Week 9 – Hank Haeusler’s Lecture: “Media Facades: History, Technology and Media Content”

Our 7th lecture in the subjects series was conducted by Hank Haeusler. He talked about the roles of the media in current contemporary urban environments, whilst also paralleling to the possibilities that could be conducted by the media.

Integrating media facades into the urban environment, completely changes our relationship with and within it. This connection between the city and the citizens, is something we have certainly seen and dwelt on in LAB 8: Augmented Reality. How an additional information layer gives the user a sixth sense. That the exposure to AR environment and/or technology increases the environments “usability” and enhancing ones environment to suit an individuals specific needs/wants/desires. The world can be viewed through a specific lens that is tailored to who is using it. As mentioned by Hank the urban environment may involve a dynamic interface via this ‘media facade’ – he mentioned films such as blade runner (which I sadly still have not seen) and minority report (i have that one covered, don’t worry) as predicting this interface.

Haeusler looked into the issue of contextual and environmental issues which surround a media facade. Screen technology now enables size/resolution to no longer be a factor. As we see in our class, one of the library groups (not ours) have taken advantage of such technologys and wish to create an screen which surrounds a large chimmney like tower outside the library. Something to consider though is whether this is always appropriate, in the above case it is but you have to explore if the chosen technology is unified and integrated into the surroundings.

Another really interesting point made by Haeusler was the comment about our constant bombardment of Hi-Res images/screens, that perhaps a screen interface that provides something else, such as a duo-tone mechanical cards or lightbulbs, will stand out more and perhaps be something worth stopping for in a world of high-res images.

This was a great lecture for us to apart of, not just LAB 8; but all the design disciplines. As it displayed the importance of how digital technology is becoming an integral part of all. It is instantaneous and allows our reading/understanding of a city or environment to be expanded.

Unfortunately I had a meeting for work, but it was AR related (Will talk about later in the post). I had made my group aware that I would not be in, but that I would be on emails. They advised me we received additional feedback from our Interim:

• Narrow our concept, perhaps to focus on the social aspect of our application.
• Develop our visual’s to make them more engaging and easier to read. This is where visual information and infographic research was of high importance to developing our own.
• Simplicity was the key, but personable would also be a rating of it’s success.

This was great information given, and something that we had at the forefront of our minds to creating the final concept, it’s structure and interface. The meeting I was at was really interesting, and one that was very similar to what we are studying in LAB 8. I work for one of the big 4 banks, I believe I have mentioned the name previously but I won’t in this post, as an intern. My ears pricked up when a colleague of mine said he was attending a meeting with a digital company which specialised in AR. I asked whether or not it would be appropriate from myself to attend and he was more than happy for me to come along. It was a free lunch and a pitch about how we could blow CommBank’s Reality App out of the water (mentioned earlier in the posts). It was definitely very interesting and it was great to be on the other side of a pitch. They gave some great example of existing AR, yet it was not one’s they had created. I also will not mention who the company was, but I felt like they were underprepared, and so did my colleagues. I raised questions that this class had help me formulate and deepen my knowledge of. It certainly impressed my colleagues and I was even able to pick a few holes in the pitch. But overall it was great experience and it was interesting to see other opinions of what AR is and how it’s absorption into the broader public will occur.

If I hadn’t had chosen this subject then I certainly would not have even been interested in attending this specific meeting, and I am so glad that I was able to actually hold my own within this meeting – not being the simple intern. Thanks Kier and Ian