An Interactive Experience exploring
communities of Kerala artisans
A concept art installation
Music for your ears
Overview
An interactive experience that showcases and promotes the culture, beauty, and traditions of artisan communities of Kerala. Handicrafts of India form a major part of the rich cultural heritage that has been passed down through
generations. This interactive experience tries to design a bridge that connects the past to the present in hopes of reviving the forgotten. One of the
unknown and almost on the verge of disappearing handicrafts of Kerala is the Pottery community of Nilambur. The user gets to discover insights into the craft, the community and play an interactive game.
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Please note: This project is part of a case study series; "Crafting innovative solutions for the artisan community". For more:
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Project
Self-directed inquiry as part of Screen based narratives workshop at Srishti Manipal
Mentorship
Swati Banerjee
(Lead XD at Byjus)
Who are the end users?
Making people read articles, and stories to educate or share awareness
is no longer effective. People demand entertainment, hence creating engaging content is at stake to promote the local artisans. The system consists of an interactive experience that lets users engage with content regarding the pottery community of Nilambur. The users make the key decisions that affect what they see.
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There are two modes of content that unfold within the experience:
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Interactive storytelling about the community. The video has an
element of interaction, where it allows the user to unveil more content
and explore the community journey and challenges with just a
tap on the screen. The context is supported by pictures and videos. -
Reimagining the making of a pot through an interactive game.
What is the need for this experience?
In the growing technology-driven and industrialized world, we tend to forget traditional crafts. Artisans of our country are forced to move towards alternate income generation methods which put a stop to the age-old ancestral work that has been passed down in their families. Preserving, protecting, and promoting the crafts is important, but it is challenging. Innovative solutions or ideas are required to attract people of this digital era.
Who are the Potential users?
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Likes to be entertained.
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Has the time
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Like to explore new things
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Seek information, guided-without being sold to, educated
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Tourists, sightseers
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Interested in traditional forms of art.
What’s the goal?
To drive a purposeful change in the mindset of the users in hopes of them trying to travel and find those destinations they saw through the visuals, try to learn the art form, or share their learning with others. To make the experience and information they picked up about the artisan community through the interaction, memorable, engaging, and persuasive. Potential funding for the community to continue pursuing their career. A potential client.​
Where will the system be?
Promoting our artisans within the Indian community is much necessary. Showcasing the interactive experience requires certain requirements. The experience is meant to be placed in an area where there are potential users. Airport lobby, art and cultural festivals, shopping mall, hotel lobby, and outdoor public spaces are the possible areas the experience could be showcased.
System
The system comprises an Interactive wall and an Interactive floor. Together
they deliver the interactive experience to its users. What the system is,
depends on the interaction it affords to the user. This is explained below:
A Visual spectacle
To a spectator or a passer-by, the interactive experience affords a visual
spectacle that showcases the beauty of Kerala. Kerala is known for its lush
greenery, backwaters filled with pink water lilies, and snake boat races.
The Interactive wall and the floor bring this beauty of Kerala on the display
with subtle animation of water ripples and movement of water lily leaves.
An ambient Malayalam traditional music that calms and relaxes the user
is played to catch the attention of a passer-by
The Unveiling
A user walks into the interactive area. Three elements are revealed with
just one step; the visual on the interactive wall, visuals on the floor, and
ambient sound that resonates with the experience with tracking technology.
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The interactive wall slowly begins to unveil as the user walks across the
wall. A map of Kerala begins to take form on the wall. A touch target
appears on the map. -
The Interactive floor resembles a pond. The display is paired with tracking
technology. With each step the user takes, the pink water lily leaves
move away clearing the path for the user to walk. The user's movement
also creates ripples on the floor. When looked closely at the floor, tiny
fishes can be seen swimming away from the user’s path. If there are
multiple users, new water lilies can be seen blooming near the user's
path. -
The water ripples that are formed when the user walks produce a
response sound effect.
The touch
The user is presented with touch target areas that are marked on the
map of Kerala. The target area is Nilambur, that when touched, reveals
two pathways for the user:
An interactive storytelling experience
A first-person account of what it’s like to live a life as a Pottery artisan.
A short interactive that artfully combines the audio narration with video,
music, and animation, this piece appeals not only to our eyes and ears
but also to our sense of touch through the interactive experience of navigating
and clicking through scenes in unison with the narrator’s
actions. A story that tells their history, their family livelihood, their challenges,
and their art. Viewers can choose what they want to watch or
do next. It provides a completely immersive experience for the viewer.
An Interactive game
Pottery making is gamified to introduce the users to the art of Pottery
making. This game is intended to show each main process involved in
the making. As an artisan, there are challenges to pottery, this game is
created incorporating those challenges as art requires careful attention
and creative skills
System
The following document introduces the design concept for the gameplay.
The Interactive storytelling experience is in the conceptualization stage.
The Set-up
Interactive wall
An Interactive wall is an LED display that offers multiple touch targets and
gestures. The screen affords as a visual spectacle for passer-by but once
a user enters the interactive floor, the Interactive screen slowly unveils,
displaying the intended content
Interactive floor
The Interactive floor, turn floor spaces into an ongoing experience of
movement, stopping people in their tracks as they play, walk by or interact
with the experience. It contains hardware and software. The hardware consists of Projector, motion sensor, and computer. The software is designed to fit the needs of the experience and installed on the computer. It will employ a motion sensor that catches the movement of a passer-by. The movement is picked up by the sensors and sends a message to the computer, triggering a responsive image to the motion.
For passers-by to the experience, the interactive floor will follow a multiple
people interaction mode. As the game is designed for one person, depending on the size of the floor area, the section would divide into two; ‘gameplay area’ and passer-by ‘experience area’. The separation is shown with visual cues to not let more than one person enter the currently using area. If the floor space is limited, the floor will only input the motion of the single-player without creating two different sections.
Interactive floor space is created for this experience so as the passer-by is
attracted, keep them going around the projection area for more that could result in the attention towards the interactions on the wall. It also aids as an extension of the in-game experience where the players will have opportunities to use their feet to input actions.
Card vending machine
The gameplay gives collectors cards to its players which are briefed further
in the documentation. These cards will be provided to the user through the
vending machine that is placed close to the experience.
The Gameplay
The gameplay gives the player a chance to learn the art of Pottery making
through a gamified Interactive experience. Each process involved in the
making is gamified. The process or stages involved in Pottery making involve clay mixing, modeling, firing the pottery, cooling, and decorating.
The gameplay layout adapts to screen size depending on the Interactive
Wall and floor size. For a bigger screen, the entire gameplay will be shown as the above diagram. Each section of the game represents each process or stage involved in the making and these stages are connected with pipes for a visual continuation. After each stage, the output goes through the pipe to the next stage. Additional visual cues are provided to the user to provide them an understanding of which stage they are playing and have completed through in-game lighting effects.
As the game starts, the user is provided an option to make a pot according
to a client brief or to create a custom pot. For the client brief gameplay, a photo of the desired pot is shown to the user for few seconds which has to be memorized.
The smaller screens showcase each stage at a time and the pipes appear
before and after each stage starts or ends. The next section describes each stage in detail with reasonings and gameplay.
Note: The diagrams will be sectioned into two; Interactive wall and floor
to show simultaneous actions.
Stage one: Clay Mixing
Clay mixing is the first stage of the Pottery making process. The artisans find the right ingredients, combine them together, and have to mix them. They mix the clay with their feet by stomping for a while. This process is tiresome, yet they want the perfect blend of ingredients and they prefer to continue using this traditional method of mixing.
In the game, the interactive wall shows an artisan on the screen on top of
the clay. The user is provided with in-game instructions on how to carry
forward the task.
The user is expected to use both their legs on the interactive floor to stomp. A visual cue is provided on the wall that helps navigate the user to
look at the interactive floor where footprint appears. The artisan on the
screen will stomp on the clay simultaneously along with the user. The
progress bar shows how far their progress is.
For users who has constraints to interact with the action on the floor, they
can tap on the footprint that appears on the screen consecutively.
Stage two: Clay Modelling
Clay modeling involving giving form to the output through sculpting with hands. Artisans place the clay on a spinning wheel where they use their hands to guide the formation of the pot. The users are provided with in-game
instructions with animations. As the user has to interact with a wall, the
experience provides them with touch gestures they can implement to create their desired shape.
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The touch gestures are; ‘Pinch open’ to increase the horizontal or vertical width of the body and ‘pinch close’ to decrease. Glide one finger across the length of the body on one side to push and pull to shape the clay to its desired form. The users are also provided with one tool that allows the
users to carve through the clay.
Stage Three:Fire pit
Artisans place the created pot inside a fire pit along with combustible
materials they collect, such as wooden logs, paddy, and dried leaves, sawdust, etc. Collecting these combustible materials is a challenge during the rainy season. Finding and sorting these materials is one of the stages involved in their processes.
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The users are expected to separate the wet wooden logs that make their way to the fire pit. This is done by touching their palms against the screen where the desired wooden log is at the point of time. The users can also swipe away the moving wet wooden log.
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If a wet wooden log enters the fire pit, it causes cracks on the pot due to
temperature differences. Here, the temperature of the pit is tracked by a meter, and the more the wet wooden log enters the temperature decreases, and the user is told that their pots are forming cracks. Once the pot is put in the fire pit stage, it is not possible to replay the particular stage as the pot cannot be brought back to its original state. Artisans usually throw or break the cracked pots. The users have to continue the game with the pots they have created at this stage on.
Stage four: Cooling or drying
Artisans lay down the fired pots to cool down. This process required careful
attention as clay undergoes physical and chemical changes due to variations in weather conditions. The artisans have to protect the pots from uneven drying due to these fluctuations.
At this stage, the user has to get rid of changing wind directions that could
affect their pots. The core gameplay involves the user stepping their feet on the interactive floor to correspond with the arrows that appear inside the cloud on the screen. The interactive floor will display a platform with neon lights. The stepping arrows are arranged to point in orthogonal directions (left, up, down, and right) as shown in the diagram above.
Unsuccessful hits or misses can cause physical changes to the pot that can
be seen simultaneously on the screen.
Those users, who face constraints to utilize the interactive floor for the action can swipe on the cloud in the direction displayed inside the cloud. For example, swipe right for the cloud that has an arrow pointed to the right and wipe up for the cloud with an arrow facing upwards.
Stage five: Pot art
Decorating the pots is one of the most creative stages of the pot-making
process. The users decorate the pot based on using the given categories. The categories provided include colors, gradients, and patterns.
The categories are displayed as sections within the designing area. The users can navigate from one section to the other by either taping each section on the screen or swiping anywhere on the screen with two fingers. To use a particular item within a section, the user can either tap to select or swipe with one finger anywhere across the screen.
Each selection is simultaneously displayed on the pot. Once the user is done decorating, they can either take a photo by tapping on ‘photo’ or can tap on ‘done' to finish the pot-making process.
Stage five: Share
When the user taps on ‘Photo’ in the previous stage, the screen then displays the pot in a custom environment which the user can select. Scanning the QR code, the user is directed to a website where they can download an image or video of their pot. It also displays pots created by other users where the user can rate each other's works.
Once the user is done with the stage, they can tap on ‘done’ to finish the
pot-making process.
Stage six: Collectors card
Front
Back
When the player taps on ‘Done’, that ends the game. The user is asked to
collect the reward; a collector's card that will be automatically produced in the card vending machine based on the gameplay. The cards are a memorable item that can be collected by users for not just Pottery, but other handicraft games if incorporated. The color of the cards will be different between each handicraft.
These cards are divided into three based on the gameplay as shown in the
picture above. The words used in the hashtag will be the local language used by the community (here, Malayalam) that grades the user based on their performance.
The rear of the card shows the map of Kerala and a pinned location that
represents the place where the community resides. A QR code, when scanned directs the users to a website that provides them more information regarding the handicraft and the community.
There will be a small ‘quote’ or a line from a famous ‘poem’ from Kerala
at the bottom of the rear side of the card.
Moodboards: Artstyle
Moodboards: Collectors card
Moodboards: Interactive experience
Reflection
I have always been amazed by Interactive art installations and experiences. Works by Yayoi Kusama, Japanese artist such as her Infinity Mirrored Rooms is one of her works that I really admire. Being able to use already existing physical spaces to create newer experiences is something that I wanted to work with. A key attribute of installation art experiences is its ability to interact with viewers. To be able to share knowledge with users by making use of their active bodies is how I envisioned my project to be.
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The project gave me space to learn how to design for various mediums and the strategies that could be implemented during the product development
phase. Creating concepts to channel the intent was iterated through feedbacks which guided me to learn more. Through the Lean UX design framework, I explored the problems faced by the pottery community, ideated on possible directions that could assist them in the future, formed a clear idea of the potential users, and created concepts to channel the intent which was iterated through feedbacks. This guided me to learn more and challenge my limits.
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I learned that designing concepts for products needs to be thoughtful and should carry the intent. It is up to the user to explore the experiences. It should not be forced. Users should feel they can shape their experience. The interactive experience is an interesting way to convert and activate a physical space through technology, sound, and light that responds to users. In today's time, we as users of digital technology are able to filter out constant sensory stimuli from smartphones, speakers, video displays, etc. It has become a challenge to draw people's attention. Interactive installation can create that space needed to engage with people, to provide a learning experience, to hold an audience to impart memorable messages if done well. I learned how gamification strategies is effective for motivating active engagement and shaping behaviors. Through the learnings, I conceptualized and Illustrated a low-fi game play flow so that it is easier to relate.
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