Singing FIngers from MIT Media Lab's Lifelong Kindergarten
Here, designers Eric Rosenbaum and Jay Silver at MIT have created a downloadable app. for the iPad and iPhone that is just pure fun and allows people to create soundscapes even if they have no particular musical ability! I was reminded of Donald Norman's response when he saw the "Juicy Salif" for the first time - I too said, "Wow, I want it." This was my simple visceral response to the video's promise! In this case, it doesn't have to have a utilitarian aspect to it. However, in the creators' words,
"We see Singing Fingers as a step toward the next big cultural transformation, putting all the power of recording, playing back, and remixing, literally at the tip of the finger for the most improvisational, fluid, sound interface we could come up with. Singing Fingers lowers the floor to let children play with sound as if it was finger paint, and raises the roof by letting advanced DJs break out of the grooves of the records into a world where sounds take any shape you give them and your fingers are like the needles that play the sounds back, with as fine control as your hand will allow."
Now, as well as playing music wherever we go, whenever we want, for as long as we want, we can create our own music or sound compositions while "Music acts as a subtle, subconscious enhancer of our emotional state throughout the day." (Norman p. 119)
As Dr. Stuart Brown writes in his book Play,
At the other end of the fun and games spectrum are, as Norman points out, those video games and/or simulations that embed very realistic and involved story lines that call for a more reflective and cognitive interaction beyond and/or inclusive of the visceral, fun component. I was strongly reminded of this when doing research for my group's project design: I came across a particular use of the virtual reality 'game,' Second Life, in that the user had multiple reasons for 'playing.' After viewing the video below, I got a very different perspective on the use of such environments, whether thought of as a fun game or as a possible way to interact with the world.
"Alice Krueger has severe multiple sclerosis and is unable to walk without the use of crutches. She rarely leaves her home except for trips to see her doctor. In the virtual world of Second Life she leads a radically different existence. Here, she is the avatar Gentle Heron, the co-founder of the Heron Sanctuary - a self-described "support community" for others facing similar situations. In this clip she takes us on a eye-opening tour of her world."
Health Care Blog"This clip was was featured at the Health 2.0 conference on
Web 2.0 technologies in healthcare on March 3-4 2008 in San Diego,"
As Dr. Stuart Brown writes in his book Play,
"For humans, creating such simulations of life may be play's most valuable benefit....we can imagine and experience situations we have never encountered before and learn from them. We can create possibilities that have never existed...can learn lessons and skills without being directly at risk." (p. 34)
For me this is very poignant statement when considering Alice and her virtual friends. Here is where play moves well beyond pure fun whilst retaining its essence. Essentially then, adding fun and motivational elements to a product is actually a serious business with many unforeseeable, but hopefully positive, applications for a user!
However, I do have apprehensions around this blurring of barriers between the real and the virtual, or of distinguishing concepts that differ 'playing' and 'actualizing,' despite such positive and heartening examples that can be found. As Norman writes, "The artificial may cease to be distinguishable from the real." (p. 133) For me this portends unexpected, unforeseen, unpredictable, and unimagined 'as yet' problems in the future.
Hmm, "More Fun Thoughts" indeed!
