Interim Feedback

-Look at oled screen

-Include skeleton and live Moa (incorporating the work into the installation)

-Option of standing still and having the the immersive light reveal everything.

-Already revealed at the back of the wall? 

Beam: 2.75m

Roof: 3-3.5m

Floor width: 3m

Refined Idea

A forest of interactive screens allows visitors to explore how the Moa lived back when it was alive.
Transforming the space into a forest of discovery using parabolic speakers, interactive (Textured) floors, light triggered by motion sensors.

Tree panels became interactive touchscreen and brings out information depending on what height you are, making it inclusive to kids and people on wheelchairs. There will also be options to change the language. It will hang from the ceiling and descends into the space as a form of light creating a immersive glow.

Inside the exhibit space, visitors stepped into the environment where the Moa once lived. Visitors are invited to a immersive environment to envelope in a rich narrative about the life of the Moa.

Visitors can locate the Moas in the forest (a nocturnal game, similar to hide and seek).
Maybe use a silhouette when the person is detected? Or the screen illuminates as you walk to light up the area? The ground will be textured to mimic the forest.

Immersive Installation

Inclusive design checklist

Marking checklist:
-Language selection

-Adjustable text size

-Good colour contrast levels + lighting

-Subtitles + volume (hard without headphones)

-Adjustable heights

-Hand-held controls for wheelchairs

-Glossary of Maori/kiwi

-Basic info by default, deeper on demand (grab attention, allowing others who are interested in the subject to read more-option)

-Simple language (e.g. dyslexic)

-Wheelchair access/ramps/handrails (include chairs maybe to let people take it in?)

Things to consider:

Navigation: middle space or right hand side (preferably) 

On a large touch screen it is more comfortable to touch the middle and right side of the screen. 

Scrolling is a pain.

A hand drawn visual leaves a nice amount of the feeling of a concept to your drawings to further allow refinements.

Sketch your idea on tracing paper over a photo of a space/model.

Sketch up different angles of your space.

Sketchup
www.sketchup.com

www.lynda.com/sketchup-tutorials

Moa Story

-Extinction of Moa birds

-Different sounds Moa makes

-Environment it lives in

-Texture of the skin, feathers

-Movement and behaviour 

Moa sounds:
The eastern moa was common in the eastern South Island. It was sufficiently distinct from other moa to be placed in its own genus. This species and the larger stout-legged moa were remarkable in having a very long elongated windpipe, which probably enabled them to make louder, more resonant calls than those of other moa. The windpipe included a loop up to one metre long that ran downwards inside the left side of the body, and across to the other side before it doubled back on itself to the breast and into the lungs. Modern day swan, crane and some spoonbill species also have elongated windpipes, and this explains their resonant, bugling calls. Only male eastern moa appear to have had an elongated windpipe, and so their calls may have had a role in sexual selection and competition for mates.

Source: http://www.nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/eastern-moa

Other traits:

Wingless

Flightless moa were the only birds in the world to lack any vestige of a wing. They had a small bone called the scapulocoracoid, formed from the fused scapula and coracoid. The junction of these two bones is where the humerus of the wing would have been at an earlier stage in evolution.

Feathers

Moa had rough, furry feathers like a kiwi. The feathers lacked the barbules that usually link the filaments. Little is known about the colour, as feathers have been found only for upland moa. These are dark at the base, lightening to greyish-white at the tip.

Feet

Moa had three front-facing toes on each foot, and a small rear toe, often just a spur on the leg. This differs from all other large ratites, who lack a rear toe, and from ostriches, who have just two toes. The moa foot is also distinctive because the tarsus (the scaly part of the leg to which the toes are attached) was very short. In the heavy-footed moa, the breast feathers were barely off the ground.

Head and bill

Moa had small skulls. This is a trait of all ratites, but a 250-kilogram bird would have looked particularly odd with a skull just 23 centimetres long and 12.5 centimetres wide. Their skulls reveal relatively poor eyesight , a good sense of smell (enlarged olfactory region), and a very short bill. The bills of different species vary from robust, sharp and pointed to snip branches and flax, to weaker, rounded ones more suited to plucking soft leaves and fruit.

Sound Installations

DAYDREAM V.02 Audiovisual installation by NONOTAK STUDIO (Noemi Schipfer and Takami Nakamoto). Sound recorded at Insanitus Festival.

Interactive Sound-installation, Russian Museum

-I found it interesting how it gives an illusion of sound without having to physically touch the display. The sounds link to the object and when you put your hands close to it, it starts playing sounds that you would expect to hear.

Shark Attack Interactive Installation-Not specifically dealing with sounds, however I like how they incorporate the narrative of the shark with the stairs. Turning something you would usually never notice into a space where the people interacts with it.

Amazing Art Installation Turns You Into A Bird | Chris Milk "The Treachery of Sanctuary"
Losing yourself. Taking shape of something else. Showing movements of birds.

Hermès 8 Ties
I like how shapes and forms changes when the person walks past the detectors. Possibly something interesting to look at if I want to look build a narrative through shapes and forms? Using sound?

Apparition – Klaus Obermaier & Ars Electronica Futurelab

Possibly can tell a narrative through the background, showing different environments where the moa had lived at? 

Possibly can show textures of the Moa? Feathers?

Seventh Sense (Excerpt) / 第七感官 (五分鐘版)
Showing a moving environment? Being involved in the narrative.

Ideation & Space

Space given: 2.8m by 2.8m.

Moodboards

Moa

Interactive Installation ideas

Object: Moa

Moa were large, flightless birds that lived in New Zealand until about 500 years ago. There were nine species of these extinct birds. They belong to the ratite group of birds, which also includes ostriches, emus and kiwi. Genetic comparisons suggest that the closest relatives of moa are the flighted tinamous of South America.

Extinction

Moa were hunted to extinction by Māori, who found them easy targets. Their flesh was eaten, their feathers and skins were made into clothing. The bones were used for fish hooks and pendants.

Moa may have been hunted to extinction within a century of human arrival to New Zealand. Moa made such easy prey that by AD 1200 the hunting of Moa alone provided food surpluses sufficient to provide for the settling of large villages up to 3 hectares.

The first Polynesian settlers must have been amazed to find these giant birds throughout the country and moa soon became a key food - unfortunately moa were slow to reproduce and the numbers taken were unsustainable.  Extinction of all moa species followed soon after humans arrived - all were probably gone by about 1400 A.D.

Moa sound

How do you go about recreating the call of a bird that no one has seen or heard in hundreds of years? One of the first things to do is identify its closest living relative and how it sounds. In the case of the moa, this is the cassowary, an ostrich-sized bird that lives in northern Australia and Papua New Guinea. This bird has a breathy, low moan, and it’s reasonable to guess that the moa’s call may have sounded similar.

Because the cassowary’s forest habitat is also likely to be quite similar to what the moa’s was, reasonable assumptions about calling behaviour can also be made. Like the cassowary, the moa probably made lots of repetitions to ensure that its message was heard through dense vegetation.

Then the shape and length of the trachea (windpipe) of the moa was taken into account. How would this alter the bird’s ‘voice’? One trachea found in the skeleton of a moa measured a metre along the neck, with another metre looping through its body. This anatomical arrangement is similar to swans and some other groups of birds. The longer the windpipe, the deeper the call. Various sounds were played through long tubes to simulate this attribute of the moa.

Where they lived

Moa lived on mainland New Zealand, and Great Barrier, D’Urville and Stewart islands, where there were trees, shrubs and grasses to eat. Different species preferred different habitats, depending on the food that was available. For example, little bush moa and Mantell’s moa lived in dense forest, while the crested moa and upland moa occupied mountain zones in the South Island.

Distribution and habitat

South Island giant moa were found  in the South Island, Stewart Island and D'Urville Island, in wide range of vegetated habitats including coastal dunes, inland shrublands, forests, and subalpine herbfields and grasslands. Bones recovered from caves, dunes, swamps and middens show that it was widespread in the eastern South Island from coastal Marlborough south to Southland, and inland to the subalpine zone.

What they looked like

It is uncertain exactly how moa looked. It is thought they were similar to emus, with a domed back. They had three front-facing toes on each foot and a small toe at the back. Their feathers were rough and furry.

Female moa were usually larger than males. The largest were female giant moa, at about 2 metres tall and weighing over 250 kilograms. Some moa, such as Mantell’s moa, and males of northern populations of stout-legged moa, were smaller than a turkey.

Moaland

When moa bones were first announced by European scientists in 1840, it sparked international interest. Once the largest bird to have existed, moa briefly become a national symbol, and New Zealand was called ‘the land of the moa’.

Breeding

DNA evidence and egg shell and bone remains found at rock shelter sites in north and central Otago suggest South Island giant moa nested in rock shelters in this region. Plant remains found at nest sites strongly suggests they built nests in late spring-early summer. The plant remains found show they clipped twigs 20-60 mm long and up to 4.7 mm wide from a range of locally available trees and shrubs. These twigs were used to build a nest consisting of a shallow bed of clipped twigs, coarse vegetation and stripped bark. Nesting in rock shelters suggests they bred as isolated pairs, rather than in colonies. A large white giant moa egg (240 x 178 mm) thought to be of this species was found associated with a Maori burial site in Kaikoura. It is estimated the egg would have weighed 4 kg fresh and is the largest moa egg found so far. One or two eggs were probably laid per breeding season. The extremely large eggs suggest an incubation period longer than two months. The male is thought to have incubated the eggs, as is the case in most other ratites. Chicks were probably able to forage for their own food soon after hatching.

Behaviour and ecology

South Island giant moa may have been the tallest birds known, but the largest of the extinct elephantbird species of Madagascar was heavier, possibly up to 340 kg. Giant moa were the largest herbivore in prehistoric South Island terrestrial ecosystems. Finds of relatively large gizzard stones and their large robust bill suggest that giant moa were able to process a highly fibrous diet. The relatively large olfactory chamber suggests an acute sense of smell. 

Food

The diet of the South Island giant moa included twigs, leaves, flowers, berries and seeds from the smaller branches of trees and shrubs, and herbs and vines. DNA study shows that South Island giant moa in central Otago consumed a wide diversity of herbs and shrubs, reflecting local vegetation patterns and ground-level grazing of herbaceous plants.

Interactive Experience Research

Great Ormond Street’s Interactive Animal Wall

"positive experience for the children and their family"

"interactive artwork that responds to activity on a paitients journey"

"very accessible to everybody" (considering different age group)

"true moment of distraction and fascination" 

"thermal consideration, and how light shines through the wall paper"

"encourages children to learn"

"magical effect"

The Nature Trail installation extends across 50 meters length of corridor to achieve a calming and attractive route to surgery. The installation has interactive and illuminated forest and foliage wallpaper that features animals like horses, rabbits and hedgehogs. When the sensors in the celing sense movement below, it brings the animals to life.

I'm quite interested in the way they laid out the wall paper, making it very accessible to everybody (inclusive). People on wheelchairs or children will be able to respond to the work as well as other people who may be taller. The nature aspect of the experience lets people learn how animals interact and move which will be a useful tool for my project as i'm also focusing on an animal. Also thinking of including sound which may draw people in from different parts of the museum. It will be interesting for Te Papa's audience to see how the Moa actually moves. (The current diagrams in the museum is a little outdated in terms of how the Moa stands and carries itself). 

The current display: Neck is too straight.

The neck is supposedly arched like an Emus.

To an artificial mind, all reality is virtual.
Noisy skeleton is an immersive and interactive installation that explores the link between sound, space and artificial intelligence.
From complete control to accidental reaction, the spectactor is completly surrounded by abstracts visuals and digital soundscape echoed back by the machine.
Establishing a real man/machine dialogue, the minimalistic aesthetic and vibrations create a both virtual and physical experience, permitting the user to feel the most subtle variation of sound and space.

I'm quite interested in interactive installations working with sounds and movement.

Using gesture motion/control to trigger Moa sounds would be quite interesting and interactive.  

Nervous Structure is an interactive installation created by emerging artists Annica Cuppetelli (USA) and Cristobal Mendoza (Venezuela). The work is composed of hundreds of vertical elastic lines illuminated with interactive computer graphics that react to the presence and motion of viewers. A significant aspect of the installation is the moiré pattern, which is created when the projected lines move over the structure. A moiré pattern is the optical result of two overlapping grids that are not in perfect alignment. 

The emergence of new technologies such as OLEDS is causing a dramatic change in lighting.

the installation allowed visitors to experience the lighting concept, which reacts to people’s 

movement.

HALO is an interactive art piece for the people of Christchurch. Participants are asked to search for an envelope corresponding with the first letter of their name and respond to the message they find inside and then re-attach it to the structure. The artwork is suspended from a donut shaped structure consisting of helium balloons trapped inside a netting tube. The Halo glows brightly with a LED light attached to every envelope and piece of art. The simplistic nature of the design creates an approachable environment for people of all ages, from children to adults. Our aim is to create a space which will transform over the night.

SPHERICAL SOUNDS will be a chill-out area full of relaxing blue light with smaller bean-bag like spheres on the ground for seating. We are introducing the sound of the Tui, a common New Zealand bird, to bring in a quality of nature. Drops of a sheer fabric will represent the percussive sounds of the Tui and act to frame the bar. Loud speakers will replay a loop of recorded Tui song underlaying chill lounge music. At the completion of the event, we would like to donate our spheres to local preschools so they can continue to have fun with them.

Source: http://studiochristchurch.soapsites.creative.auckland.ac.nz/category/design-courses/

New Delhi Audiograph
An interactive, audiovisual installation by Paweł Janicki, the work treats some elements of the Hindi language as a structural foundation of a musical composition. New Delhi Audiograph uses a motion tracking system that enables the audience to interact with the piece. By various moves and gestures, the interactor can modulate and control various parameters of the music and image generated by the installation.

Source: https://cycling74.com/project/new-delhi-audiograph/#.VfZS4ngwyfQ

Already midway through a $350 million-dollar expansion, the Cleveland Museum of Art was challenged to grow new audiences. Tasked to utilize technology, but not diminish the traditional gallery experience, media design firm Local Projects created a suite of new “interactives” that transform the art museum experience. Another priority was to incorporate the learning objectives and specific content of individual installations without losing sight of the overall visitor experience. It’s a serious challenge to balance learning, contextual understanding and fun.

One not only absorb the art surrounding them, but also make their own works of art, understanding creativity by being creative.

Source: https://bitevisual.wordpress.com/2013/06/04/cleveland-museum-of-art-interactive-exhibits/

Assignment 2

Awesome Forces

When:

Long-term exhibition

Where:

Level 2

Cost:

Free

Type:

Nature; Family 

New Zealand is a young and active land, from a geologist’s point of view. Awesome Forces shows how plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and erosion have shaped one of the most dynamic landscapes in the world.

Starting with a model of the Earth’s interior, the exhibition explains the forces that change the surface of the globe. It shows New Zealand’s position astride two mighty tectonic plates, and explains how the movement of the plates is measured.

A video describes New Zealand’s split from the supercontinent Gondwanaland 85 million years ago. It also presents geological evidence that the ancestors of New Zealand's unique fauna and flora may have travelled on the New Zealand 'continent' when it split from Gondwanaland. These biological treasures, both living and extinct, include the flightless moa, the tuatara – a dinosaur-age reptile – insects such as wētā, and giant land snails.

New Zealand's seismic activity and volcanic eruptions, and their effects on people and the land, are brought to life through large screen projections, animations, a shake-house simulating an earthquake, and interactives including a seismic station. The effects of rainfall and extreme weather events – by-products of New Zealand's unique location – are also demonstrated.

Objects I might be interested in:

Moa

Blood Earth Fire

When:

Long-term exhibition

Where:

Level 3

Cost:

Free entry

Type:

Nature; Family; People and history

Blood Earth Fire will take the audience on an extraordinary journey of discovery through the changing landscape of Aotearoa New Zealand. The changes have been dramatic and are dramatically presented. They will be confronted by the mass of ‘alien’ species that humans brought to this land.

Audience can explore the teeming communities of plants and animals that existed here shortly before people arrived. Meet the stout-legged moa, the adzebill, and the laughing owl while listening to how the dawn chorus of a thousand years ago may have sounded. 

Objects I might be interested in:

The stout-legged moa, Euryapteryx geranoides, was a mid-sized bird at home in forest fringes and scrublands. A considerable amount of fossilised remains of stout-legged moa exist due to the good preservation properties of their habitat and the frequency with which they turn up in Maori middens.

This gave exhibition researchers for Blood, Earth, Fire – Whangai, Whenua, Ahi Kaand model makers of the stout-legged moa plenty to work with when reconstructing the species. The approach they took was essentially a forensic reconstruction. Every bone of the moa was studied in detail, for articulation (the way the bones fit together) and for muscle attachment.

Studying the way the bones would have articulated allowed researchers to look at the birds’ posture. It turns out that moa did not stand tall like an ostrich – the way they are most often pictured. Instead, they were long, with their heads and necks reaching out directly in front of their bodies. This ‘hunchback’ posture meant moa could not have browsed the tops of trees as was previously thought, but fed on undergrowth.

Looking at where the muscles once attached to the bones, researchers could get an idea of how stocky the bird was. This stout-legged moa species was surprisingly heavily built – much more so than the other species we know about. From new genetic analysis, researchers also know that the females weighed about twice as much as males, making them very big ‘girls’ indeed.

The model makers also took incredible care with the face, first measuring the fragile skulls in Te Papa’s collection room and then recreating them in plasticine (modelling clay). Once this step was finished, they went back to their workshop and began the painstaking process of ‘fleshing out’ the model with more plasticine where muscles would have been on the head. 

The skin texture was modelled either by taking impressions from mummified moa (in the case of the feet) or by referring back to the moa’s closest living relatives, the cassowary and emu. 

Te Papa is fortunate enough to have some moa feathers in its collection, probably over a thousand years old. From these, the model makers were able to dye emu feathers to give them the right look before carefully applying them to the finished model.

Resources: http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/WhatsOn/exhibitions/Pages/AwesomeForces.aspx