NOPE
Some ideas were tossed around, including sticking a vacuum to the bottom of the chair, so when the user sits down, they are uncomfortably stuck. Or perhaps, making a seat out of a fluid that, at rest, looks like a seat cushion, only to surprise the user when they fall into the chair. These ideas were said to start the spirit of creation and experimentation, so for my lunch break between IP classes, I hopped in my car and drove to the Mecca of thrift stores, the Ann Arbor Reuse Center. There I bought:
I mentioned how helpful the critique was today, although it was simultaneously disheartening. Every time I do something, John, Roland, and Camilla all have something to say about it, which is fantastic, but I told Camilla how this is an almost never-ending cycle. She replied that, in her opinion, their critiques were not working well. This theory was based on how the design students in IP are having great difficulty getting started, and she believed that this hesitance was caused by the highly critical nature of not only the IP professors, but also the rest of the faculty in the school. She likened the experience to making vodka. When the students are critiqued before they've had any time to act on their ideas, it's like drinking rotten potato juices and critiquing the flavor. Not enough time for processing has passed for the potato juices to be vodka yet.
While I agree with her in some regards to the paralyzing aspects of being a mouse in the maze, reaching several different dead ends and not knowing where to go next, I also find the critiques very useful. It's also important to remember that there is a very strict timeline for this project, so the sooner people start, regardless of critique, the better. The way I see it, the professors are going to have critical feedback no matter what, and this feedback comes from life experiences that I have not had. It's important to learn from these experiences, but learning from all of them at once can be draining. Therefore, I pick and choose which ones I think most apply in this situation. While I always welcome critique, there will likely come a day when the critique I receive will not be applied to the project, for it will be, in my mind, too late to make changes. Currently, there's really nothing to change for I haven't physically started.
So I shall quickly try to carry out some experiments and get them done as soon as possible. Camilla suggested conscripting some friends to help me emotionlessly poke some couch potatoes and see their reaction. Who knows? Perhaps the poking chair is the way to go. I will put that idea on the shelf for the moment and go out to play. It will always be on that shelf if I need to come back to it at a later (but soon) date.
Checklist
um... get back to me on that.
Working On:
Physical Experimentation
To Do:
Grant Proposal (7 of November)
Dean Advisory Committee "Luncheon" (8 of November)