412Beats
“412beats is an interactive platform which brings music serendipity to the streets of Pittsburgh.”
A spatial, digital and communal intervention, 412 beats focuses on bringing local music talent to a broader community. Rooted in computer vision and semantic web, it brings music serendipity to the streets, It allows anyone to scan simple patterns through cellphone cameras to access embedded music via any mobile web browser. Instead of downloading data on native devices people will be able to share data through liberal web. Based on the research done along with music education programs and local artists, 412 beats provides platform to local artists to digitally embed their music in physical spaces of the city through a DIY framework.
Duration: 6 Weeks
Team: Irene Alvarado, Manjari Sahu, Nurie Jeong, Vikas Yadav
Role: Design Research, Expert Interviews, Journey Map, Physical Installation Design, Ergonomics Prototyping, Mobile Prototyping
Tools Used: Autocad, Illustrator, Photoshop. Sketch, After-Effects, Framer
PROMPT
Look into the everyday lives affected by complex systems that are sometimes unnoticed, immersive, delightful, informative, useful or useless. By approaching systems such as social/mobile services from various perspectives, we were encouraged to discover an opportunity where emerging technologies in design, such as intelligent sensing, systems can add value in the way in which people connect with one another in their surroundings throughout the day. We were asked to propose a design, that can change/improve people’s experience in the city of Pittsburgh in meaningful way.
INITIAL RESEARCH
In order to intervene for the city, we had to know more about the city. However, our team had all international students who had been to Pittsburgh for the first time. Thus, we took a guerrilla approach. For next two weeks we conducted interviews with residents and experts. We also took part in one of the workshops which aimed at surfacing crucial degrading issues in the city of Pittsburgh.
Through our interviews with experts ( Alexander Woodring, Francis Carter, Natalie Ozeas ) who are already working in the domains of social inclusion and innovation, we realized framework to approach problems which are almost wicked. A framework for social impact has four fundamental building blocks which are connected through a cyclical order.
CHALLENGES
Interviews threw light on a complicated web of problems around:
Community: Gentrification, Social segregation, Unequal opportunities
Infrastructure: Transportation (Cycling, Bus Transit), Education
Environmental: Water quality, air quality
All these problems encouraged us to find viable connections and find core issues which can address multiple problems addressed above. In the quest of finding these issues, we formulated some design principles to abide by. These principles will go on to define the overall process.
PROBLEM SPACE: MUSIC AND EDUCATION
Interview with Riccardo Schulz, associate professor in School of Music, CMU was a turning point for the project. During his interview, he threw light on some significant transformations happening in Pittsburgh through past decades as he has been a resident of Pittsburgh for past 50 years. He pointed how poor public education system in Pittsburgh has led to poor distribution of opportunities among young generation. Poor education has also caused a degraded lifestyle and in some cases led to gentrification as the native population is not skilled enough to be employed. Following Riccardo’s interview, we talked with some high school kids.
Inspired from talking to these kids, we delved in a detailed investigation about public education system in Pittsburgh. Weak public education system is a well known fact among citizens of the city. Government statistics point to substantially low attendance rates in certain neighborhoods of Pittsburgh. However, an interesting fact also pointed towards radical increase in attendance rate during music rehearsals. Arts Greenhouse Project, a music program run by CMU faculty is especially inclined towards hip-hop music, a favorite among Pittsburgh kids. Arts greenhouse program is trying to bring music education to community kids emphasizing on creative writing and technical music production skills.
Arts greenhouse program had the perfect framework which we could facilitate by increasing traction towards the program. This could be done if music created by kids could reach to the community. Our job as designers was to bring this music discreetly through serendipitous intervention.
“ How can we use music as a community intervention which can provide a platform for young kids to perform and gain pride in community ? “
INSIGHTS
GENERATIVE PHASE
Using serendipity as the take-off point, we started brainstorming and prototyping ideas. Our initial basis of thought was to make a physical intervention which is non-intrusive yet stands out as an interesting entity. Physical form should be naturally conceivable. In fact the form itself should guide user towards further interactions. Next consideration came around appropriate technologies. We wanted to make something cost-effective and robust, however, any technology integration calls for rise in cost and further complications around maintenance.
Our initial ideas ranged from a dedicated sound box to suspended headphones over a geographical map of Pittsburgh. Soon we realized that a user’s cellphone can be used as the tech equipment. All we need to provide is a unique identification for the phone to understand tagged music, just like a QR code or something.
It was soon that we realized that concept could have numerous manifestations so we decided to play around. We considered the physical form as a strip with patterns over which one can slide their phone. We considered an urban sculpture hosting scannable pattern or just simple plain stickers. Out of considered ideas, plain stickers held most pros as it would be minimalistic and scalable.
Moving on, we designed affordances of scanning patterns through phone. We body-stormed various UI iterations to understand what felt most natural to interact with. Since stickers will exist in space, they will need a tying feature which could make them stand out, almost like an art installation. Working through ergonomics, gave us a better hang of proportions as we were designing for multi-person interaction and accommodate natural handling of cellphones.
USER-TESTING
User-testing phase involved regular people as well as members of Arts Greenhouse. Simple interactions and minimalistic design was liked by everyone, however certain issues around user interface and spatial anthropometrics made us to go back to our drawing boards. We learnt:
- Users had to be guided about the process of scanning.
- People do not prefer to stand close, thus the installation had to be spread out horizontally to allow multi-person interactions.
- UI should enable a user to use just one hand for handling cellphone while interacting with installation.
- Artists had strong urge to create their own artwork for their music.
- People advised a more sturdy alternative which could resist extreme weather conditions.
REFINEMENT PHASE
Users may keep music locally and share their experience with friends who live outside the community.
Inspired by Memphis design movement, the overall branding contains the code of serendipitous joy.
It helps convert digital music files to the aesthetic physical art installations.
FUTURE WORK
