Beyond Colon Right Paren » Capstone

Talking it Out

admin — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:31:03 +0000

So after another week in capstone, I don’t have too much to report on from a standpoint of grabbing more materials, but I was able to talk at great length with many different people about what I would like to do for my capstone, which has helped me to get to move forward, even though I felt like I lost a lot of steam this past week.

Results from Talking

My peers in the HCI/d program were extremely helpful in helping me to look at different aspects and far reaching-ness of the totality of cosplay and self-expression. I was suggested to maybe look at how people dress their avatars and try to make sense of how that maps to real life clothing. Some suggested to just take a look at what people are wearing and see what aspects of their personality are found in their expression of their clothes. I was also asked to see how the DIY culture can be found in cosplay and maybe discover something in that realm. I plan also looking into exemplars like the gap app for the iphone which help one to see what they will dress like with certain clothes on.

A repeating concept that was suggested was to look into how people form their own identities through their clothing and their actions, and I’ll be definitely looking into that. I was also referred to more websites and groups online who practice modding their own clothes, and I would like to see how those actions help to create whom the person is. I’ll also take a look at spyn, and the history of quilting as well to see how the story is embedded within each of our clothes. I was also reminded that some cosplayers like to have many different costumes, and to see why and how people choose the different costumes they choose to make and wear.

BUT…

This past week I also got in touch with some of my friends who are actually cosplayers. They are extremely good people and are quite willing to talk to me about cosplaying. So, I starting talking to them about how it was to dress in costume and then go to cons, and I found out something extremely interesting: while in costume, the cosplayer feels the need to be sociable, but is quite intimidated when around certain spectators at the con. This is the start I needed, and now feel the need to start researching and designing!

Protip: talking to actual people whom you care for in your design will help you substantially.

So, a Mini Elevator Pitch

Here’s a crack at it:

Cosplayers are a group of people who like to dress up in their favorite gaming and anime characters’ costumes. One of the places they go to express their love of anime and gaming is cons (conventions). While there, they feel the need to be sociable to the spectators and other participants, but there is a reluctance to talk and reach out to other people at the con. What I would like to do for my capstone is to take a look at the process of cosplay, the con life, and to see if there is a way to help vocalize this love to others who share the love of anime and gaming.

In order to do this, I plan on researching the self, costuming, the process of cosplay, the con life, and how the con changes the “game”. In order to do this, I plan on taking an ethnomethodological approach to studying the cosplayer and the con, by utilizing ethnographic observations, contextual inquiries, participatory design, focus groups, and experience sampling. Ideally, I would like to be able to go to a con to try out my tool to help vocalize the cosplayer, but if not, I’ll at least try and get a holistic view of their world through interviews and such.

I would like to attempt to make my submission eligible for the student research competition at CHI, hoping to represent the human-centeredness and practical approaches our program has to offer.

The Journey Continues

admin — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:37:26 +0000

And so another week continues and capstone class is again here for us to talk intelligently about our ideas and we want to do for the rest of the academic year at IU HCI/d. Here’s a summary of what has happened this week:

Reflecting On Last Week’s Work

Last week, I took the chance to do some exploring out on the internet for costumes and also for what fantastical types of interaction there are out there. In terms of costume shopping, I found that the experience isn’t the same of buying a costume as it is if one makes it. This was echoed in my discussions with Matt, Matt, Rachel, and Binaebi. Also, I found out that there is pretty much no stopping our imagination when it comes to making interesting and unique interactions, and the field enjoys pushing this type of boundary. Knowing that, I went to dig in further this week.

The 10 Min. What I Want/Email Exercise

I am about to also perform the 10 minute email exercise that was discussed in capstone class last week. Beware, as I probably won’t stop myself in around 10 minutes, and it will be pretty much just one long epic run-on sentence. So here we go:

So what is it that i really want from the whole year of capstone – i really would like to be able to come up with some sort of design that the cosplayers whom i would like to get to know would be able to take and utilize rightr away – i would also like to be able to document the process and the overall strucutre of wht i did in some sort of academic way to be able to try to get it submitted to a conference, or at least the student chi competition, as i wanted to get a chance to try it ever since i saw the submission from last year. Knowing that, i would like to not only look at cosplayers, but i also wanted to look at fashoin and harajaka to b e able to see what makes people tick when it comes to their clothing – i really really would like to be able to link self-expression with clothing, and also culture as well, as all of these pretty mch impact the choices we make when we are picking out the clothers we wear every day. also i would like to take a look at what these clothes have to say about us – a kind of semiotics of clothing, to see what our clothers are really saying about us. for example, when i walk down the street, people are making quick value judgments about me based upon how i look walk and talk. what if we could change this interaction to have our clothing say what we really want us to know about each other, and possible engage in new types of conversations with people as well. i would also like to be able to equip people with a means of expression through the clothes, kind of in a DIY style, to allow people to not only have their clothes say what they want to say, but to actually have people fullly in control of what they want their clothes to say. i believe there is something empowering about the clothes we wear, and i would like to see if we can find a way to augment people’s feelings towards their clothes through technology. i would also like to see what cultural factors impact people’s decisions on what to wear – for example, why is it that only at cons or on halloween are we allowed to dress up in costumes? what does this say about americans, out culture, and what our culture is implicilty putting pressure on us to do? is there a way we can draw out the inner and darker sides of people so that we aren’t afraid any more of sticking out – kind of like the mask and stanley ipkus – the mask brings out what our inner demons and passions are. what if there was a safe way to allow this for not only cosplayers, but for everyone else as ewll>? what will this say about the nature of being a fan? will people find and create fans from what their inner demons are? i don’t know, but i would love to find out – and at least i would feel better engaging in what i always keep away from people will at least help me to come to terms with what i want to grow up and grow out of this experience, even if at the very least i get to practice research and writing for the academic audience at large. it seems to me that everything comes back to what our inner voices and they have been reduced to only being engaged with in certain environments. if we can find ways to have people get in touch and release their voice to the world, i think i would be pretty happy with the result. i also would like to see if we can just get people to engage with each other as well through the costumes that we wear, i think that’ll help to channel their love of television, movies, anime, video games, etc into a tangible form that will get people to be able to talk to each other, as it is harder to do in such a tech-centered and internet heavy society.

So where do we go from here?

I guess that’s the uncertainty and fun of design. I’ve got some leads, and probably will feel better after getting a chance to talk this out with more people (Marty and such) and seeing how they react and cause me to think on my toes. Also, I’ve gotten some people to be referred to for their knowledge on modding clothes and psychology. I know I’ll use them to help me refine my scope even more.

I was also referred to the LJ community “T-Shirt Surgery”, and I think I’ll be trying to follow the wisdom they have to offer. You can find them here. I also found another awesome cosplay blog and site, and will definitely do my best to scrounge some money to buy the magazines for real – even if I can’t read it in Japanese, I hope to figure it out – not only for class, but for myself. It’s called Cosmode, and you can find it here.

I’ll also do my best to stay on the optimalist side of the world, as it can be very easy to get to the perfectionist way of thinking. It is very easy to get concerned with how the end result is, but I guess the important thing to remember is that as long as I get to try this out and feel out the design process itself here, even though it’s going to get uncomfortable (as most likely I’ll be dealing with many females, and hit many different snags along the way). But here’s hoping. And also here’s hoping that I can be able to talk eloquently about it.

Did Some Sketching

I also took some time to just sketch out some quick ideas regarding my topic space. Please take a look and see what you find and interpret from these. My personal liking so far is the Edward Hair, using the inspiration from the movie Twilight, and all of our heckles and trolls among our class the past year.

Any comments you can give will be quite helpful!

The Beginning Search

admin — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:54:35 +0000

So the past week I started to develop a beginning search on what spacifically to tackle within my design space: cosplay. It’s fun, and it’s just awesome. So here’s a news report as to what I did this past week – it’s written in note-ish form, so have fun with it!

It started with a conversation…

Here’s the results of a starting of a conversation with the professors at IU’s HCI/d program. There’s a lot to start with! Below is some more musings about what I could be doing and what I have done with the past week. It’s not too pretty, either, but it’s a start…

Window Shopping on the Web

http://www.cosplayhouse.com/

– This was an interesting place to window shop, as they sell everything, along with having commissions and convention schedules
http://www.cosplaymagic.com/
– they sell costume packages, but also include video game and comic book characters as well
http://www.dream-angels.net/
– they sell everything, commission costumes, auction, wigs, and even contact lenses!
http://www.cosaru.com/ This site didn’t appear to have that much to offer, but it also had more costumes of female characters, which doesn’t necessarily mean all of the customers are female.
http://www.harajukustyle.net/cosplay.htm I really feel this site knows what it is talking about. After engaging with this site, I want to save up money and go shopping for these clothes – they are bloody awesome! As a side note: in Japan they congregate around harajuku and cosplay for fun, where they mix and match different sets of styles.
http://www.qqcosplay.com This site sold many different costumes. I was impressed by the breadth of the selection offered – and it’s also from China as well!
http://www.solgoo.com/index.php This site didn’t have too much selection, and it also appears the community that was here has left.
http://www.cosplaylab.com/This was a great and awesome site. There’s a real community here, and has lists of cons to go to! One could see how experienced they were!
http://www.mooncostumes.com/pcat/Cosplay This site felt rather generic and business-y, and didn’t spend too much time there.

Internet blogs

I also began to start looking for blogs of people who cosplay, and here’s what I found so far: (looks like I lost a couple of them)

http://rayearthblue.wordpress.com/She makes her own costumes and goes to cons, and the pictures up there are superbly-well done. This leads me to wonder if and how cosplayers communicate at all, other than at cons?

Other pieces of awesomeness

Japan’s Akihabara district -otaku central, big cosplay area
– so why and how did this become socially acceptable to do so in this area?
Activities done while cosplaying – example, cosplay chess? Can something be designed to help promote fun and more interactions while in costume?

A big thought on my mind

For me, and my experiences in my life, I have constantly been reminded of how “the clothes make the man”. From a philosophical standpoint, I would also like to engage in developing peoples’ worth through their clothing and their actions. As a student, I don’t have too many nice clothes, so I don’t look like a scholar or a designer, and so I get treated in that way. What do you think?

Beginning to get inspired through watching YouTube

Whole Body Interaction

One of the topic realms I am thinking about exploring possibly

http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1165754.1165756&coll=Portal&dl=ACM&CFID=51498073&CFTOKEN=58045101

http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1242073.1242209&coll=Portal&dl=ACM&CFID=51498073&CFTOKEN=58045101

http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1459359.1459438&coll=Portal&dl=ACM&CFID=51498073&CFTOKEN=58045101