Chris I’m a creative technologist and I
have to start with a little bit of a
confession now this isn’t really a talk
about art and it’s not really a talk
about technology or interactivity so
normally when I do one of these things
I’d show you this slide with lots of
different technologies and I would talk
for about seven and a half hours
non-stop and I like this stuff I get
quite excited this isn’t any of those
talks this is a talk about making
something it’s a and I like using the
word adventure with my students when I’m
working with them or working with
clients as well getting them to think
about their own personal journeys they
might go through thinking how they
change how they evolve when they make
something where they make an
installation work or a bit of research
or even a TEDx talk what did they go
through what did they change when they
think of that so if you’ll indulge me
I’ll take you through an adventure I
went on with my group at Plymouth
University I dot and we were
commissioned by the Tate Modern for
their new opening for the opening of
their new extension to develop this is
where we are this was an installation
working with the Tay exchange and my
boss the wise old wizard Mike and and be
the creative director came along pulled
me in for a coffee and told me of this
big quest we were going to go on we were
gonna make a three and a half meter tall
interactive sculpture which would listen
to everything that was going on around
it it would understand what’s happening
at the Tay and what’s being said on
social media and it would reflect that
back into the space so it would start
lighting up it would change sounds it
would change behavior oh and by the way
you’re going to be able to walk up to it
and touch it and you’re gonna be able to
talk to it through a chatbot interface
and you could be able to feel it and
listen to it oh and by the way there’s
also going to be these robots that run
around outside it and run after people
okay quest accept it
let’s do this we’ve got the lists and
things so we start planning out and we
start figuring out what the team is and
start
modeling everything together so we start
building our sculpture out these polygon
tiles and with that plan with that idea
we take it down to TR to hand it over to
them and go make that bigger and lucky
they didn’t tell us to go away and
through a series of nice action shots
they built out our frame they created it
and gave us a space and gave us time
into r2 to start applying the technology
adding everything together and now we
start getting the fellowship together
now we start building the team with
Simon on the touch on the touch
environment Mike and Gary on the sound
and me in the middle middle of it with a
Raspberry Pi in the corner controlling
everything and doing all the AIS and
behaviors so we start building and
making this thing and we start gathering
into the tape modern bringing our stuff
with the van and the GoPros and you’ll
see the slides later and it’s all signed
to come together it’s all working it’s
all basically there but something’s not
right there’s a dragon that needs
slaying there’s something not quite with
it and it’s not the tape themselves it’s
not the clients because they’re looking
after us they’re keeping us fed they’re
bringing brilliant and it’s not the
technology because that’s working and
that’s responding to things that’s going
on so our sculpture the thing we make
made was starting to respond to
something that was going on outside and
we pulled out our phones we had to look
at Twitter and we realized what was
going on we were up the week this
happened I think you remember the Battle
of the tens where two boats of flotillas
started going and having a bit of a
shouting match each other that was being
picked up and reflected and along with a
protest and other things that were going
on we were starting to seeing okay this
is working so what’s the issue what’s
the problem here and it’s not so it’s
not those things and I’ve start to
thinking realize it’s actually our own
perfection that’s the dragon we need to
set the sleigh because in this space in
this time we’re not really getting this
opportunity again we’re at an opening of
a major new extension we’re here in
prime cap
space with a hundred and fifty thousand
people ready to walk up the space and
look at what we’re doing and it starts
to get oh it’s our anxiety
it’s our issues oh what’s going on here
okay so we need to start thinking you
know steam thinking what’s there and in
the story you would normally get in the
story in your adventure film you
probably get a bit of advice or a hint
at something that would take you through
to the end and for me my hint and bit of
advice was a conversation I had with Lee
Lee’s the Builder of the robot part of
this project so these were little robots
that ran around after the audience and
kind of ran them over but he started in
our minds they started at the start of
the project as being these really
complicated things they were gonna be
trapped in the space and were gonna have
some really interesting AI behaviors and
Lee kind of ditched all of that he made
them really simple he just made them an
Arduino some servers a really simple bit
of code and some foam batteries powering
them on and I decided to have a
discussion with there I said are you
sure this is not the thing we made this
is not the thing that we were agreeing
on and talking with him it clicked and
what he said to me was that you know
about the how complex this is you know
about everything that’s going on but
your audience don’t your audience don’t
know the these aren’t as technically
competent or technically difficult or as
advanced as you think they should be all
they know is there some things running
about on the floor as they come upstairs
and if one of the robots goes off – this
goes off and tries to go down the stairs
after someone you just pick it up bring
it back over and give it a nice telling
off you kind of just start performing
with the technology and kind of the way
you walk up and touch something or you
talk to the thing you’re building the
thoughts of the thing that’s there
you’re kind of filling in the gaps with
your own performance
it’s a little bit like how Steve Jobs
demo demonstrate that original iPhone he
was going through a very specific set of
circumstances but his performance were
there was the thing that carried it
through the thing that got people
excited even though it was just a
process
it was just the baser so with that we
start thinking okay let’s get this all
together let’s just make sure it works
and it’s robust and let’s use our own
performance let’s walk up and touch
things and invite people into the space
and we get there we get to the point
where it’s ready and it’s open and after
our week-long installation process we
can open we can open to the space we can
open to the stage and invite everyone
into this space now this thing this
thing we made was listening to people
you could touch it and it was following
people’s hands about and it was leaving
these messages and memories on social
media where people had walked up walked
up to and touch something and it set a
nice counterpoint to everything else
that was in the tape because while the
tape modern is a modern art gallery not
everything is very interactive or
digital so when you have a bunch of
people who have come to this new art
gallery opening and walking up the space
and walking into something and I’m
realizing oh I’m allowed to play with
this that’s something quite magical so
you invite them to come and touch and
you invite them to come and talk talk to
it or play around with it and it really
started to respond and get excited about
what was happening these little Boyd’s
these little characters that float
through the sculpture while they
slightly melted our unity programmer to
his brain didn’t really work after we
made him get that working in 3d these
little boys are just people’s thoughts
and emotions that are drifting through
this space and they’re affecting them
over all emotion of the sculpture so
when the lifts broke it kind of got
angry with us and the robots were using
were working with the children almost
performing with them as well bringing
them into a space making them excited
and of course because it’s an
interactive piece and there’s a nice
little very expensive LCD screen behind
the thing we’ve made doing the
interpretation and that’s not an
interactive touchscreen
and of course all the kids were running
up touching and making lovely brilliant
greasy smear marks on a very very
expensive LCD screen but then I started
thinking we’re coming to the end and we
get to we have to now start thinking
about packing up and reflecting on what
we’ve done and go at this point it’s the
journey back it’s a journey back to the
Shire with your changes in space changes
and thinking what’s the message I’m
going to bring back – to Plymouth – Ted
or something and here it starts to
become something different because the
thing itself is now packed up it was
only there for three days it’s now put
away it’s in some storage somewhere and
it’s not a thing anymore
so what’s the thing what’s the thing
that’s left behind the thing I created
the thing I got to work on and be a part
of and it’s not the metal work or the
code because that goes rusty or obsolete
I started to realize that all these
interactions these moments and memories
these exciting things were the things
that really mattered and I say I’m a
creative technologist and then I
realized what is the thing I’m creating
actually it’s not the technology it’s
not the are it’s the thing that’s left
over it’s the post it’s the memories
it’s the things that people the stick in
people’s mind and towards the end I’ll
show you these these two things that
resonated with me and stuck will stick
with me forever
is when it responded to someone asking
about love and it changed its sound it
changed its lighting and really just
fired people’s eyes up and baby Otis
relaxing not unlike after I’ve done
after working on this for a couple of
months just lying underneath it watching
people’s thoughts and be people’s social
media flying past them and maybe that’s
the thing I bring back maybe that’s the
thing
after you cleared out the space after
you’ve moved on what you’ve left behind
is those moments and memories
and those are what sticking stick with
people and those are the things your
engineering the things you’re creating
if you’re making an app you’re
connecting people to other people if
you’re making a website you’re providing
a service but you’re making things
happen you’re giving people emotions and
memories and things that will stick with
them for the rest of their life and I
hope that’s something you can have take
with you after today and thank you very much