MA ME MI MO - Outdoor Interactive Installation

•

MA ME MI MO

Musics de Carrer

ABOUT

This project is focused on the community and the neighborhood of El Raval, Barcelona especially focusing on the children that live and commute to the public schools, situated within this neighborhood. Initially, we were asked to understand the current neighborhood, community, the physicality and also the history of Raval.

The challenge of this project was to collect all the data and design an intervention of any nature for a specific target audience as outlined by our project brief, which is the children of Raval. The main trigger point of the project being that they have a positive experience of the neighborhood on their way to school, which in turn would allow the parents to be confident enough to send their children to school without a high level of supervision.

The design conceptualization and brainstorming phase involved several iterations and ideas, going back and forth, understanding Raval, learning and re-learning its history, walking around the neighborhood, interacting with people and finding their perspectives on the same subject. The most surprising or maybe I can also say expected was that the perceptions of people were so varied and never the same, that this in itself presented the highest level of challenge. To design for a collective of people that have different outlooks of the same space, depending on which viewpoint they are looking from were indeed the challenge and the heart of the project.

“Recognizing the need is the primary condition for design.”

– Charles Eames

THE DESIGN PROCESS

Since this was a six-month long project, the design process followed was very structured, thorough and extensive. To design for a collective of people that have different outlooks of the same space, depending on which viewpoint they are looking from was indeed the challenge and the heart of the project.

The ideation of this project was arrived upon considering all these different facts and information that was discovered. The initial idea was to create a public space that can be used by both children and adults alike, but the nature of this public space has gone through many changes through its stages. But the idea of a public interactive installation came from the study of the space, the users (children - target audience ), their scenarios and their journeys. While interacting with children during the course of this project, it was realized that a sense of play and intrigue is to pique and maintain a child’s interest. Also, the lack of open spaces that allow for children to involve in any play was a motivator. To interweave technology into this installation at the lowest level happened gradually. The idea behind it was to create a sense of mystery and curiosity for the children and also provide them with a game play that can involve them as a group and bring them together rather than having an individualistic and singular experience.

INVESTIGATION

Studying the history of Raval

The neighbourhood - Socio economic indicators Schools and Children

FOCUS

Understanding El Raval - User needs and Analysis

The project brief:

To design an intervention to make the way to schools in Raval safer and more secure for children, as well as contribute to the community.

Users:

The children of El Raval age 3-12 years

The needs of the user:

To be able to commute to school safely by themselves

Encourage independence to kids who want to spend more time with their friends

Not to be under constant supervision from parents

To play in more open and green areas

IDEATE

Concept evolution and exploration

Neighborhood and user analysis conclusions

The study of the history and the analysis of the present structure of the neighborhood of Raval along with the user analysis allowed for the following insights

The people

The design solution needs to involve the community at the highest level.

The more interactive the space the more it allows for the much needed social cohesion.

To improve the quality of life by providing quality spaces

To involve the community in the design process which creates an ownership and responsibility for the project.

The users (children)

Children require more open play areas, but unfortunately, the neighborhood of Raval with its dense built-up makes this a challenge

To initiate a sense of play within the project, especially playing outside makes them feel alive, as they use all their senses while playing

The project needs to be age appropriate since its catering to children between the age 3 to 12 which is a huge gap, it needs to work for the complete age bracket

Since the parents are concerned with the child’s safety, they are sometimes deprived of the simple act of playing outdoors

Trends with kids right now

Due to the unsafe environment, children are stuck staying indoors interacting with screens than involving in unstructured play. Mobile phones, Ipads, PlayStations are a big part of childhood today. This is an example of technology playing a negative role. But when done right, digital technology can be a part of the solution, motivating children to go from indoors to the outdoors and connect with their natural surroundings.

Finding an overlap between these three present conditions was the driving idea behind the project proposal.

Three main factors that were a repetitive feature in the analysis were a need for play areas and a social space for the community. Urban play areas are a combination of these two spaces designed for both children and adults alike. The interactive feature of the space allows for more communication between the people and their surroundings. The technology is used to only bridge the gap between these entities to create a working installation or a public interactive space.

THE PROJECT

MA ME MI MO is a public interactive installation space located around and in front of the schools and streets of El Raval, Barcelona. My project is an amalgamation of digital technology, graphic art, and urban play.

The pilonas on the identified streets are attached with the modules, which can be locked in place. These are activated when the top surface of the pilona is tapped. Two modules need to be touched simultaneously to generate notes of music since they only work when activated as a pair.

This encourages children to play together as a group rather than have an individualistic approach to the game. The graphic on the street aids in recognizing the location of the installation and also the pairings of the module. The dashboard present in the school monitors and controls the installation as well as generates results on the screen, which can be installed in the school. For the children to keep track of the game.