Open Glass

Working in pairs, design an intervention for a space that enables strangers to interact without using any spoken or written language.

Research and location scouting

We first picked out two locations in google map during the time in class, Strawberry Fields(Central park) and Damrosch park(Lincoln center). Upon first visiting in Damrosch park we instantly fell in love with the vibe in the plaza. After setting our destination, we went on to further the research both on-site and history.

History

Opened in 1969, Damrosch park has served as an outdoor performance space and is named after the Damrosch family, many of whom were musicians. Throughout its existence, it has hosted numerous free concerts in the summer as part of Lincoln Center Out of Doors. Besides music events, hundreds of juried vendors display their wares during the annual American Crafts Festival in the Park, it is also known to be the place that hosts NYC’s Big Apple Circus in winter.

Design

In relation to the Lincoln Center itself. The complex does have a reputation for being rather forbidding and almost fortress-like on the outside, which led to the “transformation” effort that is opening up Lincoln Center structurally so that it is better integrated with its Upper West Side neighborhood.

On-site observation: 01

We stayed at the place for 3 hours and did a time log along with little descriptions about their appearances and behaviors.

First reflections and hypothesis

Focusing on the neighborhood community elements mentioned in the design intentions, we came up with a list of general and progressively detailed questions to try to find indications supporting our initial hypothesis.

Indications of local-institute identity hiatus?

Combined the first stage research and observations, we came up with a plan to further investigate the relations regarding the outdoor park goers and general Lincoln Center audiences.

On-site observation: 02

We went and interviewed 3 visually different types of park goers and ending up wih data that overturned our initial hypothesis.

Main takeaway

Ranging from babysitters to local residences they all enjoy the events provided by Lincoln Center while also being a usual attendee. At this point, it has seemed that generally, people who stayed at the park are from the upper west neighbor and musically involved.

Concept-01

Armed with the data collected, we set to outline our definition of interactions.

Prototype-01

Our first iteration of prototypes aimed to engage people with natural sounds( Sands, Water..) with an intended interaction as follow:

:/ People notice the music we provided to prompt them to get closer our installation.

:/ Start to observe the mechanisms and star to interact with them physically.

:/ Realize it is a sound device and play a set of sounds echoing the background music we         provided.

First thing we noticed right away was the affordances weren’t clear enough, along with the poor sound volume our installation provided wasn’t good enough to attract people’s attention. Most importantly, upon 5 minutes after we setting up, we were approached by the security guard questioning out devices, given the fact that they were all visually just a couple of black boxes we had no other option but to head back.

Revision

Having our small yet crucial feedbacks in mind, we redirected our goals as the following:

Prototype-02

Results

Around the 2 hours of observing, we ended up with 10 groups of interactions. Besides genuinely being contempt with our results, there were also some unexpected outcomes and indications to improve.