Final project for Intro to Physical Computing, Fall 2012 at the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at NYU's Tisch School of Arts.

1. Voices of the 4.5 Million
A U.S. Housing Crisis Sound Visualization
Thursday, December 13, 12

2. Our Self-posed Challenge
Tell the story of the US housing crisis by marrying the
data to the personal stories
Thursday, December 13, 12

3. Concept
Create an installation that visualizes and sonifies
(soundualizes?) home foreclosure data using bubbles
marbles beans, and plays stories from homeowners who
have been affected by crisis
Bring the personal and the big numbers together, to give
both pieces of information meaning...
Thursday, December 13, 12

4. Initial Design
User interface is a
table with bags of
beans, each containing
the representative
volume of a state’s
foreclosures since the
housing crisis began
~January 2007
Homeowner stories
correlating to the
selected state will play
when the beans pass
through the funnel
Thursday, December 13, 12

5. Revised Design
Feedback led us to
redesign interface as
simply the user moving
the beans via scoop
Also, redesigning the
system as two rotating
arms, that drop the
beans down when full.
These will act as
triggers to play the
homeowner stories
Thursday, December 13, 12

6. Sketch Model
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7. Thursday, December 13, 12

8. Second Sketch Model
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9. Acrylic Model
Turns out... this is a
catapult
Thursday, December 13, 12

10. Inspired by Shishi-Odoshi Fountain Model
Ugly chipboard, but
open body allows
contents to self-
adjust balance
Thursday, December 13, 12

11. Fountain Model in Action
http://vimeo.com/55056372
Thursday, December 13, 12

12. Record homeowner stories
Alongside the design development, we as a team researched home
foreclosure data and collected homeowner stories from news
interviews and online sources.
Since most of the stories were written, we recorded fellow students
reading these statements for use in the installation.
Thursday, December 13, 12

13. Fountain Model: Final Design?
House funnel at top
receives the beans
Two cantilever arms
act as triggers for
the homeowner
stories when they
turn
Receiving bucket at
end
Front View Side View
Thursday, December 13, 12

14. After building final model... Dumfounded panic
Beans, beans
everywhere
Thursday, December 13, 12

15. Another Revision: Back to the first design
Parts from the ‘final
model’ design were
repurposed, with
<36 hours to
deadline!!!
Thursday, December 13, 12

16. Real Final Design
Thursday, December 13, 12

17. Beautification
Within the theme
of homes: a cozy
kitchen look
New trigger
mechanism for
Picture frame homeowner stories
contains name of are two flex
project and data sensors, hidden in
reading the bends of the
chute
Pyrex measuring
cup receives the “Recipe cards” with
beans additional data
Thursday, December 13, 12

18. Thursday, December 13, 12

19. Thursday, December 13, 12

20. Thursday, December 13, 12

21. Final Installation Video
http://vimeo.com/55451743
Thursday, December 13, 12

22. Final Installation
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23. Lessons Learned
A big lesson was: focus on the story, don’t waste too much time
on the mechanism.
It’s about what you say and not (always) how you say it.
Thursday, December 13, 12

24. Next Steps
Were we to continue...
- Partner with an organization that could provide access to real
homeowner voice recordings and detailed data at the quarterly,
annual, and even state-level data
- Create an interface that allows users to choose points of
comparison (ex. Florida in 2006 vs. 2010)
- Design a mechanism that will take that input and automate the
dispensing of beans at accurate amounts
- Re-design the way that homeowner stories are played, so that it
is easier to focus on listening to just one story at a time
Thursday, December 13, 12