Our First Project - 2012

So basically we were thrown right in the deep end with this project, we have been given the task of making something either based on a network (like the internet for example),  that looks into information surrounding a particular network or just creating an entirely new network all together. Personally I like the sound of delving into the creation of a new network or at least alternative networks to the existing networks we have.

My group for this project had been sorted a week beforehand after being sick that Monday and quickly organising a few people to work with out of fear of being stuck with a terrible group if we were given a brief that day, so basically picked out the people I wanted to work with. Those people were : Tim Haines, Lucy Tang, and Edrian Santiago.

We spent the first half of the week planning what we wanted to do and explored all sorts of different networks, things like biological networks like the circulatory system and how the human body is a centralized network where blood flows because of the heart and without the flow of blood our brain wont function and we die, we looked at creating theoretical pump systems placed strategically in the body to create possible "backup hearts". We also looked at pathogens and disease spreading through networks and the concept of chain reactions through the Rube Goldberg machine. We looked at a few examples of the Rube Goldberg devices including the video below.

Most of these ideas though all seemed to lack the potential to last an entire semester and the group as a whole was really struggling to grasp a concept to create for both parts of the semester ( It didn't help that with a lot of the biological networks we all had very little base knowledge surrounding our ideas). Due to this we decided to push aside these ideas and look at the concept  of creating an alternative network system to the current digital and electronic based networks we have at present.

I had been thinking about creating alternatives to the email and digital communication networks we so easily take for granted, that if we had an electrical shortage for some reason, that whole system would be compromised. I was beginning to think of ways of delivering messages that didn't involve electricity, the obvious hydro and solar power thoughts came to mind as well as air flow but also decided to think a little bit out side the box and look into rocket power!

The project however is going to last a whole semester so the first half of it will be based on justifying the alternate network system, through the use of a short film or documentary highlighting the reliance that modern society has on electrical and digital networks and creating a fictional environment in which there are no longer any digital networks.