space and get up close and personal with the sensor itself. Lastly, I will play with different sounds I find or create, and add fade ins and outs to smooth the transition from no sound to sound and back.
As I mentioned earlier, the base for this project was already built. Thus, the challenges were in the details. The biggest hurdle was gate logic. I have struggled with understanding gates, so I sat down with the example from what we walked through in my Pressure Project 2 presentation, and wrote out how it worked. I copied the series of actors into a new Isadora file so I could play around with it on its own. I just followed the flow and wrote out each step, which helped me wrap my brain around it. Then I went through the steps and made sure I understood their purpose and why certain values were what they were. I figured out what I was confused about from previous attempts at gates and made notes so I wouldn’t forget and get confused again.
After the presentation day, Alex sent out a link (below) with more information about how gates work with computers, and a video with a physical example in an electric plug, which was neat to watch. I think these resources will be valuable as I continue to work with gates in my project.
Because I spent so much time playing with the gate and the staging, I did not get as far as I wanted with the other aspects. I still need to fix the transparency issue with the shadow and the background, and I realized that my videos and images for them are not all the right size. Aside from fixing the transparency issue, I will probably make my own backgrounds in Photoshop so I can fully ensure contrast between the shadow and background. The main mission for Cycle 3 will be adding in discoverable elements and a way to guide users towards them without giving away how.
The galaxy background is very clearly visible through the shadow, a problem I was not able to fix by simply changing the blend mode. I will likely have to do some research about why this happens and how to fix it.