"Thats not a planet, thats a space station!"

Hey Everyone,
Here is a quick update on what Kevin and I have been working on in the final weeks...

1. CONSTRUCTION REVISIONS:
We're currently working on BRAND NEW BIT-BITS which come complete with fixed magnet positions! Each magnet's location will be shown by a circular piece of fabric, and that will be uniform throughout the BIT-BIT collection. We are working on two different families, one is soft and called "sunnies". These are the ones made out of the felty material. The other family is called "snappies", they are made out of really bright and shiny material and have more angular shapes. We're making 6 sunnies and 4 snappies for now.... we might also make some without magnets and one or two out of muslin so people can draw on them. We would appreciate your thoughts regarding those two options...

2. PACKAGING:
As for the packaging of the Bit-Bits we will make one or two proto-types for our final presentation. The packaging will be an abstracted rectangular bag form with a large bulky zipper on one side. They will be made of brightly color cotton fabric and have an iron-on component on the front and on the inside of the bag. We want each individual object to be hiden inside its own packaging, so the buyer doesnt know which one they will get (think kid-robot).The iron on component on the front of the bag will be a logo, a short explaination of the Bit-Bits origin along with an simple illustration of their 'home planet', and inside the bag there will be another short explaination of the character traits of the specific family ('sunnies' and 'snappies). It is our hope that this addition will make the Bit-Bits have more of a personality and feel more attainable.

a bit of inspiration....



3. STORIES:
Bit-Bits:
Bit Bits are a peaceful creature from the happy planet of Ooba.
They are diverse and creative beings . They love to join together and play.
In order for Bit Bits to survive they must connect with their counterparts.
Each creature is spotted with magical dots that allow for this connection.
On a recent space trip, the Bit Bits accidently fell to earth and were
scattered across the planet. It is up to you to collect as many Bit Bits
as you can and join them together!
Create stories, families and functions for
this loveable bunch of creatures-
they will return the favor with hours of fun!

Sunnies:
This pod of Bit Bit is the most loveable and soft of all.
The light as air Sunnies awake at dawn and love to play all day, connecting
with everyone they meet. They are energetic and friendly;
although when they tire it is best to let them rest for a while.

Snappies:
Snappies are the group that loves to dance.
They are heavy and aggressive and at some
times a bit mischievous. They like to sleep
all day and use their reflectiveness to see at night!
They will interact with anyone but need a bit more
persuading, as they are very shy around others.

Here is some ideas for our logo...let us know which one you like best!..we are going for something simple and playful






4.VIDEO:
We're making a short video (maybe 30sec to 1min) to be the bulk of our final presentation. It will be a stop-motion video, using lots of white and black paper/fabric and fishing wire (u get the picture...very simple and almost childish). The video would explain how the BIT-BITS got lost and separated on Earth while traveling from their home planet called Oobas. They need help from humans to be brought together again. In the video they will be interacting with one another and at the end there will be human hands playing with them as well (think ipod commercial-sans the narrator).

THANKS SEE EVERYONE TUESDAY.
(by the way, our headline is a quote from star wars, sorry, i had to with all this talk about space and planets)

Planting

This afternoon I did my first test planting the flowers on the street. I placed three below my fire escape so that I could observe how people interact with them without them knowing. I was a little nervous since it was really windy out today, but the flowers held up great. For the language aspect I chose to simply write in chalk "pluck my petals, see what's inside." I also decided to attach a bead to each note so that the user can feel that there's something inside these as they plucked them, further resolving any confusion. 

As I was installing them two girls stopped me and asked me about them. They were both artists and very enthusiastic about the project. The notes they received read "spend an hour in a toy store" and "Draw a picture of yourself. Directly on top of this draw a picture of the nicest person you have ever met. Directly on top of this draw a picture of the meanest person you have ever met." One of the girls said this made her day. 

I watched from the fire escape for forty-five minutes. I had installed two next to a tree and one in a crack on the street. The one planted in a crack was trampled by a jogger almost immediately, so I need to evaluate that placement. Most people walked by without noticing, a few looked but kept walking and six stopped and plucked a petal. Those who stopped took and continued walking so I couldn't gauge their reaction. One guy stopped to photograph them. While plucking one he spotted me on the fire escape. He too said he really enjoyed this experience, and even threw me a king size crunch bar to say thank you. 

Ultimately I was very pleased with the response to these. The biggest issue is with the one placed in the crack being trampled. Since I feel this placement is the most attention grabbing I would really like to find a way to make it work successfully, however am currently at a loss as to how to do so.  

Treetales :)

What Dilhan and I worked on over the weekend was fully realizing and constructing the language of our piece. Specifically regarding how one hooks all the parts onto one base, how one assembles the tree branches together (intertwining) and how one can play with the modular pieces that we've been constructing. We created different colored fabric hooks to both hang the branches and hold intertwined branches together. We've randomly placed velcro tabs on the branches, as well on all the modular pieces to give options for connecting the stuffed pieces to the branches as well as disconnecting easily as a means of narrative building. We chose to make the modular pieces recognizably figurative but also ambigous in shape, to encourage imagination and creativity. We are in the process of making more as well. We also have begun conceptualizing our graphic identity- pictured is a rough sketch of our name and our logo. Ideally we want to have our target audience interact with the piece, which is part of our scenario concepts for tuesday. We have also put a few calls into doctors and have received some interesting feedback in terms of childrens interests in doctor office toys as well as health regulations. We've made a slip cover for all of our branches, and ideally and conceptually, we imagine all of the pieces to be covered in a washable microbacterial resistant fabric. Let us know what you think, thanks!

the quiltable: 3 scenarios

1. room divider

separating kitchen and living room 

in a small NY apartment

2. blanket and sleeping bag

3.  detachable pocket (pencil case) 

folder, pillowcase, cosmetic bag, purse

Origami Instructions

The instructional part of the origami project will be illustration board size (20x15inches). We plan on creating an accordion style, large, book of instructions so that it can stand on its own if you need it to. As for packaging the book, the origami fabric itself will be folded into an envelope, and the instructional book will be inside of this envelope.

Here are some of the instructions for the origami piece.

This is a close-up of one part of folding the tulip

Close-up
Close up #2

origami thingie

Here are some images of the actual size of the origami piece.

We plan on dying the fabric soon. We ran into some complications and had to switch to a stiffer buckram, but this material does hold up. We still need to add zippers and snaps to make things more secure. Right now, we're working on the instructional part of the project, and we want to use the seam lines on the inside of the origami piece as guide lines instead of embedding more things into the origami piece.

MAD Museum talk

this talk looks promising:

Slowing Down: Artists and Designers Mapping the City
Organized in collaboration with slowLab

Thursday, December 11, 2008
6:30 PM
Free.