I'm Visible

At the outset of this project I was extremely interested in the use of sketch books, and this interest evolved as I came to understand them as a productivity tool having read the "I lie to myself that I have freedom in my own schedule" paper by Leshed et al. One of my initial ideas was that an electronic pen system could digitize the information recorded into sketch books automatically without any need to syncing and serve as the input for a system promoting reflection and collaboration, such as the shooting gallery.

However, during the course of my research I became concerned that not everyone used sketch books in a way that would be conducive to such a system, and that the information recorded under such a system was likely to be lacking in detail, especially in the later stages of a project.

However, the graffiti scrawled throughout the studios caught my attention. A desire to record what I will call shared suffering, has lead a number of students to create a number of informal notice boards of the walls of their studios, including several "Crying Tallies", an "It Could be Worse" board, and a list of "Things You'd Rather be doing". Whilst humorous in nature, their is clearly something in creating these which is supporting the authors moral whilst under pressure. They are accompanied by a large number of quotes, and a huge volume of material relating to projects pinned to the wall for reference.

I began to wonder what would be the outcome if you were to record the input, the act of writing, but move the output, the visible made sign. I'm Visible uses digital pen technology to record writing on a surface, and transpose it elsewhere in the school. Many of the graffiti motifs have responses scrawled beneath them, this system takes the same principle and opens it out to the entire school.

This grants students scope for expressing their frustrations, and enables them to form new interactions with a degree of anonymity. The system could evolve to form dialogues across the school, or even be used as a message service, with students posted requests for help or appealing for ideas relating to a specific field.