Physical Poets a Collaborative Design Project

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Physical Poets – a collaborative design project

Physical Poets is a poetry generating system where physical pieces are used as input devices. These pieces impersonate the Poets, and the Poets can be any kind of people; a nervous dog owner, a shy terrorist, a manic professor, a left-handed red-haired carpenter or whatever. Depending on which Poets are chosen, and how they affect, and are affected by, each other, they create various poems together. Each poet has its own behavior including words and sentence structures, preferred themes and reactions towards other poets.

The main purpose of the project is to practice how to design a perfect expression logic, in this case by exploring and practicing how to create a rich and consistent personality and then express this personality in a consistent way using images, words, software and physical appearance

Formalia

Creating a poet background (all)

Creating the System architecture (P)

Finding an arena & themes (A + C)

Designing GUI appearance (G)

Creating the arena (C)

Designing the look&feel of the poets and the system (G + C)

Letting the Poet speak (A + W)

Designing Poet behavior (A + P + G)

Informing about the Poets, part I (W + G)

Informing about the Poets part II (W + G)

Formalia

On roles and groups

In this workshop you will have a certain role – you will be either a writer, an actor, a graphic designer, a craftsman or a programmer. You will also belong to two groups; one consisting of all the people with the same role as you, i.e. a competence-related group, and one consisting of the people you will create a poet with – a poet group.

You will switch between these two groups, however always representing an unique knowledge. In the competence-related group it is the knowledge about your Poet’s personality, and in the poet group it is the knowledge you bring to it fulfilling your role, but also the knowledge about what is going on within the competence group; what has been decided/made and why.

On roles

Every role is important for the creation of the expression logic of your Poet as well as for the entire Physical Poet system, and you need to work close together in order to create a consistent whole. The roles are as follow:

The writer

You are responsible for the voice of your group’s Poet. You will write down the complex background the group creates for the Poet, and together with the Actor you will become the voice of the Poet; you decide which kinds of sentences your Poets speaks, which words he or she uses and which expressions he or she uses when upset or happy or just in general.

Together with the other writers you will put together an information text describing the entire Physical Poet system.

The programmer

You are responsible for the behavior of your group’s Poet. With the code you write you create the digital version of him or her, and together with the Actor you establish how your Poets properties will change depending upon how she or he interacts with the other Poets.

Together with the other programmers you will code parts of the Physical Poet system.

The actor

You are the impersonation of your group’s Poet. You express her or his body language, moods, temperamental swings and manners of speech. In a series of improvisation sessions with the other actors you will establish the interactions and relations between the Poets as well as each Poets own behavior. Since you “are” the Poet, you will assist the Writer in creating the Poet’s words, and the Programmer in creating the Poet’s behavior.

The craftsman

You are responsible for the physical representation of your group’s Poet. You will create the doll that impersonates the Poet and will be used as a tangible input to the Poet system. You provide him or her with a body posture, clothes and perhaps one or two accessories – but not with a face or a facial expression.

Together with the other craftsmen you will build the arena (“Speakers Corner”) that the Poet dolls are placed on.

The Graphic Artist

You are responsible for the physical representation of your group’s Poet. You will create graphic representations of the Poet in different moods, as well as background images reflection your Poets associations to a certain Theme.

Together with the other graphic artists you will put together an informative poster describing the entire Physical Poet system.

On Poet Group Meetings

In order for this workshop to work, it is crucial that you share information between groups! Typically you will bring information from the decisions made by your competence group to your poet group, but at som occasions you might bring information the other way.

Thus, within the poet group, you need to meet and share information every scheduled day!!! You can schedule it whenever during the day, but make sure that none has a group session booked. A meeting shouldn’t have to take more than half an hour. Every group member reports:

What he or she has done since the last meeting and how this might be related to the expression logic of your poet, or of the Physical Poet system as a whole.
Whether this will affect someone else’s work. (I.e. craftsmen and actors choose Themes together and this highly affects the writer’s work and has a minor impact on the programmer’s work.)

At the end of the meeting you take three minutes to write down the most important insight or contribution you’ve made to your Poets expression logic since the last meeting. It shall only be a tidbit, like a special word or expression you think is spot-on, or perhaps a piece of clothing or a certain behavior. Also explain why. All of this needn’t be more than 2-3 sentences. This is made for self-reflection purposes (for you) as well as for evaluation of the workshop a learning instrument (for Sus) and shall thus be handed in to Sus via email every day.

On deliverables and the Poet Design Requirements folder

In InDesign there is a folder (en pärm) called the Poet Design Requirements folder. Here, you will place all information on how your work proceeds; Poet descriptions, sketches, class diagrams etc. What you need to place here is mentioned under Deliverables in the instructions for ach session.

It is crucial that you keep the information updated, since other people may check out your work/decisions in it. Thus, if you change a design guideline or some other decision, you should update the Poet Design Requirements as soon as possible, and also notice the people that may be affected by the change.

creating a poet background

Who: All
Group: Poet group
When: 25/1. Intro 9.00 Grace Hopper, work in groups ca 9.30 – 15.30, presentations of poets to class 15.30 – 17.00
Task: To create a background & personality for your poet
terial: The core of your poets temperament

Finding a personality

You have gotten a core description of your poet’s personality. Now it is your task to create a person out of this, a person with the described temperament. Why is he or she such a person?

Start with a Chinese Portrait

Having read the core description of the poet, you shall use an approach that is sometimes called Chinese Portraits. Take a few minutes to separately (and quietly) ask yourself the following questions. Do try to relate back to the description to motivate your answers.

If he/she was an animal, which one would it be? Why?

If he/she was a tool, which one would it be? Why?

If he/she was a color, which one would it be? Why?

If he/she was a piece of furniture, which one would it be? Why?

If he/she was a material, which one would it be? Why?

If he/she was a natural phenomenon, which one would it be? Why?

Discuss your answers in the group and agree on one joint portrait. When you have this you can go on with the following three steps in any order you like. However, in all steps, try to relate back to what you’ve already said. Flesh out or change earlier descriptions in order to create a consistent whole.

Create a background

What parts of his or her life has affected the shaping of the personality your poet has today? What was his/her family life and childhood like etc? What does she or she do for a living, which friends does she or he have, if any? Where and how does he or she live?

Create a CV

Discuss what’s in the curriculum vitae for your poet. Start out with school & education, carry on with the jobs she or he has had and is currently having. List not only the jobs themselves but also the tasks related to the job, (e.g. not only that the person worked as, for instance, a programmer but also what kind of applications she or he worked on, and which programming language(s) he or she used.) Notice that the general layout, font choices etc of the CV also shall reflect the poet’s personality.

Flesh out a personality

The following exercises are made to flesh out the poet’s personality. They can be done in any order, but when doing them it is important to motivate and relate back to what you’ve already said. Flesh out or change earlier descriptions in order to create a consistent whole.

Listing likes and dislikes

Create a set of top tens and again, try to relate and motivate to what you’ve come up with so far (E.g. “She likes to climb mountains in her spare time, because we said earlier that she likes the outdoors and wants to keep in shape, and also she likes challenges.”). List the top ten…

…things she or he cannot live without

…qualities she or he appreciates in other people

…things he or she likes to do in his or her spare time
…skills he or she has

…TV-series/books/movies she or he likes

…things he or she dislikes

…things she or he makes to feel better when sad
…etc.

Expressions?!

When studying your poet for a minute or two, what do we see? What does he or she wear, and which kind of body language does s/he have? How does she or he talk, interact? Act and discuss.

Vanilla-or-chocolate personality design

Make up and ask each other “either-or-questions” like

Does he or she prefer chocolate or vanilla?

Does she or he prefer a night on the town or hanging out at home

…etc

Get down to basics

In order to use all of the things you’ve just come up with, define the Poets Properties. The values range from 0 – 15.

Talkativeness (as opposed to being quiet) – affects how often the Poet tries to speak

Friendliness (as opposed to unfriendliness)

Aggressiveness (as opposed to passivity) – affects the Poet’s speaking initiative

(Strong) Ego (as opposed to weak ego) – affects how long sentences the Poet speaks

Happiness (as opposed to sadness or moodiness)

Deliverables

An oral presentation of your poet, done by the actor in a class session 15.30 – 17.00.

One document containing your poet’s name, Chinese portrait, a fleshed out background/description of the person, top ten lists (with motivations of entries) and properties. Another document containing the CV, in unformatted form. All of this is delivered by the writer and is due no later than the 31/1. One printed copy shall be placed in the Poet Design Requirements folder in InDesign. The file should also be distributed to the other members of the project group as well as to Sus.

A CV formatted and laid out in the way your poet would do it, delivered by the graphic designer no later than the 6/2. One printed copy shall be placed in the Poet Design Requirements folder in InDesign. The file should also be distributed to the other members of the project group as well as to Sus.

Homework for the actor is to find one piece of clothing or accessory that “belongs” to the Poet and that can be worn at all times when acting the poet. It has to be brought to the ITU the 31/1.

creating the System architecture

Who: Programmers
Group: Programmers
When: 31/1, 09.00 – 17.00 in Grace Hopper
Task: To create a system architecture for the entire system.
Prerequisites: Having read the Physical Poets paper – thoroughly!

Task

You will get an explanation of the text parser and of how the hard ware works. Using the Physical Poets paper as design specification, discuss what classes/methods/objects etc are needed to create the entire system. Focus especially on the poets behaviors and how they are reflected in code, and how this in turn is reflected in the GUI and TUI.

Divide this work inbetween yourselves and start working. At all times do work together in the same room in order to help each others, test stuff continuously and find and discuss misunderstandings and unclear issues as soon as they appear.

Note that the graphic artists are currently designing the appearance of the GUI; you will get instructions from them. However the GUI will show: The Poet(s) currently speaking, what they are saying, and a background.

Deliverables

A class diagram of the system shall be printed and placed in the Poet Design Requirements folder in InDesign. The file should also be distributed to all programmers as well as to Sus.

Code for the part of the system you are responsible for, due no later than 7/2.

Code representing your Poet in the system, due no later than the 8/2.

All code shall be well-commented! You may very well work in pairs (with a double work load) if you like; as it happens this does not necessarily take longer time, since fewer mistakes are made.

Finding an arena & themes

Who: Actors & craftsmen
Group: Actors & craftsmen
When: 31/1 09.00 – ca 11.00? in Quark
Task: To find and arena for the poets to act upon, and to find themes the poets shall speak about
Prerequisites: Having read the Physical Poets paper – thoroughly!

Task

You shall come up with an arena (referred to as the “Speakers Corner” in the paper) where the poets can act and speak, thus also establishing the Themes the poets will speak about. This arena can be almost anywhere, but it is important that each poet has a “real” reason for being there; they should not meet due to coincidence, but should have a solid reason as to why they have come to this place. Thus a bus stop won’t make it, whereas a garden party for all the neighbors would be alright considered that all Poets actually are neighbors (rather unlikely). The choice of arena is important since it affects what the Poets say, do and perhaps wear.

Brainstorming to find an arena

Create two or three groups containing both actors and craftsmen. Try to have as many Poets as possible represented in one group. Brainstorm for 20 – 30 minutes, trying to find an arena fitting all the Poets. List the 1-2 most interesting ones.

Reflection in action

Now it is time for some action! The actors will put on their Poet’s piece of clothing (homework from 25/1) and become the Poet, acting and interacting with another in one of the suggested arenas. Improvise for 5 – 15 minutes on each arena; go with the flow! Meanwhile the craftsmen watch and listen and take notes on the topics of conversation (i.e. Themes) that come up. They also note any real or imaginary/invented props that are used or referred to.

Discuss & decide

Now, discuss which arena worked best, based on the craftsmen’s notes and the general experience you got from each performance. When doing this you need to take two things into account:

Possible topics of conversation; you need three and they should fit the somewhat vague criteria mentioned in the paper

How inspiring and fun it will be to build the arena; what can be done, what props can be created etc.

Deliverables

A list of the three Themes you’ve chosen. Print it and place it in the Poet Design Requirements folder in InDesign. This should be made directly after the session ends. Also make sure that the rest of the class is informed about the chosen Themes.

Designing GUI appearence

Who: Graphic Designers
Group: Graphic Designers
When: 31/1 09.00 – ca 11.00 in InDesign.
Task: To establish layout and design guidelines for the GUI showing the poems and the background images.
Prerequisites: Having read the Physical Poets paper – thoroughly!

Task

Your task is to agree on design guidelines for the GUI showing the Poets and the poems. The GUI has to show: The Poet(s) currently speaking, what they are saying, and a background. Decide on the following:

Placement of poems. The poems may be up to sentences long (i.e. “high”) and it is unclear how long (i.e. “wide”) a sentence can actually be; this is up to the writers creating sentence structures and words for the Poets. You will have to make an educated guess.
Placement and size of the 1-3 images depicting the 1-3 Poets that are contributing to the current poem. What the (Physical) Poets will look like is to be decided by you and the Craftsmen tomorrow.
When you know all this you can establish guidelines for the background images. Each poem gets a background image “from” one of the Poets, and that image shall reflect that Poets associations to the Theme of the poem. There will be three Themes (that are being decided upon by the Craftsmen and the Actors just now) and each Poet must have at least ten different, and thoroughly sought out images per Theme. You should decide on exact size and file format.
General guidelines, i.e. if you want all images to have a distinct graphic style, like for instance cartoonish, photographic, 3d-ish, black and white or whatever. Do keep in mind that the Craftsmen will build an Arena and Physical Poets too, and that you want your style to be consistent with theirs. Thus, you might want to save this discussion to tomorrow’s meeting with the Craftsmen.

Deliverables

Physical Poets a Collaborative Design Project