Playtest

For playtest I just tested people's reaction to the quotes in a setting where they would be able to see many of them, and pick one to take and keep.

I printed some 50 quotes on card-like paper and manually cut rounded corners on each one to make it softer.

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I've had interesting conversations with the playtesters, to whom I have not told what the project was about so that I could get a more raw and true reaction. Even though I had varied reactions, they all fell under the spectrum of what I was going for. Some people said it felt quite heavy, and "a lot", and some became emotional and have found several quotes to be resonating with them. Some were reminded of their own experiences and generally felt like they understood where the person whose quote they read was coming from emotionally.

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However, I have decided to rescind my idea of using a pen plotter to print on cards because it didn't fully click with me conceptually. I've already set up the pen plotter and everything, but have decided to pivot and instead use e-paper to produce an object(s) that kind of looks like a pager... The pagers will be hand-held, and there would be a "docking station" where whenever the pagers are put back on it'll load a new quote (the quotes are scraped from the web and processed in near-real time). The quotes will all be about war, and so the pagers would serve as this alternative way of getting updates on the war but only through real people's quotes.

I've spent a lot of time refining my process of sourcing the quotes, trying out different ways of analyzing them and figuring out ways of keeping the "good" ones and discarding the irrelevant ones. So I've come up with a system of metrics to test it with, which goes something like this:

1. Impact (0-2):

  0: No human element

  1: Basic human statement

  2: Strong human impact

2. Universality (0-2):

  0: Technical/political/specific locations

  1: Generic but relatable

  2: Deeply universal experience

3. Authenticity (0-2):

  0: PR speak or official statement

  1: Simple genuine statement

  2: Unique personal voice

Auto-reject if quote contains:

- Political figures

- Location names

- Technical terms

- Policy statements

- Statistical data

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I've also started testing out the e-paper (I'm currently using what ITP has in stock but I've ordered different sized ones that would work better.

The e-paper module would go inside a 3D printed enclosure:

I've printed a test at school that didn't turn out good enough but I've set an appointment with the Laguardia studio to print higher quality models with a specialized filament that has a more rough finish that I think would work nicely

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To summarize: I'm simultaneously working on all fronts of this now, both refining the code part (which runs periodically in the cloud in order to source real time news), the processing methods that determine which quotes to keep and which to discard, the design and fabrication of both the pagers and the docking station (this is what's going to take the most time) and programming of the e-paper displays. This is a lot to do in the short time we have left so I'm prepared to scale down if I have to but for now this is the plan.