User:Mirjam Dissel/interim assessment

Project description

I'm making a machine that allows the user to make associations that lie deep within them; these are personal for each user.
The machine looks like some sort of box with a computer screen in it, operative by a number of buttons. It uses a slot machine mechanism and has 4 columns of random images set up, instead of lemons, apples or pears. The row of chosen images have a meaning. The images will come from scraped data, as random as possible to ensure free association.
By giving the subject boundaries I force them to make associations. They can change the images in the set by spinning the wheels. Here the theory of free association by Freud comes in once more. One lets things pass and accumulate for a bit and then the ideas get assessed. Like a collage a set is collected that is meaningful to him.

After this the user writes the topic of the set (a name, a sentence, a thought) and names the individual cards and then prints them. This gives me a peek into their inner self, into their mind and brain. On the table next to it, people can play the quartet (go fish) game they have just printed out and mix their decks and interpret each other's sets.

What will I do with the data collected? The topic will become the title of an encyclopedia page. The images will be superimposed, and will then become a page in the encyclopedia in which each page reflects a personal association.

My aim therefore is collecting different types of results, whether it will be personal results based on experiences from people, or something they associate through popular culture, current events, etc.

Example of previous work where I superimposed multiple scans of a collective of people's work.


"The World Explained". Example of an encyclopedia seen from a microhistoric perspective. With personal theories on distant subjects. By Erick Beltràn, Tropenmuseum 2012

• technical description and thus to do??

--Some choices I want to make clear, why it is important I made exactly these choices or why the project is developed in this specific way.--

From Leslie's email: Demonstrate why the choices you made at this point support your intention. If necessary express your doubts and issues that you are facing regarding these choices

• justify choice of using slot machine regarding tutors' doubts.
• justify choice of using quartet game. same reason as above. sets boundaries for user in order to force free association. it's an incentive to use the machine, to use it in a playful way with rules you are already familiar with, and are not obstructed by forcing yourself, the game does it for you. the two mechanisms have exactly what i'm looking for to force association, they have a strict taxonomy and allow people to create a narrative with images. by putting new images into this format, automatically you see them in this taxonomy, on the same level, and you start to look for links between them. you start to associate all on your own.
• justify the need for physicality, has everything to do with what I'm investigating: memory, remembering. It's important to have a token.
• talk about encyclopedia. how did it come about, why does it match my methodology and how will it be incorporated in the project.

Demonstration

• demodemodemopygame

What will it look like?

What is the thesis about?

• thesis abstract + intro which talks about what I want to get out of the thesis, a sort of explanation of my project (go deeper into project description, extension of this. like mind/brain translates to scientific/psychological approaches to association), that gives it the right to exist.