| My thesis is focused on the connection between the physical and virtual mediums of information and experience. I hope to explore the workspace as a stage for composing such creative content that includes aspects which are both tangible and intangible. The design explorations will consider the balanced relationship of user experience and social interaction within the working space where intangible ideas are transformed into a tangible reality.; The goal is to develop a creative workspace that can be used to form and develop new ideas. The supportive stage would provide the space and means for accessing and manipulating both physical and virtual content, serving as an integrated interface allowing users the ability to fluidly express their ideas in both digital and material mediums.; As an example, technology represents a body of intangible knowledge that is applied in the physical world. This process transforms information into three dimensional representations which people can interact with. Most importantly, these objects have the ability to represent more than just knowledge alone. They have the potential to incorporate human concepts of thoughts, dreams, emotions, and memory that collectively reinforce the human experience. For these reasons, it is worthwhile to investigate the spatial form and visual representation of such ethereal aspects of information and experience to take the science of technology beyond the impersonal 'black box' of wires and circuitry. Such product solutions require the successful development of their applications and context sensitive scenarios as well as the form and packaging of their overall embodiment. As technology becomes an ever-increasing part of our lives, a growing challenge for humankind will be to preserve its essential role of expressing and acting out the very nature of what it means to be human in tandem with the developments of design. In order to sustain a prosperous quality of life, our progress in technology and design must preserve humanity by preserving the human experience.; To address such concerns, my thesis exploration will focus on investigating applications of technology that connect the physical and virtual experience through a tangible interface which encourages human interaction. The idea is to create a human-centered design rather than one focused on technology alone. With the growing level of connectedness within a networked world, there is an increasing need for the development of product solutions that aid humans in making and maintaining a more beneficial, productive, and enjoyable connectedness with each other and the world around them. Such hybrid products of the future will be challenged to integrate both hard and soft mediums in connecting tangible and intangible forms of information and experience. This will involve the parallel development of product systems which include three-dimensional material structures with integrated interfaces to components of digital multimedia content.; The focus of this study views all technology, to some degree, as being purely tacit knowledge until it is applied through a physical manifestation or application. This process of transformation moves information from one medium to another and requires a fluid interface at the point of transition. Although transparent technology can be viewed as an appealing notion to avoid clutter and information overload within such a setting, there is an essential need for real, physical human interaction. An important question is: How can humanness be preserved within such a designed experience? One of the problems which emphasizes the lack of such qualities is evident in today's information workers who are 'losing touch' with the human intangibles of creative thought, dreams, emotions, memories, and sensations. To improve the design of such interfaces, we must ask, "How do objects or environments represent these ideas in a physical way to reinforce, confirm, acknowledge and draw us closer to ou... |
