What Do You Notice?
Cross–media translation from a web–based interaction to an experiential space
class: Communication Design 2 . spring 2007 . term 2
For this particular project, I was asked to translate a web–based interaction into an experiential space. The goal was to create a space that would convey the essence of the original website as well as my point of view.
My chosen web–based interaction was tenbyten.org. 10x10 is an "interactive exploration of words and pictures that define the time." Every hour, 10x10 collects the top 100 words and 100 images from three news sources: Reuters World News, BBC World and The New York Times International. The top 100 images and text are generated and displayed in a 10x10 grid. When you click on a word or image, a list of links to news articles with the particular words appear. You can then choose to click on one of the article links if you choose to read further into an in-depth article.
10x10 is attempting to reinterpret the idea of the ways in which the news is read. The images act as visual headlines. 10x10 believes "scanning a grid of pictures can be more intuitive than reading headlines." It is 10x10's goal to bring the news to life using the affordances of the interactive web. They want readers to feel less distant from the world news.
Cross–Media Translation: Personal Interpretation
As humans, we are captured by the provocative.
On a superficial level, we are attracted to certain elements that are at the root of design – shape, color, patterns, size, texture, and the list goes on. These are the things that catch our attention and cause us to pause, even if only for a split second.
Our ambitions and interests allow us to delve deeper, beyond our curious first impressions.
When it comes to the news, images and headlines scream for our attention. But do we notice? Or do we just pass by because our eyes have grown accustomed to the facade of a newspaper? Do we go elsewhere to search for truth and stories? And if so, where are those places? We seek to know how the world is evolving around us, but are we really reading in–depth about the going-ons around us nowadays? If not, why not? And how, as designers, can we think of alternative ways of looking at the news? How, as creatives, can we better capture a viewer's curiosity in a way that will stimulate them the delve beyond a catchy headline?
What Do You Notice? was an attempt to reinterpret the way a viewer can enter the news. By adopting the goals of tenbyten.org, this experiential piece tried to translate the interaction that takes place on the web into an interaction that takes place in real life.
Each cube represents a story in the news. Each cube is interactive in the sense that a participant can rearrange the boxes and configure them in any way that they feel is compelling or appealing, in a way that feels communicative of the particular message on the cube. Creating this piece opened up questions for the potentials of what it could become. What if we used E-paper? What if these boxes were configured and designed to be seats in a public space where one could read about the news?
To read more about this project, please view my graduate blog.