Initial Experiments: Phantasmagoria

Concept:
- Changing public perception from I to We. 
- From ego-centricism to universal cohesion. 
- Considering the educational sector as a target to reach young minds through human-centred design that incorporates play into its output. 
- Personifying nature, industry and technology in order to best present the current global climate and provoke emotion towards todays realities. 
- Exploring representation through material alone (touch, smell, look, organic vs man-made)
- It hopes to paint a picture of what the future can look like, so that the next generations mindset is focused on using technological tools for good, and understanding the interconnected relationships of our world, especially between humans and nature as something that coexists. 


Target Audience:
- The game covers a variety of school subjects, like science and geography, thus appealing to the primary educational sector 

- As everyone under 16 in the UK has to go to school, the product immediately has a large sector it can appeal to
-By targeting the younger generation, the product is able to simplify the Anthropocene in the most basic form, and visualise the issues covered in the investigation in simple and exciting ways.
-Young minds are not tied down to convention. You can't teach an old god new tricks, but you can teach a young one. 
- Much of the issues today surrounding industry and climate change are controversial and people do not want to change what they are used to, and what they know. Kids have no traditional way of life that they don't want to shift. They are learning and exploring everyday, and so to target the future generations is a more sustainable approach to achieve the product's goals. 


Initial Ideas:
There are a magnitude of interactive and relevant materials available now days to more education and add visual and interactive qualities to objects. The games wants to create 3 planets each with their own personality. By exploring what organic and man-made materials are available, the design can achieve a greater level of 'play', as well as emphasising the extent of what can be made from certain materials.

Material Investigation

Massimo Osti
Massimo Osti (1944-2005) was a fashion designer and garment engineer who was best known for his innovative products.
He is a great designer to reference in terms of material figuring, due to his revolutionary ideas of how natural materials can be interactive, taking a product and making it alive. This idea of clothing being changeable added an emphasis on functionality and utility. In this way design successfully considers material in producing functional products. 

• Garment dyeing (1979) "I discovered that two different materials absorbed and reacted differently to the dye when dyed simultaneously, thereby creating interesting 'tone-on-tone' effects." This is the basis of garment dyeing, a process that revolutionised the entire industry at the time, both because of the unusual look it produced and because of the significant decrease in costs it represented.
• Rubber flax and rubber wool (1987) These materials, created by Osti, became very popular in the textile industry. They took noble and traditional fabrics like linen and wool and granted them a new look and texture, allowing them to drape and fall differently. The special rubber coating not only enhanced their natural characteristics, but also grants increased functionality, such as resistance to water and allows them to remain adaptable to patterns.
• Ice jacket (1991) A jacket made of a revolutionary material that changes colour with temperature variations due to its special chemical composition (pink to grey). The "Ice Jacket" is also highly waterproof and windproof.
• Micro (1992) made of pressed microfiber and nylon fibers. The pressing is a traditional technique, originally used to make paper. This process grants the fabric an unmistakable "deerskin" hand and excellent breath ability.
• Thermojoint (1993) a total resistance to water and wear and up to 80% protection from nuclear radiation.
• Technowool (1995) combination of wool and nylon jersey is wear-resistant and preserves the breathability, naturalness and durability of wool.

Applying to practical:

By looking at existing materials, and the techniques of their production and application, the design is able to develop more reliable and applicable outcomes. 

Technology

• Metal - steel, iron, graphite
• Most used in electronics? - gold, silver, copper
• Making objects from raw materials 
• Craftsmanship 
• Electric paint - can it be applied to represent technology?

Industry

• Plastic / plasticine - man-made material
• Smelly (not appealing)
• Coated in smog somehow 
• Dark gloomy colours - not lively- depict dystopia? 

Nature

• Wood / hemp / clay / limestone / fiber
• Renewable / organic material 
• Smells nice - Apples - biblically represents the beginning of life / mans mistake / taking nature for granted
• Comes to life in a natural element (sun / heat / water - look at pigmented paints)
• Natural dyes: consider boiling grass or spinach to make something turn green (no toxic byproducts)

Simple representations through paper:

Homemade organic paper - made of soaked toilet roll centres, flowers, recycled paper, grass
Acetate - plastic, transparent, shiny 
Metallic - metal qualities (shine and colour)

Making of the paper:

 

Further material investigation:

Graphite was selected fore the Techne globe due to its texture which resembles a planet well.

Beech wood was selected for the Gaia globe, with a hole drilled in the middle to wrap the string around, which will represent the biosphere.

Conductive paint:

This glow in the dark ink is particularly noteworthy due to its eco-friendly qualities which would fit in will with the design. It's sustainable use of light to regenerate its glow reflects well on the key concepts of the game, by considering ways to visually represent electricity through material figuring.

Conductive paint is another way that materials could be used interactively with students, however it does use carbon and this should be considered when selecting the most appropriate outputs to an environmentally conscious product.

UV lighting and pens could be a great idea to visualise both the hidden language of technology that exists in 'Cyberspace' as well as to represent the biosphere which protects earth from UV radiation. I remember playing with these pens all the time when I was younger, and so the design considers a further form of engagement this could bring to playful education.

Natural dying considerations:

The Box / Packaging

As the spheres are 7cm in diameter, the box needs to be more than 21cm long and 7 cm high. For spacing between the spheres, and the addition of cards and extras, the design decided that the box would be 10 x 10 x 30 cm.

Originally thing card was considered for the material, however due to the weight of the spheres, it was evident that a harder, more suitable material was needed. As such, a wooden box was considered to be most appropriate. It is a sustainable material, as well as being a solid container for the fragility of the contents. 

Box Experiments:

The first outcomes were produced with card, in order to work out the best way to package the game, considering the most appropriate and sustainable materials. 

7cm circles were cut out to work out accurate spacing

Comparing the two ways of packaging; one box with a lid or an open box with a covering sleeve. Due to the box wanting to have a thermochromic coating imprint, and a printed logotype and branding, it was decided the sleeve and open box is most appropriate. 

Wooden version 

Due to the weight of the final product, after a peer critique it was understood that a card box would not be stable enough to support its contents. Accordingly, the design went to wood workshop and got a wooden box that would replicate the initial decided template. 

As the wooden box had to have a thickness to be glued in such a way, the paper sleeve needed larger dimensions to fit around.

The end proportions ended up being 11.2 x 12.5 x 32.5 cm