Generative Play

I found this to be a very intriguing and creative idea. I found how so open it was for the users the most interesting. I feel like that's where the key to its indeterminacy lied. Because interactions between people everyday are indeterminate and since the idea is so open it can really turn into anything from a blinking game to see who can blink the least to blinking in certain patterns to create some visual. There are a lot of possibilities and I found it really cool how your work allows users to explore them. Now while I like the openness it does make it a bit harder to see the performance aspect of it. Maybe in order to make the performance aspect of it more apparent you guys could focus it in some way without losing too much of the openness that made it interesting in the first place. Good work!

I really liked both the story and execution of this performance. I particularly liked how you guys actually used the narrator as a character. A lot of times people choose not to take advantage of the narrator as someone who breaks the 4th wall, so I thought that was interesting. The actual performance was very clean and engaging throughout a large majority of its duration. The only bad point I have to say is about the audience participation. I did like the idea behind a lot of the choices as the choices themselves and how they were made actually had meaning, but I would have liked to have seen it a bit more refined. Things would get kind of hectic at certain points and it was not very clear if that was the intention. But other than that great work!

The idea is very interesting - communicating via a method seemingly free of language. So do eye combination constitute a new form of language? The video you shared depicts pleasantly colored, shaped bouncing balls but it does not include the images of the two people blinking as the photos do so it was hard for me to understand the process or what the performance is showing. It seems like a live demonstration, which is interesting itself, but what characteristics make the show a performance?

You lead a curious exploration of rhythm with wide audience participation. The visuals displayed on large screen are stunning. It was very innovative two combine senses the way you did, so that class members too had a role in you performance piece.

I was amazed by the idea of incorporating two sense, sound and sight. I really enjoyed the procedure of creating an audio with the rest of class and see what the animated pattern is, especially when I had a different rhythm from others. This performance invites a direct participation and the principle is easy to follow.

I like the idea of integrating traditional shadow puppet show and media. In fact, our group initially had a similar idea but yours is more improved [lol]. It is definitely a great experience for the audience for they are not listeners but participators in the storyline they are quite familiar with. I think the size of participation pool is really limited since there are only five members. Other people may also want to be part of the interactive performance. But since it would be hard to make a decision if there are a lot of participators and the performance could be displayed multiple times, this is not a big deal. Great job!

I really like the idea behind this project. It was very interesting to see how bad multiple translations can be, but it was also profound to explore how translation machines are programmed and how different or similar they are from humans. The performance could be improved a little to get the audience more engaged. For example, you can try doing the lyrics line by line with both original and translation, and show the process of translation between multiple languages (if English is used multiple times) to excite the audience. Overall it is a great project!

I really like the idea behind this project and the overall execution. I think whoever tried it out had a soothing experience since even the audience feels that way. It can also be fun when people try to do funny things with their eyes. The sound was very good, but maybe the visual effect can be improved to better intergrate the background into the foreground and maybe try to eliminate the skybox in the far background. The two rectangles of people's eyes can also be better integrated into the visual effects. Overall it is a great project, good job!

I liked the use of voting lollipops to allow the audience to decide actions. Voting with lollipops makes it easier for each member of the audience to vote, and makes it clear what the consensus is. Additionally, they were just fun to use.

One thing I would suggest is think about the expectations of your story. Thematically tying in the lollipops or the colors purple and orange would have made voting more connected to the story.

I found your documentation to be very clear! Great job!

I found your project very interesting! I think the next step would be to try to play the new lyrics to the tune of the original song, although that may be technically challenging.

The concept of machines communicating and misinterpreting words is interesting because we tend to think of machines as these almost perfect things because they can calculate enormous equations almost instantly. However, they still lack the context and understanding that humans use to communicate.

It will be interesting to see how the translations get better as the technology improves!

I found your documentation to be very clear, but the performance was a bit confusing because the three choices for songs were not explained

Our projects have similar ideas. I really like your incorporation of silhouettes that correspond to the proceeding of the conversation. Also, because you are typing out the conversation, it gives the audience a sense of inclusion and participation. These are something that our group could use to improve on our project. For your project, I guess something to think about is to give a more detailed introduction and more clarified instructions, as I was sometimes lost when watching the performance. Overall I really like your project!

I really like this project. It is very creative of you to visualize sound sequences which can be made by the audience. I would suggest that you try to make the the patterns more diverse. For example, you can incorporate different shapes such as circular and square ripples. Overall great work!

I really like your idea of using computers to essentially hold a virtual staring contest, and have an audience watch the effects of the performer's blinks show up on a screen. It seemed like the audience enjoyed watching the interaction with your program, although I think it would be interesting to have some sort of purpose or goal integrated so that it doesn't become monotonous overtime. I also agree that the graphics could be improved with the background and behavior of the bubbles, along with the way of signaling that the other performer has blinked. Overall though, I think the intention was really interesting and it turned out well!

I thought this project turned out really well! From an audience perspective, it seemed like everyone was really engaged and entertained by your presentation. The storylines were definitely very creative and it was easy for the audience to input their votes. Technically, your project was very advanced and made good use of slack integration and unity. Additionally your documentation was clear and it was great that you showed all the options you created during your presentation. Looking at areas for improvement, I think the graphics and user interface could be improved a lot given more time. But aside from that your project was really great!

I think you did a great job using the instrument to interact with the audience. The way you carried out your performance in the form of a game is well-designed. It encourages the audience to actively remember the rhythms and participate in the performance. I would suggest that you add some special animated effects to your colorful circles so it can become a beautiful art piece.

I really like the story in your project. The script is well-written and your narration of the story is emotional and amusing. Your performance nicely incorporates the narration, the movements of the performer and the videos. I would suggest that you get the audience involved not only by giving them the choices. For example, you could let the audience play a role in your story.

This was a really fun idea! The idea of choosing a story we are all familiar with, doing a shadow show, and incorporating meaningful choices all made a very fun presentation. If I had to offer any criticism, I'd say that the shadow play was overshadowed (I'm so sorry that pun was unavoidable) by the text, and I found myself giving the shadows very little attention. Perhaps making broader movements with the shadows or making sure that the more important shadow play happened when messenger was stationary could help that. Also, it felt like many of the choices had a correct answer, which makes the decisions less fun. Though overall this was a really solid project!

This is a good concept, and the idea of planning to kidnap a friend was fun, though there was one major problem with this that I found: the choices themselves. Once the audience went down a path of either gambling or kidnapping, all the choices from then on could be summarized as "do something" or "do nothing," which isn't very fun or thought-provoking for the audience, since the majority will obviously want to do something if they can. It may be a good idea next time to broaden the choices so they read as "do a thing" versus "do a different thing."

The idea behind this project which was inspired by telephone game and bad translator is lovely. Although facing the problem of how to translate the words or express my ideas accurately every day, I never thought that the errors generated through translation between different languages can actually become a performance. Yet, the outcome of your project exemplifies that it is possible and the result is pretty humorous. Great work must have been put in in order to reach the final stage of your performance; and during the lead-in process, the conversation between the performer and the computer (Alex) was so smooth that I almost believed you implemented a program with artificial intelligence similar to Siri…
Documentation is clear and detailed overall (especially the performance and process sessions), but it would be better to include a short video of your performance so that the viewers can visualize and experience it.

Although I might be one of those who find it hard to memorize the corresponding color for each sound, I like this game very much!
The audience is familiar to the similar design of the twister game and thus they are more willing to participate in your game. It’s also great for you to consider the experience of both the audience and creator (according to the group reflection session); and as you mentioned, there was no difference between participants and performers when playing the game, so it was very engaging, nice job!
Documentation is clear and informative overall, but a small place to improve would be including videos for the twister game, Connected Worlds and Projection Mapping Cello, which will be easier for the viewers to connect similar ideas among all four projects.

P.S. the story boards look super cool, were there any specific software used to create those? Or, it would be really amazing that they were hand-made!

This performance was a great start and shows a lot of potential. Staring contests have always been a weird mix of tension and competition, and only after watching this performance does it seems obvious to tap into it. I also liked how, instead of most of the other performances done in this class, the audience literally became the performers in a fairly natural / not very awkward way. The visuals on screen could use some work, however - as a Unity developer I couldn't help but notice the default Unity background / materials.

I think that this project shined due to the excellence of the performance itself, while also managing to exhibit technical proficiency. In a class for students with a technical background, this goes above and beyond the assignment requirements and is very commendable in that sense. I feel that this performance additionally managed to avoid the awkward tension present in other performances during the interactive segments; It is easy to have the interactive segments be completely silent and feel shoehorned into the performance, but not in this case. Great job!

This was a great project, and I really liked its presentation in class. You guys did a fantastic job on the technical end of things with using Unity effectively and also integrating with Slack, which was pretty slick and seemed to work perfectly. The documentation is clear and explains everything about your work. The story itself was funny since you were using Daragh, but perhaps it is also an area of improvement. I only say this because out of the three endings we reached in class, two involved aliens so it looks like there were some repeated themes. Besides that, great work overall!

I really liked this project and the final outcome you presented in class on Tuesday. There were a lot of "Choose your own adventure" type performances, but this one really stood out for me because it was very entertaining and fast paced, and required minimal overhead in explaining what the audience was supposed to do, etc. The story was cool, and you guys did a great job of using props and the background visuals to support your performance. Narration was very well executed, and also the documentation is fairly clear. I can't think of many improvements you could make, besides maybe expanding the script or something if you guys decide to use this for your module 5 project. Great work overall!

This is a very cool project that clearly responds to audience interaction- I was impressed at how much of a difference it showed when people were clapping. When everyone was trying to make a beat at once, it got somewhat chaotic, and the patterns became less obvious. I think the performance itself could have benefited from more guidance so that the patterns are more clearly visualized. Another area for taking this further would be color- right now it seems to just shift between yellow, cyan, and magenta. You could use the colors to represent other aspects of the sound, like pitch (maybe stomping could have a different color from clapping).

I think you did a great job with both the visuals and the deeper meaning of the piece. The effect that you created with the floating colored spheres was aesthetically pleasing, and I enjoyed watching it. I also liked the message about eye contact, and the screens showing only the participants' eyes was a smart choice. One small technical thing that I think could be improved is to fit the box holding the spheres to fill the screen completely, since on the wide projector some of the default Unity background was showing.