Simulator Documentations : Mood alteration through space

Simulator Documentation from Chayapat on Vimeo.

Here is a video where a player is tested. The simulator is testing on "Mood Alteration Through Space" with the use of the program called Unreal Development Kit (UDK) use in gaming design. The UDK is a very powerful program in a sense that it allows us player to move in the space created in realtime action. Each path has a distinct characteristics which tends to give you different mood.The 3 elements which has great effects on people which that are chosen are Sound, Light, and Dimension. The simulator is designed as a diagram. The top diagrams shows the different path the player can take and how they are physically different. The bottom diagram shows where light and sound comes in and where you will encounter them in the simulator.

This is the diagram showing the composition of my simulator, how it works, and how I document.

The simulator is projected onto a black wall of 3mx3m. The player will put on the headphone and move through space via a controller.

The feedback I was given is that the space created in the UDK turns out to be unpleasant due to the limited spectrum and that will not be suitable for an up coming project to design a shopping mall. The direction I am heading to now is to aim for ways to explore and attracts people.

Capriccio Sketch

Participant starts the journey without mood or experience represented by the white box. Each color lines represents individuals experienceing the space while each person has their own decision of what they would see next. In the end, each person will have different opinion and feelings towards their own sequence and what they have experienced.

Manifesto: Sequential Experience by Mood Alteration Through Space

How a place or space gives you “mood” can hardly be describe with just few sentences. People receive spatial information from the surrounding and spatial information in this sense is what the space and its elements together contribute to make certain mood. The stronger the imposition of that spatial information, the strong impact it has on a person. There are so many variables that contribute to have impact on a person’s experience ranging from a slightest change in light to physically dimensional closure. Of course the mood are subjective to each individuals, but majority of people would receive similar spatial information.

Mood itself is just part of an experience and can be varied along the journey so the question is “What makes up the overall experience?” There is a big difference of how people experience space motionless and sequentially because the aspect of a sequence requires changes, and changes can be by choice or fixed. It is much more interesting for people to choose than to let them walk by our foot steps so that they can have their own sequential experience.

In order to transmit the right spatial information, we need to know the elements that created them. A space with lots of design elements would give you many moods but a space with lesser design elements can really control the spatial information imposed. The exploration of the experience of mood alteration through space is done through the use of selected samples of the design elements such as dimension, light, and sound. These elements are chosen and put into sequence to create the most interactive and powerful spatial information along the journey.

The variety of choices of paths, inscribe with intended spatial information, can be taken in any sequence and that will alter the mood of a person. The exploration does not only explore the mood alteration impacted by space but also explores the whole experience individuals get from choosing their own sequential experience.

Sequence Experimentation

Breaking elements in space that could create emotion into individual and putting them into sequence to test what experience they project.

Light

Ground Light

Dimension

Color

Material

Texture

Pattern - small change

Pattern - extreme change

Manisfesto : Sequencial experience (draft)

Nowadays, people are lazy because of the growth of technologies that are available in life. People see and experience things on screens with just a single click in your laptop. But does that experience really real, or is it just things subjected to you? When we plan a trip to foreign country, we look up for places to stay and where to visit in the net. The decisions on choosing a hotel will commonly be judge on pictures of the lobby, bedroom, or bathroom available. After you choose the hotel and booked them, you have that subjective thought in you about that hotel experience. It would be fun, it would be amazing, it would be nice and what so ever but when you actually visited the place, do you always feel the same as when you are booking the hotel?

This example clearly show that there are certain limits of information a picture or a video can give you and this raises the question “Does spaces also has limits?” Does the mind function better with 5 senses turned on rather then 2?

I have done researches and case studies on how certain type of space can triggers certain emotions. Mostly they are all combination of design elements put together to create specific reactions. Some may require narration before hand to make the experience work in that space or some may require interaction with object or people to create atmosphere. So what I am interested in is the essential role of the space itself? Can space on its own triggers emotion? And how far does the space need to go in order to make you feel?

The intention of the simulator is to search for the “limit” of the space. The simulator will be taken some of the elements for designing emotional space to the extreme for the test on how far a controlled space should go in order transmit the intended message and for the participants to give reaction.

In order to do so, they simulator needs to be program in a routine of experiential test consisting of test in closure, test in visual, and test in sound. Each test will have specific time duration predicted for a response. The simulator operate by letting the participant stand in the middle of a white empty box unnoticed of what happening next. The first test is the closure test where the moveable walls will lean on the participant, creating discomfort at certain moments. The second test will be the test in hearing. Again the participant will stand in the middle of the box while the speaker in different level plays a sound. This test will be dividing into two sets, low to high frequency, and quiet to loud. The last test will be on visual where the room will be lit off. Then the projector will start projecting images in sequence fast to slow to test at what speed the participant can understand the sequence. Different people will have wide range of emotional responses so the simulator will record the response from the participants with specification of time.

Simulator First Idea

This is the first idea of the simulator where the purpose was to test the limits of a person by a changing space. The simulator would consist of 3 test. The participant would stand in the center of the box as marked.

The first test is the "Closure" test, with walls collapsing at you but would make you no harm to see at which specific angle would make the person feel uncomfortable.

The second test is the" Hearing" test, with different positioning,  volume and pitch of the sound, how does certain sound create certain response.

The third test is the "Visual" test. The room will be projected with text spinning around the room at different speed to see at which speed they will get the message.