Fluffy After Dinner

Moments depict incomprehensible periods of time when a multitude of factors come together and produce collections, patterns, events, and ultimately the reality we interact with and experience. In opposition to inevitability, I am fascinated by the randomness of life and desire to document these moments. By using light as an extended communication platform, my design presents Pareidolia as an interpretation of the playfulness of randomness. My super power, a ghostly sidekick cat weaves in and out among different objects, forming faces with its tail and the objects around it. In this project, I emphasize the coincidental collaboration between myself, the wearable device and the environment.

The project is a photo essay showing me use my wearable device based on playfulness and chaotic aesthetics. I chose strong colors and visual elements to achieve it. In this after-party scene, I use audio to suggest the presence of the cat, but only I can contact the cat through a glowing hand device. By adjusting the radio frequency, its image wanders between clarity and blur. The cat's shape is incomplete, showing the limitations of psychic communication. In each moment of the cat's walk, randomness continues to evolve an impressing reaction from ordinary life scenes. I hope to use technology to explore new ways of making direct or indirect connections with the environment, inviting viewers to think about the possibilities of randomness and enjoy the fun that randomness brings.

"The world is giving off a fuzzy signal and overwhelming sense of uncertainty. How can we occupy various edges, remain equanimous and resist our ingrained chase for stability"?

Under the idea of randomness and nonsense, I translate this randomness into lights, smiles and cats that you can't stop watching.

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Research

Research super power as a group and find out the overlapping parts in the research.

Expand on the reference found and propose design opportunities.

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Concept Building

I decided to have a sidekick cat that could use its tail to generate smiley faces around.
I started thinking about the logic of the smiley appearing. What kind of environment is enough to generate smiley faces? Do the eyes have to be the same or something different? I took some random pictures in the wind tunnel and drew the smiley face in my mind.

I find that I prefer to produce smiley faces without laws. I want the criteria for smiley generation to be completely subjective and under my control.

At the same time, I realized that not only the eyes and the tail, but also the circles that make up the shape of the face are important.

I came up with the idea of using a flashlight or projector to project a cat tail. Here is a schematic of a concept I made using foam clay.

I plan to build a seemingly daily scenario. When the audience walks into my project, I will use the flashlight to put the smiley face opportunity on display by illuminate the smile faces.

Prototype Making

I modified the base of a children's toy to make my prototype. This toy can be projected in the dark by inserting a plastic translucent piece.

I took it apart and took the plastic piece.

The plastic sheet that comes out is very small and the pattern is even smaller. It occurred to me that film has a higher degree of accuracy than printing. I use a film camera to take scaled images and wash the film.

Through cropping and constant testing, I found a film that would fit perfectly.

Then I found that the original bulb was not bright enough, so I conducted some tests with different LEDs.

After testing, I chose a 12v LED. Because the original battery was only 3v, I decided to extendl a battery box to meet the 12v.
This is the final look of the prototype and I decided to make it a wearable device.

Prototype Test

Set Up

I set the scene to an after-party scene. Because I think such a chaotic scene can reflect the special nature of my superpower: the more chaotic the more powerful. In addition, the after-party scene has a unique aesthetic of solitude.