Creating a Night

From all the information gathered, I have used elements of the 5 men to create a night that I will base the simulation around. This includes the events and the different senses involved.

1. Getting ready – 7:00pm

Smell- Aftershave

Hear- Television in the background

Feel- Hair wax

2. Get a taxi to the pub

Smell- Car air freshener

Hear- Radio

Feel- N/A

3. Arrive at the pub, meet mates

N/A

4. At the bar, start drinking beer

Smell- Beer

Hear-Chatting, background music and fruit machines

Feel- Sticky surface (bar)

5. Fancy a bag of crisps

Smell-Crisps

Hear- Chatting and background music

Feel- Crumbs and grease from inside the bag

6. Continue drinking  

Smell - Beer

Hear-Chatting, karaoke

Feel- Sticky surface (bar)

7. Chatting up a girl

Smell- Perfume

Hear- Talking to a girl, background music

Feel- N/A

8. Move onto sprits

Smell-Spirits (whisky)

Hear-Chatting and karaoke

Feel- Sticky surface (bar)

9. SHOTS!

     Smell- Shot (Sambuca)

Hear- Chatting and karaoke

Feel- Sticky surface (bar)

10. Leave pub, get a kebab

Smell-Food, kebab

Hear- Chatting and cooking

Feel- Grease

11.Taxi home- 12:00am

Smell- Car air freshener

Hear- Radio

Feel- N/A

12. At home, be sick

Smell- Nasty smell (resembles sick)

Hear- N/A

Feel- N/A

Gathering Research

I will ask 5 men between the ages of 18-30 on what their typical pub night out may involve. 

Attached is the questionnaire I used.

Men's Night Out

Traditionally men are the main sex to go the pub, even though today there are equal amounts of woman and men in pubs, I will base the simulation around a typical men’s night out.  Also I feel the age range 18-30 would be best suited,  as they may have a larger range of events throughout the night, whereas older men may only go for a couple of pints.

I will be getting research on the structure and events of the night from men who fit this category. Alongside what happens on a night out, I will find out the different senses used on each event (what can you hear, smell, feel, and see).

Answering Questions

Looking back on the questions:

1. Does the work have a real-world context? Yes, I have chosen to base the simulation around a pub experience.

2. Is it an intervention, a performance, a service? It is intervention but could also be a service, if this simulation was to be mass produced it would be sold as a stay at home pub experience  and can be used repeatedly instead of actually going out. 

3. What constitutes experience?  Drinking alcohol and socialising.

4. How can you artificially replicate it? I will look at trying to replicate the different senses used during the night out e.g. smells of beer.

5. Is it a single participant or a group? The idea of the simulation is if you are alone so it will be designed for a single participant.

6. Is it public or private? It would be a private simulation as it would be designed to be used at home.

Group Crit 1

In a group tutorial I weighed up the pros and cons of both ideas.

Idea 1

Pros:

·         Fun

·         Problem solver for not being able to actually go out. E.g. tight on money, too lazy or nobody to go with

Cons:

·       Too expensive to create

·        Flat image of the space on the app.  If a video was used instead, the movement would not be controlled by the user

Idea 2

Pros:

·         Could re-experience what you can never actually go through again

·         Use of  different senses

Cons:

·       Could end up being cliché and tacky, as the sounds can be similar to 70’s hippy relax music, whereas my intentions where more serious

·       No access to workshops over the majority of the project time, an issue when experimenting and creating

As both ideas had pros and cons, I will mix elements of both ideas together to create simulation. 

·         Fun element of a social place (Pub) - idea 1

·         The user having to use all their senses - idea 2

Initial Ideas

1.       Simulation of being at social public places when you’re alone, e.g. pub.

Headphones playing sounds from the place, goggles displaying what you would see when there. (There is an app on the iPod/ ipad (360 Panorama) where you can capture an area then view it elsewhere; when the iPod/ipad is turned more of the space you can see).

2.        Giving experiences that a lot of people cannot have, cannot remember and will never get again, e.g. being in the womb. Creating an installation of the inside of a woman’s womb, able for a single participant to climb in and take the foetus position.
The use of senses would be a big part of the simulation, Sound, Feel (temp and amount of space), vision.   

Questions

Below are some questions I should consider and will aid me to create a simulation? I will refer back to these questions when designing.

1.       Does the work have a real-world context?

2.       Is it an intervention, a performance, a service?

3.       What constitutes experience?

4.       How can you artificially replicate it?

5.       Is it a single participant or a group?

6.       Is it public or private?