HyperSense — Reading Reflections
Exploring the Reflective Potentialities of Personal Data with Different Temporal Modalities
After getting thorough idea of the Olo Radio’s objectives and goals, I think the research and design team created a smart, tangible way of having users physically see how their music choices can be manifested in a product that people and naturally drawn to. I think it was a practical decision to revolve their idea behind what people know as a “classic radio”. The form and knob are distinct and pose a similar function as what you would need to do to change stations. I also believe that from a social perspective, the Olo Radio can create a more interesting, particular community that enjoys the art of sharing music. In an age with Digital Streaming Platforms, people are usually stead fast forward onto the next batch of music, but because of this, it bleeds into their idea of “slow technology”. One thing I’m critical of that may or may not be something they could revised based on time, is the amount of participants they tested the product on. They did the analysis based off of 5 people (4 male and 1 binary), and the feedback given was fairly strong and to the anticipation of the designers. Comments like “I felt a slow rumbling of excitement in guessing what music would come next… it was like having an internal dialogue between my college self and myself now” (Leslie), however the restricted demographic and small sample size makes you wonder how much weight this carries if you want to build off of those findings.
The Perception of the Environment
This piece of reading not only helped me better understand the context of the Olo Radio in it’s space, but also pinned down how temporality is accounted for in almost every piece in the living world. Looking at temporality more as the difference in interaction, not necessarily based on past or future interactions is interesting because you’re considering the thoughts and feeling of each individual person. And this can all be determined based off the landscape that it was placed in. Not meaning the exact setting, but more of how the things in the environment work within it. The Olo Radio’s focus group only had an hour or so with the product for a day, but what would this look like if it was moved to a less controlled space or in a social situation? These are things to consider with temporality and landscape. Within my own projects, it would be important to map out the different levels of interaction and response to see exactly what multi-sensory product could accomplish. If I look into sensory deprivation, how will it work with a user who’s gotten comfortable with the product/service? It might end up that someone gets used to the deprivation to the point where it’s not effecting them the same way. Temporality in design is something new to consider but needs an extra analysis for something that touches on more than one sense.
Being Outside the Dominion of Time
As I was walking through this reading, I realized some similarities to what I might need to take into account when developing my idea. A project I’ve been considering is a work out product that connects with your machine and/or room to create sensory deprivation experience in order to create a less stressful/exhausting time on the machine. Looking at the Ayahuasca, the author/s went into great description of how the tradition manipulates human’s normal perceptions of things. Time can be sped up or slowed down, and visual moments are emphasized. Although it directly enhances rather than deprive, the manipulation part is what we’re both trying to discover. Does the act of deprivation, create true temporality in each scenario, or is it still subjective based off of space and past interactions? The reading does a great job at explaining that these types of experience are bounded by un-ordinary patterns so it can create something generally new each time.
Phenomenology
This article does a deep dive on what consciousness means and the different definitions and spaces that come with it. From the start, I had a difficult time distinguishing one from another, but the analogies than author Shaun Gallagher put together gave a more visual to the descriptions. From the lens of HyperSense, these are very crucial point to take into account. There’s a level of subconsciousness that many individuals carry that can improve a product that we create. Perception allows people to intuitively understand what works for them, and what they are naturally drawn to. This becomes even more difficult when you include the space in which a state of consciousness happens. The combination of the two create responses that become very subjective, so maybe as designers, it’s our job to manipulate the general thinking to create something more dynamic and effective.