MEDIA GUARDIAN INNOVATION MEGAS AWARDS

Here I have attached the photos in order according with the text introduced in the application form, (in the area where shoud be the upload of the picks),

Context report (brief summary)

The context report as a theoretic piece of work where it is possible to clarify concepts through its research, analysis and debate pushed my understanding of concepts like PLAY, CRISIS and their possible ways of interrelation. I divided this body of work in several chapters which I am going to briefly summarize here.

Transferring the properties of the playful: but it is possible to transfer some characteristics of an object or situation that is accepted as playful in some culture or social commuity to an object or situation that is not. There is a challenge for the innovative thinking alongside the design processes and techniques to completely transform structures, systems and actions from its mere functionalism to its interactive stimulation of our capacity to play.

Playful intrinsic meaning of the object:
This characteristic makes the object or action recognizable for a culture that shares the standards that the object is communicating, it is not the same perception of the playful for the point of view of the oriental culture than for the occidental, although there are some common characteristics innate in the human nature and as a consequence of the globalization in terms of comsumption habits and marketing strategies. A toy a puppet or a swing are objects that are globally accepted as playful today throughout the different cultures.

Some the possible characteristics of the playful

Playful materials:
Things that are conventionally stablished as playful are made with a vast range of materials, like wood, plastics, synthetic and organic fibers and metals, but the characteristics of these materials change from objects that are not traditionaly catalogued as playful and the ones that are, for example the special features like bouncing, elasticity and spin.

Reflexion about the term playful

Why play or playful? And what is playful?: I have to find a reason, probably because is one of the most innate and innocent faculties in the human being.
It is not just about playful things, that is why those that are catalogued as objects that embody the characteristics of play, there are objects, substances and materials that normally we don’t identify as playful but potentially they are.
Things can become playful if they are used in a specific context and performing something specific.
Water is not a playful element itself, it can be used for different things, to drink, to get a shower, to clean our clothes, but if we design a thematic park were water is the main element we are creating an environment were the water is the main character and people is interacting with it, water has become playful. Same when it is used to fill balloons and start water war in summer.
I have seen some other examples when water become playful as for example the waves in the sea to do surf, or the fountain in Russell Square that interact with the people that approach to it.
A cube is not a playful object, it is basically a shape that can be used for different matters, for a box, for a house, etc…. but if I give him internal mechanism and movement it turns to an object which with I can interact, and therefore it becomes a playful object.
Same happens with other objects as for example a rope, it has several uses as we know it can kill, but if I hang it from the ceiling I can use it to climb through or as a liana to swing.
It can be playful just the use of the color.

Some examples of those interventions, for example the group of people that stops suddenly in a station in different body postures, the viewer is socked because it is not normal it is outside of the normal context of an station where everybody is hurry to take a train or a bus, the distraction can change some minds, can change the humor of an stressed worker or of someone that has lost the train.
Another example is the group of people that goes to the tube naked, it can cause the same effect of the last example.
Another example is the surprise produced by the fountains in South Bank during the summer, they have the shape of water walls that interact with the people provoking surprise and susto.

When there are used playful interventions to relieve stress, it is important the voluntary participation of the user, he/she decide to use the playful thing to feel better or generate abstraction from the reality.

But when the intervention is about to provoke a situation that produce an stimulus that has to overlap the previous stress situation, the distraction is produced without the consent of the user, the surprise effect is essential.
It is all about to design DISTRACTIONS (think in unexpected distractions, the surprise effect is essential) ,in different ways, and how these distractions can produce the re-interpretation of the reality by an individual or a collective of people affected by these. The distraction has the task to abstract the victim from his/her reality, worry, stress or crisis situation ( when a stress stimulus is used to relieve another crisis and make you wake up to balance the importance of your previous crisis situation).

The speech done by Onkar Kular, was very interesting:
The research of some environments, as the snow area where people can sky inside, embodied in completely opposite other ones was another point to take in account when he was talking about the changing context of something.
The project based in the research of some thematic parks and playful areas in China, was done as a part of the change things from one context to another, for example the transfer of some classic American Icons as the Walt Disney characters in a Chinese version, or the Jesus Christ in a performance for children, included some souvenirs.
He got the idea again of change context of things and applied them in some examples as the Charles Chaplin in the V&A provoking a reaction in the people in the enclosure, or the performance of Elvis Presley in a conservative school.
All this examples show that sometimes changing context of existing things can get interesting and weird reactions, through the reinterpretation of something in other context).

(this is an influence in different aspects in my project, it proof overall the possibility to design experiences)

This is an example of my experiments that explored the concept of ‘Deflection Distraction’ in this case using the game of chess as a tool to design an experience. This object questions the potential of a conventional game to embody a new element that reverses its own conventional rules. This design conserves the same objects but reverses its meaning. each piece is made with chocolate and depending of its value it has to be filled with an strong or soft flavor, so when the opponent lose a piece and suffer the crisis effect of ‘lose’ has to eat it. If he loses the queen he will experiment a strong spicy taste that will deflect him from the feeling of lose.
I learned from this project something that will be used later in my process, I included a ‘reality within a reality’, here in this game co-exist two realities, one is the chess itself as a conventional game with its rules, and the other is the modification introduced by me which in a way transgress its rules.