conceptual ideas

I like the idea of how people interact in the space and what effects them while they move.

getting from point A to B
how to track people while they are doing this? (like QA in video games? How are the popular player paths recorded?)

some factors:
-pathways
-obstacles (rocks, foliage)
-signage ("keep off the grass")
-colours (warm vs cool, light vs shade)

how is the path people choose different when these are changed? Even though it would be the same space.
re-using the same space/map in different ways.
Find some examples of this...

-building plan conceptual overlays to show different approaches.
-layers in photoshop/flash/illustrator/etc
-multiple paths from x to y in multiplayer game maps (usually built around a central object)

model made from cardboard/paper, viewed through clear filters/layers somehow.

Would people take the left or right fork in the road? etc
alternate paths = choice/decisions. Would slow the user even if the two paths were the same, even if just momentarily.

tessellation/geometric style origami
origami using light
landscape piece
window art using lighting

Source

Tracking the movement of people in indoor environments is useful for a variety of applications including elderly care, study of shopper behavior in shopping centers, security etc.

interactive art: "You are here"

"You Are Here tracks and displays the paths of visitors traveling through a large public space. The system displays the aggregate paths of the last two hundred visitors along with blobs representing the people currently being tracked. When viewers approach the work, they can display the live video image with the paths of currently tracked visitors superimposed:"

Cabspotting

Cabspotting traces San Francisco's taxi cabs as they travel throughout the Bay Area. The patterns traced by each cab create a living and always-changing map of city life. This map hints at economic, social, and cultural trends that are otherwise invisible. The Exploratorium has invited artists and researchers to use this information to reveal these "Invisible Dynamics."

Using the data, the map builds up with the routes of the cabs, which can be put into an interactive map or a time lapse.

Source
On tracking shoppers:

To gather the data eventually used in the Wharton research, PathTracker RFID tags were placed on the bottom of every grocery cart in a supermarket in the western U.S. According to Sorensen, these tags emit a signal every five seconds that is received by receptors installed at various locations throughout the store. Once collected, the signals are used to chart the position of the grocery cart and record its route through the entire store. This data is translated into the computerized, Etch-a-Sketch-like drawings of shopping cart paths that Sorensen presented several years ago to Fader.

A study of the "linkage between travel and purchase behavior seems a logical next step," the Wharton researchers note. "Linking specific travel patterns to individual purchase decisions may lead to an improved understanding of consumer motivations for purchasing certain items, and can shed light on the complementarity and substitutability of goods in ways that a more traditional 'market basket' analysis cannot capture. Further exploration of travel behavior, independent of purchase, also seems another promising route for future research.

I also downloaded a podcast featuring a level designer interview, but didn't really help on the level design side.

block ideas

-How people interact with blocks/structures (statues/displays)
-How people navigate within blocks/structures (buildings/mazes)
-how a player interacts with the environment (level design)
-organic vs man-made structures
-efficiency of man-made vs computer AI grids
-how blocks can fit and work together (games (puzzles, rubik's cube, tetris, transformers)
-functional compact blocks designed for a certain function (kitchenware, boxes, wall-e)
-blocks can save space, as no space is wasted (lego factory (Interesting how much of the factory is automated))
-point A to B (falling dominoes, system of blocks)
-early block structures (pyramids)
-linear vs open paths

game boards

Other works that deal with systems and collaboration

systems
A group of interacting, interrelated, or interdependent elements forming a complex whole.

collaboration
Working together.

Example 1:

From source

Collaborative piece (10'x6') painted outside by anyone who wished to participate.
The system was the limited colour palette of black, white & red.


Thoughts: From the website, it sounded like the original creators didn't try to control the outcome/quality. It seems to have worked out in this instance.

Example 2:
Production of a movie/show/game/comic, where artists, writers, programmers, etc work together to create a unified piece.

Thoughts: Works out most of the time when everyone is controlled by the director, as opposed to different processes. This may be a example where it only works out 10% of the time.

Example 3:
From Improv Everywhere
Frozen Grand Central




"On a cold Saturday in New York City, the world’s largest train station came to a sudden halt. Over 200 Improv Everywhere Agents froze in place at the exact same second for five minutes in the Main Concourse of Grand Central Station. Over 500,000 people rush through Grand Central every day, but today, things slowed down just a bit as commuters and tourists alike stopped to notice what was happening around them."

One of many pre-planned collaborative artworks from Improve Everywhere.

Thoughts: Interesting use of technology creating creating live performances. Entertaining.

Example 4:
They Rule
Allows you to make connections between directors, companies and institutions.

Presents the data in a easy to follow visual links, which are also easy to modify.

Thoughts: Nice tool. Could be used in other applications. It would be interesting to see the code behind it.

Example 5:
Subway map

Complex 3D Rail systems displayed in simplified 2D map.
Easy to read due to the reduced curves in the tracks, clear coloured tracks and text.

Thoughts: Would be hard to make this any more simple. Which means this is a highly effective way of displaying rail systems.

Seek

From source:

"Seek," a computer-controlled robotic environment that, at least in theory, cybernetically reconfigured itself in response to the behavior of the gerbils that inhabited it.

It was another AI-inspired programming effort that hardly reached its goals, except on metaphorical level: living gerbils had been placed on a glass-caged arena with aluminium building blocks, and a computer-controlled robot arm operating from above. The system, engaged in arranging the blocks according to pre-programmed schemes was supposed to respond “intelligently” to the “noise” created by the gerbils, bumping on the blocks, etc.

From source:

The Architecture Machine Group he headed contributed Seek (featured on the cover of the Software catalog), which housed the above mentioned violence-prone gerbils in an environment of metal blocks. These blocks were light enough to be rearranged by the gerbils’ movements. Seek reacted to the modifications the gerbils made by stacking the blocks into more grid-like versions of the gerbils’ “designs,” using a movable electromagnet.

Thoughts:
It would be nice to see it in action, as it is hard to imagine how this would work. I wonder how well AI programmed in 1970 can respond to the rearrangement of the blocks, and how it worked with the 3D aspect of the blocks (towers), and how much the gerbils moved these blocks.
I'm guessing the blocks are the system and the collaboration is how the gerbils and the robot AI work together.

Possible intentions of this work:
- If computer controlled grid-like arrangements were more effective than those controlled by organic creatures.
- If AI/computer precision helped or hindered the creatures.
- How well the gerbils/AI could cooperate.
- How the gerbils would respond to the more "efficient" designs.
- A commentary on the possible future of architecture and potential of AI