Knowing where you are

The problem with just showing footage like the video below is that people might not know where or what they're looking at. I decided to experiment with different ways of showing people they're looking at the view from a train window. To do this I tried covering the screen with some card with the shape of a train window cut out. Here's how it worked. . .

Here's another video I made just experimenting with different, random screen shapes. . .

Finding the right footage

When I caught the train to Edinburgh for the day I decided to take a video out of the train window as it crosses the Tay. I've used this footage throughout the PLAY stage so you might see it a few hundred times.

Private Vs Public

Using different viewing methods the footage could be kept private or transformed into a public experience. To start looking into both these options I went out and bought myself a few LCD screens. I bought a twin dvd kit but unfortunately I haven't been able to get the screens to work with my laptop. So I then went and bought a 7" digital photo frame which works with my video files. This offers a small viewing area appropriate for personal or private viewing.

I then bought a small projector off ebay. The idea was to take it outside and test projections in different areas and on different surfaces. But I realised that is not what my project's about. It didn't have to be in a public space to make it a shared experience. By projecting onto surfaces in the home it could be turned into an experience that more than one person can enjoy.

I've found that the great thing about projection is that the footage can be enjoyed as a family- familiarising themselves with other places- or alone as a tool promoting a relaxed and calm way of thinking.

Areas for PLAY

Having focused my thoughts I made a list of everything I wanted to look at through PLAY.

• Public or Private
  
• Projection
  
• LCD screens
• Effects of perspex
• Effects of mirrors
• Screen shapes
• Projection surfaces
• Effects of polarising film
• Split videos
• Navigation
• Senses- sound? touch? smell?
  

My Mission

After speaking to Jon and Polly I decided my ideas needed more focus. They made me realise that although the live streaming would be exciting to work with, the most important part of the end product would be the user experience. How people interact with it? How they use it? How it affects their life?

In order to focus my mind and work out exactly what I should look at during PLAY I went back and looked at my insights, my ideas book and the reason I chose this area in the first place.

"half-empty carriages making their way across a landscape: the silence that reigns inside while the wheels beat in rhythm against the rails outside, the dreaminess fostered by the noise and the view from the windows, a dreaminess in which we seem to stand outside our normal selves and have access to thoughts and memories that may not arise in more settled circumstances"

Alain De Botton descibes travel for me perfectly here. His book has acted as a great source of inspiration for my project and this is the reason I have named my project after his book, The Art of Travel. His book is about describing his experiences of travel using the help of great artists, writers and thinkers. Although my project has nothing to do with this aspect of the book, the title allows me to describe in a few words why I love travel so much.

The art that I want to look at is the great, flowing views that we see from simply looking out of a moving train window. The vast, fluid landscapes and the glimpses of other lives we catch in a second. So taking all of that into account along with the insights gained from people during my research, heres my initial mission statement:

Through this project I want to recreate the enjoyable experiences of travel. The monotony, the serenity, the time for thought, the opportunity to delve into our memories and the chance to enjoy the beautiful scenes that we often take for granted.

Starting PLAY

To start this stage I wanted to look at streaming footage from trains and buses. I did some research into live streaming. The idea was that people could log into a site and view the footage as it happens. This is a really expensive thing to do. . .but it is possible. . .especially now that most trains and buses offer a wifi connection.

Moving from FIND to PLAY

Before I tell you about my PLAY stage I want to show you how I moved from the insights gained in my research to picking the ideas that I wanted to carry forward. Basically my strongest ideas and the ones I was most interested in were those to do with creating environments to do with travel. From the day chatting to the designers I found that this was the area I should focus on in PLAY.

In my cultural probe pack I asked people to take photos of parts of their journey they enjoy and parts they don't. This image below along with results from several questionnaires -telling me people love to look out the window and relax when travelling- helped me to form my ideas about recreating an experience.

These insights helped me to produce the ideas about the environment as seen in my previous blogs. There were several on bringing travel home where people could view live footage on their computers or projected onto windows or on screens around the house. This also led to the ideas on changing the current travel experience. Trying to make the daily journey to work more enjoyable by projecting images onto stations ceilings, or creating platforms made from natural, earth materials. Although I liked the strange contrast bringing the outside-in would create in these spaces, I decided to focus on bringing travel into the home.