I knew from the beginning that I want this project to incorporate tactile objects. I felt that keeping everything inside a computer screen does not necesarily incorporate other senses (touch, and space). I wanted to create a personal and intimate experience. So knowing that I needed objects helped me know immediately that I could use the makeymakey.
Unfortunately, since my macbook was stolen two months before, I had a hard time finding a computer to work with. ACCAD’s computers also had an issue with saving Isadora files. So the computer drama took some of my time and creative energy. However, I came up with a new idea!
I thought why not create a mysterious experience that does not include much verbal instructions. A small, quiet, fortune telling secretive room, with no one in there but the person curious to know more about their future!
I made a tiny space (similar to a fort) where the user had to crawl in under a table covered with blankets.
Took me a while to know how to get started with makeymakey. on PC the keyboard watcher identified A W D S as the arrow keys but on Mac it was just ‘ ‘ – the space representing whichever arrow key was entered. It was important to label my actors by arrow direction or makeymakey colored cables.
The way it worked was, a key was clipped on the cable going to earth. The other four cables on the arrow keys were attached to paper clips, representing locks (wish I had real locks!). When the key would contact a paperclip and audio would go off. Every arrow key corresponded to a fortune telling, but the story was told in audio only. For example, a car engine starting and then crashing, or people clapping someone’s success/fame and then heart rate beep going off. They were ambient, and vague. One could imagine the scenes that the audio provided and make up their own story to it.
bita bell 