Week 9 The Australian Time Bomb- Prof. Tom Barker

"Humour is the enemy of authority..."


Barker explored the challenges Australia will face over the coming decades. Globally, Australia was the weathiest country per head from 1900-the early 80s. Barker puts the decline down to australian-ness and poor leadership.


The lecture argued that Australia could be a massive advantage to the Asian production market however the prime ministers from the 70s have ignored the possibility of such a notion. Barker calls this Australian-ness...democracy, the "lucky country" and selfish policies.


The many issues explored include; "Australia's;...isolation, protectionism, indigenous extinction, immigration restrictions, introspection, lack of infrastructure...which all combine to create the Australian timebomb".


For the future generations of designers, Barker suggests E-EVERYTHING... and the Internet is a good start for this. He believes it is important to access and harness the web as there lies many global opportunities.


"What is now proved, was only once imaged"- Blake

Group Work

Our group developed a semi-concrete idea this week which will allow us to go into the interactive lab and start playing with MAX and various sensors. We strengthened the concept of an interactive transport hub, and have begin to explore the relationship between the effects of alcohol on individuals with interactive projections. We are currently thinking along the lines of developing projections which are engaging and entertaining and may lower the amount of alcohol consumption by offering users something else to do.


We have now realised our group needs to focus on what we aim to target with these projections, and how they may solve the prevailing issues with the problem space. We are going to spend the week brainstorming and sharing ideas.








The LightScraper- Victoria, Australia


Featuring real-time 3D graphics and a human motion tracking system, this structure is a vortex of visuals and sound feeding off its surroundings. The LightScraper also serves as a musical instrument, emitting melodies influenced by the people’s locations.

 This is a current example of an interactive system which allows people to interact with it...pretty cool!

References:

Light Scraper: http://nait5.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/eness-lightscraper07.jpg