Constantly looking for different mediums through which a message could be conveyed, I came up with the idea of converting my typography experiments into 3D.I decided to do some research on this while being under the influence of the famous quote by Marshall McLuhan:
'The medium is the message'
- 'meaning that the form of a medium embeds itself in the message, creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived. The phrase was introduced in his most widely known book,'Understanding Media:The Extensions of Man' published in 1964. where he said that a medium affects the society in which it plays a role not only by the content delivered over the medium, but also by the characteristics of the medium itself. So the medium through which a person encounters a particular piece of content would have an effect on the individual's understanding of it.'
Wikipedia
Another thing that boost my interest were several visits to the Science Museum during the Easter break.A particular exhibition there captured my attention:'Psychology:Mind your Head' because it was exactly the type of information I needed at the time to see how abnormal and normal perceptual responses can be tested and what objects this involved.The display was divided into three main themes. 'Solving puzzles' where psychologists are trying to explain how does the mind work?'Using tools' shows the practical ways psychologists test problems in education, health and industry.And in the final part: 'Telling stories
'My special interest was captured by the 'Using tools' section where several (very visually curious pieces of ) educational games and puzzles design for measuring cognitive abilities and educational achievement of young children were exhibited.The display case also presented a number of simple but effective devices which can easily determine if there was something out of the ordinary when it comes to the human perception of sound and images.One of the examples was 'Lowenfield mosaics' (1999)It consisted of a set of small plastic tiles in five different geometric shapes and six primary colours.It was used to enhance development of non-verbal play therapy for children.Another visually intriguing piece was 'The Visualisation of Cubes test (1983)Through an exciting range of objects, artworks, audiovisuals and an interactive it sets out the essential techniques that most psychologists use in their everyday practice.
Seeing this exhibition made me question the possibility of putting all my research so far in this type of format.Since I was very interested into the opportunity to engage with children and their perception of the world I wanted to explore this topic further and did some research into the type of educational games for preschoolers that are on the market today.The majority of the toys were based on simple designs and basic colours and seemed very well-thought trough in terms of logic and usability.The best on-line source I looked through was:
http://www.educationaltoys.co.uk/productcart/pc/home.asp
Having in mind that I am very prone to using game-like devices in my work and the fact that moving images are also my weakness,I started to wonder if the structure I was going to use should be based on 3D elements or should it take the form of an on-screen quiz-type of game.My doubts became stronger when I discovered the public interactive game that was put at the entrance to this exhibition.It was set up to collect data of the cognitive abilities of the visitors which were later to be used in the development of programs for people with learning difficulties.The questions were basic and didn't require much thought from a healthy individual but the thing that really bothered me was the interface of this product:quite plan and plastic and lacking any visual appealing.
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