1 / Research Progress–Peer Sharing
2 / Brainstorming Ideas for Prototypes
3 / Consultation
4 / Research on Voice + Personality
5 / Formulating New Ideas
6 / Exploration on
Voice Reactive Visuals
5 / PEEL Exhibition
6 / Materials & Making
RESEARCH PROGRESS–PEER SHARING
For the research progress update sharing, I worked with Sadhna to complete the handout by sharing and discussing our current status for the research and dissertation. As we’ve both prepared slides for the sharing, we went through with each other from start–what the topic is about, the initial concepts, summary of readings and how we are going to approach the research–through what methods, framework and ways of discussion.
From each other’s sharing, we began to take down notes on the handout in blue post-its.
Key insights and constructive feedback were annotated on the yellow post-its.
There was an interesting idea that Sadhna brought up when we were discussing the concept of how our digital footprint makes up our identity in a way where what we do and see online depicts the representation of the self. From this, Sadhna mentioned how the algorithm manipulates the construction of our identities through the curated content that has been recommended in our online feed. This thought was mind-opening as it provided me with another source of how identities could be constructed based on algorithms which I thought can potentially be something for my research to expand on.
Below is the handout from Sadhna
BRAINSTORMING IDEAS FOR PROTOTYPES
Following the visual study case study SelfBook, I sketched out two ideas that one usiitlising a screen-based approach while the other involves a more physical approach.
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First, for the screen-based idea, different shapes would be used to represent the various online activities that the user has participated in, making up a pattern/grid that depicts the portraiture of the user. I was thinking of creating an app or website as these are accessible ways for users to utilise the digital tool for their own self-discovery and as a space to promote online communication between users.
In the toolkit approach, the shapeform prints from the stamps represent the types of online activities while the colour of the stamps would represent the frequency of the stamps or how often an activity is being performed/participated. The user would then use these stamps and match them to the question/prompts that will be printed on the booklet. Through this, users can identify with others through the commonalities in shape or colour from their booklets. I was thinking of using the symbolism of signature stamps which are unique stamps that represent a person or organisation, especially in the olden Chinese, Japanese and Korean cultures. I thought this concept was pretty cool, hence I wanted to bring this together with the toolkit.
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Another idea I thought of was the combination of voice and data, this idea was derived when I was thinking about how to incorporate the element of sound into my work. Thinking with identity as the context, the human voice came to my mind and from there I thought about how vocal waves resembled the look of bar graphs. so the question of how I can blend voice + data together arose?
Is it through 3D or 2D? Object, or Texture? Can the vocal waves be a collection of different data-identity visualisations, where each wave stroke is a detachable acrylic/stained glass printed with the data about oneself on it? When layered against one another to form the complete vocal wave, it also represents the complexity and layers within our identity.
CONSULTATION
This week’s consultation was more for me to discuss ideas and find out new directions to explore in terms of my experiments and prototypes as I have been quite lost on what to try or test out after the 3D Data Object prototype
–How can I see my identity on the screen?
–How would data be captured? → using diagrams to
illustrate that
identity on screen (is it 3D/screen-based/animated) + how the shape has beem
derived ( data produced online)
–Through the discussions, choose one prototype that
you think is the best
or a combination of experiments
one that is resolved I conclusive
–Technical aspect → comparing the experience of prototypes to get feedback from users to get a fresh view on what you’re doing
–Analyse voice and sound not based on amplitude but scientific
techniques to read the voice
–Scientists take sound "voice” analysis of the character to see the personality
–From the sound sample + algorithm used to analyse the recording, psychologists/scientists use these voice analysers to look at the sound from a microlevel to form a voice pattern that is able to be processed by the brain
Some pointers for the cohort presentation:
1) Introduction (this is what it is about, what uou want to achieve, research, methodology, aesthetics, final outcome)
2)Parts that you want feedback (address this in one to two slides)
3) Experiments
From the consultation, Andreas mentioned the phenomenon of voice as an indicator of one’s personal, which I found really interesting. Upon further research, I discovered a whole new side of how identities can be formed and a new range of data that can contribute to identity.
Thoughts:
With this finding, I think if I were to make a discussion with this prototype I would have to refocus my dissertation literature review portion on datafied identities, whereby I narrowed down on behavioural data. I would have to broaden my scope in terms of the range of data that is applicable, as voice samples are not considered a behavioural data but more of a self-reported kind of data → I would have to research about this part of the theory for this concept to identify which category does voice samples fall under in order to incorporate relevant literature that will be able to help back this concept up.
But I do think that this theory is very intriguing and allows me to approach the visualisation of identity from a fresh and even scientific perspective, which I think can open up to many interesting and fun outcomes.
RESEARCH ON VOICE + PERSONALITY
Some parts from articles on voice as a personality with a focus on methods and analysis techniques used to conduct research on the relationship between voice and personality/characteristics traits which I found insightful!
↘ The sound of trustworthiness: Acoustic-based modulation of perceived voice personalit
PLOS ONE. 2019.
Aimee shared with me this article which she found upon googling voice analyzers, which showcases a detailed research analysis proving the concept of voice as a determinant of person
From that initial article,
I found more surrounding this
area of research methodologies
NeuroPsych. 2021.
“Even if we just hear someone’s voice without any visual clues — for instance on the phone — we know pretty soon whether we’re talking to a man, a woman, a child, or an older person. We can pick up on whether the person sounds interested, friendly, sad, nervous, or whether they have an attractive voice. We also start to make assumptions about trust and dominance. The first step was to investigate whether voices are, indeed, related to people’s personality.”
The study included data from 2,000 people from four countries involved in eleven previous independent studies focused on other questions. Each of these studies involved some kind of self-reporting of personality traits and vocal recordings. The recordings were analyzed with Praat, software that determined the frequencies of the participants’ speaking voices.
Stern, Julia. Journal of Research in Personality
Vol. 92. 2021.
"personality might at least partly be expressed in voice pitch in men and women
We provide the first evidence that voice pitch might be a valid cue to at least some self-reported personality traits in men and women, including extraversion, dominance, sociosexual orientation including the facets behavior, attitude, and desire.
"
Other articles
worth checking out:
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↘ The Four Dimensions of Tone of Voice
↘ Evaluating voice samples as a potential source of information about personality
- ↘ Revelations of the personality through voice
↘ Flexible voices: Identity perception from variable vocal signals - ↘ Identification of Speech Characteristics to Distinguish Human Personality of Introversive and Extroversive Male Groups
Many of these articles share the same insight of the relationship between vocal pitch frequency and the extraversion/introversion of the personality. As this was a common finding across multiple studies, its has the most substantial research out of the other vocal characteristics in its ability to display personality traits, I figured vocal pitch frequency would be a safe starting point to utilise as a visualisation of identities.
FORMULATING NEW IDEAS
From the consultation and research on voice personality, I started to think of experiments and prototypes that I would be able to create with this theory of voice as the identifier to oneself. Below is one of the ideas I have so far:
Using voice as an analysis of one’s personality based on the speech characteristics of oneself. Through which, these speech characteristics are visualised within a generative typographic system, where the treatement of type is manipulated/influenced by the vocal traits of the user.
I got the idea of visualising the voice personality through typography as text is the visual representation of speech, as such typography was the first thing that came to mind when I thought of visualising voice as a sound.
Also, I was reminded of this typographic project by David Sinfield in his book called Typographical Voices, where he designed a typeface specific to the vocal characteristics of his interviewees, which I thought was a good reflection of one’s vocal identity.
Images: David Sinfield. Typographical Voices: Poetic reflections on the Pātea Freezing Works. 2020.
EXPLORATION ON VOICE REACTIVE VISUALS
To start off my exploration, I wanted to experiment with the functional aspects of this experiment, which was collecting vocal inputs. The first method I could think of was to use p5.js to host this data collection as code was the only way of collecting user inputs that I was familiar with at this point in time.
While working on this voice-reactive code, I realised that maybe p5.js was not the best place to host as a data collection device as it could get laggy and slow down when the programme has been running for a long time, or too much data has been collected. Therefore, i started searching for other mediums to collect voice inputs, be it through another javascript programming software or another application/approach to tackle this problem
PEEL Exhibition
Visited the ‘PEEL’ exhibition by Atelier HOKO with Sadhna, as this was highly recommended by Ariel! I found the exhbiiton a refreshing take on how the simple act of peeling can be interpreted in so many formats and visualised in different outcomes. This exhibition made me think of all these mundane everyday that we eat or objects that we use without relaisign that we are committing the act of peeling.
At the end of it all, were these large sheets of paper with prompts about the exhibition that I thought could be a good reference for one of my experiments using the toolkit as a way to ask questions about one’s digital footprint.
MATERIALS & MAKING
On Thursday’s class, we were introduced to the tools & materials for prototyping, which made me think about the possibilities of applying such tools/materials in my prototypes, and as a result gain inspiration for new ideas.
Some preparation done prior to Thursday's class:
Journey Map
Through the warmup journey map exercise, I could visualise the ups and downs of my projects and find out the points in time where I’m stuck and which experiments I thought were the most exciting and key moments in my progress.
Side note: I found Sadhna’s & Aimee’s journey maps super cute as they even added in their emotional icons alongside the progress :)
Materials?
The Roboarm case study that Andreas showed in class motivated me to think about the process behind my prototype as I got to understand how the case study evolved throughout the different stages of prototype development and the tools used to create the prototypes, from a mockup held up by tape, to wood prototypes, to laser cutted acrylics. I started to think about how my current experiments could improve, what materials can I use to refine and polish the aesthetics of the prototype?
THREE CASE STUDIES
FROM THE BOOK →
PRINTING THING: VISIONS AND ESSENTIALS FOR 3D PRINTING
Firstly, I found this project called ‘Nervous System Colony Experiments’, which I was curious about mainly because of its colour usage, but something Aimee noticed was its 3D form and how its invertedly extruded which can create a very interesting texture.
Secondly, from Matthew Plummers-Fernadexz’s Disarming Corruptor, this case study captured my attention because this was basically what I wanted to try out for the digital aspect of the 3D data object which is to create a digitized version of the data object but with an additional interactive factor to facilitate the generative nature of the project.
Lastly, what I liked about Driessens & Verstappen’s Accretor project, was how intricate the 3D printing was, for my data object I was wary of how complex the design could be as I had not 3D printed before and wasn’t sure if something highly detailed could be configured by the printer. But seeing this project kind of takes away that wariness and makes me want to explore manipulating the texture of the object’s surface to amplify the touch and feel of the object. Also, it was described by the author in this project the use of generative power through accretion to create these acrylic resin, which I thought was interesting and somewhat connected back to my research on leveraging generative tools to create identities.
Also while chatting with Ellie about our progress throughout the week, she also gave me some pointers on my current exploration into 3D data objects. As she was quite skilled in the area of 3D design, I consulted her on how I could link p5.js and a 3D file and transition between them, and she showed me how p5.js actually has the ability to upload obj. files so I simply had to save my blender file as obj. to use them.
Additionally, when we were looking at the PRINTING THING: VISIONS AND ESSENTIALS FOR 3D PRINTING book–specifically Driessens & Verstappen’s Accretor project, Ellie mentioned how the roughness of the texture shown in the book looked visually interesting and could work for my data objects as it could symbolise another aspect of the identities–which was something I thought of working towards for my 3D models so this suggestiong really encouraged me to move further with improving my current works!
When discussing the concept of visualising voices, Ellie brought up the idea of pet personality, where the voices of our pets could be visualised for us to read and understand. I thought this was a refreshing take on what we define as voices, as the term is so commonly used to describe something that is human, so I haven’t thought about what ‘voices’ could mean for other things.
On the other hand, Ariel found that the texture showed in the Accretor project looked like something made of conductive sand, hence she suggested that the ‘object’ could be sand that could form the shape when a magnet is nearby–which I thought was a pretty cool suggestion as I never thought of using sand as a material to experiment with.
I'm glad to have received two differing opinions and ideas from peers as it really shows a different perception of what could be explored and done for my project. These ideas showed me interesting possibilities and opportunities that I could try out!
Dimensional
Personality
Test App
Ellie introduced to me this app called Dimensional Personality Test which she uses on a regular basis, which kind of shocked me as I didn’t think that a personality test could be a tool that is constantly being used. This app uses personality+data science to create a unique personality Signature for each user. Personality signatures are then used to power hyper-personalized guidance.
Another thing that Ellie shared with me was that this app allows its users to connect with friends and compare themselves through their personality traits etc, which I thought was really insightful as this app clearly executed the theory of collectivism in identities (where one identifies with others who share commonalities to form an online community). The connected network of friend groups in this app then creates these online communities that withhold the collective identities of users.
After reading up on this app’s brand story and mission, I felt that it was quite in line with what I was trying to explore with my digital tools as its key focus surrounds the building of ‘signatures’ through personality traits and the relationships between users, which is similar to what I’m researching in my dissertation as well.