Maps and Journeys 11- Project Update

Currently our project has progressed a lot since I last discussed it on this blog. Since the pitch with Rosie, we've decided as a group to go back to the original idea of touching a part of the brain which triggers something (A visual element or sound element) and so forth. Here is where our project is currently: 

After research, mostly on Julia's part, we've decided to have a model brain (Made from vacuum forming a mould of a brain, allowing us to have a transparent brain that we can tweak i.e. add light up elements and so forth. We've decided to look at the 4 main parts of the brain that we can visually and sound wise represent on the screen: 

'Frontal lobes - planning and thinking. Monitoring higher order thinking, directing problem solving and regulating the excesses of the emotional system. Self will area, personality. Most of our memory.

Temporal lobes - above the ears. Deals with sound, music, face and object recognition and some parts of long term memory. Also house the speech centres although this is usually on the left side only.

Occipital lobes - exclusively for visual processing.

Parietal lobes - spatial orientation , calculation and certain types of recognition.' 

From several group meeting we've had, we've decided visually we are going to create something quite simplistic and easy to understand. The screen will show a simple situation, such as a man walking down a road past people and cars or perhaps having a conversation, which can easily be broken down into individual parts, 4 main parts of the brain to be more precise. The other lobes, for example the 'Temporal Lobe' will active inaudible speech. 

When only certain parts are touched by the user, and not synced together (all 4 parts touched at the same time) it will only show that element, for example if you only touch the Temporal Lobe, it will only play sound, whereas if you press all 4 elements together it will play sound and visuals in its whole form. 

The whole piece allows the viewer to get involved by interacting with the model of the brain, touching one of four parts and seeing the progression of the piece as they touch more than one element at a time. This allows a multitude of people such as a group of four, two people or even one person on their own to hold down parts of the brain to eventually see the whole, complete piece. 

The representation of the piece is to show that the parts of the brain work together as a whole to form a functioning visual/audible atmosphere for the person, but when separated, the parts of the brain struggle to form something that's whole. 

Visual Research: 

http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Brain-an-external-hard-drive-and-light-sculptu/

For visual research, Julia via our group's regular Skype meetings found a great website were someone made a model brain with LED's lighting it up inside it. This piece was done more as a DIY Sculptural experiment to see if he could make it. The designer, Quentin Thurtle, described it as such: 

"I was asked to make a 1Tb external hard drive in the form of a floor-standing, animated-brain sculpture. When not being accessed, it has a simple red-light pulse. When the hard drive is being accessed, it has a range of light display effects.' 

I like the way that Quentin displayed the piece on a plastic pillar, which makes the piece look professional and visually interesting. Our piece however will be more specific in the LED lights, rather than just using christmas lights that constantly flash. 

Due to Thomas knowing students that do Architecture at the university, and being at a university with talented art student and some amazing facilities such as the workshops I was inducted into recently for our Studio Shoot project, I feel confident in coming together and making a physical brain model that looks visually interesting and works the way I want it to. 

An accurate drawing done by Thomas