The Public Interactive’s Research Team had an amazing time this past August presenting the AIDS Quilt Touch Digital Experience at SIGGRAPH 2015 in Los Angeles. We were honored to be able to show a small part of the AIDS Memorial Quilt to conference attendees. The following is a collection of images found on Twitter via our #pirtsiggraph hashtag that chronicles some of our experience. A special thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth during the event.
The beginning of setting up the booth
The panels before going up
Our booth under construction
Another booth construction picture
AIDS Quilt Touch booth
Red ribbons visitors could take and wear as a symbol of support to the AIDS Quilt
PIRT member Sean Landers documented our experience at SIGGRAPH
Our team on the last day
Taking the booth down
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Hi again, everyone! So the dust on our final day at SIGGRAPH 2015 has settled a little bit but not completely. The team definitely has more to share in summation of our experiences during the show. We’ll be posting those in various forms here over the next few days as they become available. For now, check out a video post from research assistant Sean, featuring myself and Letícia describing our experiences in our booth.
Thursday, August 13th – 1:45 pm PDT
A flurry of activity from the show floor as SIGGRAPH 2015 comes to an end. We’ll be posting more once the dust settles here, and we get everything packed up. Bye for now!
Yesterday we went to the SIGGRAPH’s Animation Festival. We watched two hours of animations, from short movies to game trailers, including pieces of big blockbusters, edited specially to show the visual effects. In an overall reflection, I didn’t see anything particularly impressive. The perfection and beauty of the images are undeniable, however interesting and touching stories were exceptions. What really annoyed me, though, is the lack of representation of people that are not white, male, cisgender, straight, athletic or their romantic interests (objectified skinny white women that are The Standard Beauty and have no personality or will, just serve to the male counterpart). It is 2015, SIGGRAPH and people that make these animations! We need to talk about visibility, representability, and diversity. If VR and CG are supposed to reproduce the reality, why not talk about the real world and its real people of all colors, shapes, genders (or lack of any specific one), expressions, preferences and struggle? I am not even talking about bringing political and social debate into games (yet), for now is just about represent the diversity that the real world is actually about. I feel like the people producing these animations could use a bit of critical theory and/or real world experience in their work.
Thursday, August 13th – 11:05 am PDT
A report from School of Media Studies Dean and principal investigator for the AIDS Quilt Touch Project Anne Balsamo:
Reflections on Bringing the AIDS Memorial Quilt and the AIDS Quilt Touch Project to SIGGRAPH 2015
On the last day of the convention, I reflect on the reception of our project here at SIGGRAPH. Although it will come as no surprise to anyone who has been in the presence of the Quilt, many visitors to our booth were mesmerized by its beauty, scale, and symbolism. Several people returned every day, just to chat or look again. Many people knew nothing about the Quilt and were genuinely open and interested to hear of its history and cultural significance. Many others shared stories of lost loved ones. It was a quiet place for conversation in the middle of a noisy and technology-saturated convention hall. It was, also, the only place to reflect on real experiences that haven’t been designed to distract and amuse. Given the context of SIGGRAPH–one of the largest gatherings of computer graphics professionals–many visitors were intrigued about the interactive Quilt Browser that we displayed on an touch-enabled table. What I observed consistently was that although many visitors may have walked into the booth to see the technology, they stayed because of the Quilt.
Thursday, August 13th – 10:10 am PDT
Good morning and welcome to Public Interactives Research Team’s final day of LiveBlog coverage from our booth at SIGGRAPH 2015 in Los Angeles. I’m your moderator, research assistant David Wilson. It’s been a fascinating week and the team is a bit sad that the show is coming to an end. Today’s coverage will feature a wide variety of posts, from final thoughts and impressions we’ll take away from this experience, to our describing what we saw last night at the SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival.
Approaching closing time, so here’s thanking all of my PIRT colleagues, all of our guests visiting us in our booth, and you for reading! Another day of experiences are now in the (virtual) books. Join us here tomorrow for LiveBlog coverage from the AIDS Quilt Touch Experience booth, the final day of SIGGRAPH 2015. Take care and good night!
Now that we are in our fifth day, we are having new experiences related to being here for an extended period of time. For example, with our guests, we have been looking at the Touch Table a lot, and it is possible to identify the most popular symbols within the digitized quilt blocks: red ribbons, pink triangles, trees and birds are among the favorites. We also saw so many beautiful panels and blocks made with the most diverse materials, like paper, buttons, clothing, and teddy bears. It feels to me that there is always something new and unexpected to discover in the Quilt Touch Table. We also have now some visitors that come back everyday, sometimes more than once a day, to chat, take another look at the Quilt Touch, tell a story or just to hang out with us. We are very glad to have met these amazing people and to get to spend some time with them. It enriches the experience of being at SIGGRAPH.
Wednesday, August 12th – 6:05 pm PDT
We were very fortunate to be visited by a guest who was interested in allowing us to document their specific impressions of our booth and of our technology. They shared some wonderfully insightful information about how our digital presentation worked for them in conjunction with the physical quilts. We were really appreciative that they took the time to share an in-depth account of how our booth affected them. Prior to that, I was visited by a guest who is not from this country and, as I was talking to them, let me know that they did not speak much English. I found myself doing my best to describe how and why the Quilt came into being, and how the Quilt situates itself in a particular time in American history. My guest was drawn deeper into our booth by the Touch Table Browser presentation, then for a closer look at the Quilts, examining each more closely as I shared more details about them in the best way I could. We stood together with the Quilts for a little bit of time, after which they asked to take pictures of them. One of the goals of the AIDS Quilt Touch project is to communicate to the international community who were not of age to remember the initial appearance of the disease in the early 1980’s.
Wednesday, August 12th – 12:30 pm PDT
A continued steady stream of guests into our booth this morning. We’ll be open until 7pm tonight which is the longest day of the conference. Earlier Anne and Angela continued with their audio/video walkthrough of the Quilt panels we have on display with Sean. I’m really excited to see that footage, and will be posting as it becomes available. Dale (one of the principal investigators on the project) is in the booth keeping an eye on the software side of the Touch Table presentation, as well as taking guests on tours of Quilt blocks represented in the browser. Earlier, as I was walking though Hall G, I saw what I think was the conference’s first telepresence visitor. In the spirit of inclusion, it was encouraging to see a guest have that opportunity to experience what is going on here.
Wednesday, August 12th – 10:10 am PDT
A good morning to you from SIGGRAPH 2015! Welcome back to our continuing coverage from the AIDS Quilt Touch Project booth. I’m your LiveBlog moderator David Wilson, research assistant with the Public Interactives Research Team at The New School for Public Engagement, School of Media Studies. We’ve had an amazing time at the show so far. To lead things off for today, a video post from research assistant Sean featuring School of Media Studies Dean and principal researcher Anne Balsamo along with our research faculty Angela Ferriolo, describing the first of the Quilt blocks we are featuring in our booth.
Another great day at SIGGRAPH 2015 is coming to a close. This is David signing off, bye for now!
Tuesday, August 11th – 4:25 pm PDT
A report from PIRT research faculty member Angela:
Slow interaction! One thing I notice about visitors to the quilt, they demonstrate a way of interacting that’s usually hard to facilitate. Rather than going fast and overloading their senses, they move through the interface slowly, as slowly as possible. Nearly all users slow down to what I would call a walking pace, then wander through the quilt in a way that feels very tactile, human. People seem to want a slow experience. They are looking and reading hard. For those who have a more personal connection to the Quilt, memories come back slowly also in continual waves. Learned a lot today, good day.
Part of our mission with the AIDS Quilt Touch is to create increased visibility and awareness of the AIDS Quilt. SIGGRAPH 2015 has given us an excellent opportunity to put the mission into practice. Fairly frequently, people attracted by who-knows-what — the red ribbon, or the really remarkable quilt panels, or just an impulse of ‘what-the-heck-is-this-and-what-is-it-doing-here’ — drift to our booth and request — sometimes timidly, sometimes boldly — “so… tell me about this?”
Some of our visitors are too young to remember the initial impact of the AIDS crisis, and the exhibit gives us a chance to share and discuss the context in which the Quilt was initially created and the role it has continued to serve. Others are visitors from afar who, while they are aware of the AIDS crisis, have never heard of the AIDS Quilt. Some of our visitors, of course, are people who are very aware of the AIDS Quilt and, never having had an opportunity to see it in person, are grateful for an opportunity to be in its presence. Some, arriving on a lark, search our database out of curiosity (“I wonder if so-and-so is here”) and find themselves revisiting the memory of one who has passed.
It has been really wonderful to meet folks who have never heard of the Quilt, and fill them in on the history & context of the quilt. Likewise, it feels like an honor to be able to connect people with the names and memories of their loved ones. In this regard, SIGGRAPH has not only given us a chance to share our really neat suite of apps with the SIGGRAPH community, but also — perhaps just as or more importantly — created new opportunities to spread awareness and fulfill our mission.
Tuesday, August 11th – 12:30 pm PDT
Over the course of the past few days the team is noticing that the 30 Year History of AIDS ChronoZoom presentation doesn’t seem to have the same gravitational pull as the Touch Table Browser. Each are situated on opposite ends of our rather large space. We have many theories as to why our guests don’t seem to be drawn as much to the ChronoZoom presentation presented on our horizontal touch screen, among them is that the interface is not immediately identifiable as a touchscreen. We feel that because in other booths near to ours, a horizontal display usually functions as a video screen showing looped or live video. Our guests, at a first glance, may be perceiving a static video presentation, even though we have a conference sign describing that the horizontal screen is in fact touch receptive. Another theory is that the color template of our presentation may not be as inviting as the aesthetic presentation of the Quilts via the touch table. Here in the booth we’re going to try to tweak the ChronoZoom presentation slightly in order to drive more people towards information given in the presentation.
Tuesday, August 11th – 11:20 am PDT
Pleased to share our first video post by research assistant Sean, a recap of our arrival at the show:
One of the things that has amazed me the most in this experience is the relation people have with the touch table. When they find a Quilt Block they are looking for, most people want to take pictures of it, sometimes in different angles or zoom levels, even being able to access these images in the AIDSQuiltTouch.org website. I think it is so interesting how powerful the Table is, how it is perceived as the “official” digital medium of the Quilt, as the digital materialization of the Quilt; it IS the Quilt, in some way. If it was perceived just as another way to reproduce the Quilt, perhaps people wouldn’t take pictures of it. It’s “worth” taking pictures of because it is official, it represents a powerful material instance. It is fascinating.
Tuesday, August 11th – 10:10 am PDT
Good morning and welcome back to our LiveBlog coverage from SIGGRAPH 2015! The rest of the conference floor opens today so as we walked through the convention hall towards our booth we’re definitely seeing an even larger spike in attendance compared to yesterday. During today’s coverage I plan to focus a little bit on our ChronoZoom presentation, as well as taking a little bit of time to wander around the entire conference while posting my impressions. Last night during the SIGGRAPH reception we had an opportunity to spend a few moments with Greg Panos where we chatted about ways of propelling the digital avatar into the real world. My experience so far has been completely enriching, if not a little bit emotionally exhausting. I value deeply being able to connect with our guests who want to know more about our project, or to discuss a personal connection with the AIDS Memorial Quilt. We are hearing incredible stories from our guests and there have been a few tears shed in the booth. Leticia and Angela are now with one of our first guests of the morning looking over the AIDS Quilt Touch Table Browser, they’ve just found a Quilt block they were looking for after some time searching for it without any specific identifying information. It feels good to be standing up here and representing this project.
A steady stream of visitor traffic into our booth this afternoon (including a surprise visit from my MOM!). We are meeting guests who are learning about the Quilt for the first time, and we’re noticing guests are particularly drawn towards the AIDS Quilt Touch Table Browser, fascinated by the ability to look at the Quilt in its entirety (macro level), or at a panel on an individual (micro) level. We’re hearing more amazing, touching, heartbreaking, and inspiring stories. Getting ready to wrap things up for today in our booth, but we’ll be back shortly for the SIGGRAPH Reception. Keep an eye out for tweets from our team from the SIGGRAPH Reception event around 8pm PDT.
Monday, August 10th – 11:20 am PDT
Definitely a spike in attendance today inside Hall G, which includes more new visitors to our booth. We’re pleased to see some familiar faces from yesterday who’ve stopped by to say hello and share more stories with us. It feels very communal here. We’re showing our guests around the Quilts and also assisting where needed with our guest’s experiencing our technologies. The AIDS Quilt Touch Table Browser looks stunning.
Monday, August 10th – 10:30 am PDT
A post from research assistant Letícia about some of our research methods:
Before coming to SIGGRAPH, the team had a whole plan about how we could use this opportunity to get feedback on the AIDS Quilt Touch Digital Experience interface, and to also measure in some way our guest’s awareness about AIDS and the associated emotional impacts. We prepared some user tests and were ready to use them yesterday. However, after a day of talking to people who have deep emotional connections with the Quilt, some tests looked inappropriate, almost senseless. We are now working on better approach to get feedback, that are consistent with our visitors and their experiences. That is one of the most interesting parts of the research process: being able to plan, experience the situation and modify the approach to be more consistent with your project’s purpose. Grateful for this experience, hope more changes and insights come by the next days!
Monday, August 10th – 9:50 am PDT
Good morning from SIGGRAPH! We are pleased to be joined in the booth by School of Media Studies Dean Anne Balsamo who is one of the principal investigators for our team along with Dale MacDonald. We’re excited to begin our second day of exhibiting, and we’re looking forward to meeting and sharing more stories with those interested in the Aids Memorial Quilt.
Wrapping up things in our booth now. It’s been a great opening day for us. Looking forward to meeting more people tomorrow.
Sunday, August 9th – 3:20 pm PDT
Spending time with conference goers in our booth who have a personal connection with someone commemorated within the Quilt. For me, it’s an extremely powerful experience to listen to their stories. The Quilt elicits strong emotions, and through our initial interactions with people I’m beginning to understand how our technologies enhance the Quilt beyond the communal act of being together bonded by a common cause. Our mobile app has been an interesting source of engagement with those who come into our booth. In addition to those who are looking for someone specific, it’s served as a launching point of discussion. People want to know how it works and are interested in what software is supporting the meta-data that is available within the digital representation of the Quilt. Many of our visitors want to know about the entire process of how a physical Quilt block comes to be represented in a digital form. Some want to talk about the social aspects of the Quilt and how it came into being within the political climate of United States in the 1980’s. In that context, one visitor described the Quilt as strongly oppositional but somehow also soft at the same time.
One of our first visitors was someone who had a relative who worked with AIDS in a different country. This person FaceTimed with the relative, to show the Quilts and tell about our project! Best thing is the relative can check it out by themselves by accessing the AIDS Quilt Touch website. It is so exciting to have visitors that can relate to the Quilt in a personal way.
Sunday, August 9th – 12:05 pm PDT:
And we’re live! SIGGRAPH 2015 is officially underway! Conference goers are streaming into Hall G. We are situated in a pretty high traffic area near the entrance of the hall allowing those who are coming in to stop by to check out the quilts and chat with us. We fielded a very interesting question early on from a conference goer, that being “Is there another project that is similar to the AIDS Quilt Touch Digital Experience as a whole”? For me, it’s hard to find something that compares to AQTDE because of the fact that the actual, physical size of the textile quilt is so large it’s hard to compare it to something else in the physical world. The question is something to ponder going forward, what can we compare this project to…. I feel my initial answer would be a map or live document that allows for community contribution. But these are difficult comparisons given the socio-cultural content of the Quilt itself.
Sunday, August 9th – 9:10 am PDT:
Good morning. SIGGRAPH 2015 kicks off today! We’re pretty excited after all of our preparation to finally get underway. The team will be heading down to the convention center shortly to open our booth and check out the show. Stay tuned here for first impressions.
Making @ SIGGRAPH Chair Jean Kaneko just stopped by our booth, dropping off our exhibit sign, and chatting about our installation. Made us feel very welcome. And with that the team is going to head out for the night. Looking forward to an early start tomorrow when SIGGRAPH 2015 gets underway.
Saturday, August 8th – 4:00 pm PDT:
Happy to see PIRT Research Faculty member Angela has made it to Los Angeles and has joined us in the booth! More and more people are beginning to fill Hall G, the place is beginning to look like a show is about to happen. Participant registration has opened and there’s a long line forming. For PIRT, just a couple more touches to put on and our exhibit is ready for the show. For me, it’s amazing to see the blocks of the AIDS Memorial Quilt in person. After talking about them so much within the group, then seeing them here, the blocks are much bigger than I envisioned them. I am particularly drawn to the Emma Goldman Brigade panel…. Leticia just gave me a red ribbon to wear. Getting closer to showtime…
Saturday, August 8th – 11:45 am PDT:
WELCOME back to Public Interactives Research Team’s LiveBlog from SIGGRAPH 2015. David here, joining you as your LiveBlog moderator. I’m very excited to finally have put rubber to the road, arriving here along with PIRT members Sean and Leticia. We’ve joined Principal Investigator Dale in our booth putting the final touches in place for the show, which begins tomorrow. Already, the (MASSIVE) LA Convention Center is abuzz, lots of people around preparing their installations. In front of our booth, there’s some projection mapping already happening on a giant skull…….
Hi everyone and WELCOME to Public Interactives Research Team’s LiveBlog from SIGGRAPH 2015. I’m David, research assistant for PIRT and your LiveBlog moderator. The team has wrapped up its preparations in New York City and is looking forward to a great week. Most of us will be making our way west tomorrow, but our Dale MacDonald is already on site at the Los Angeles Convention Center making preparations to our booth. We are looking forward to sharing our experiences over the course of SIGGRAPH 2015 with you.
The beginning of setting up the booth
The panels before going up
Another booth construction picture
AIDS Quilt Touch booth
Red ribbons visitors could take and wear as a symbol of support to the AIDS Quilt
PIRT member Sean Landers documented our experience at SIGGRAPH
Our team on the last day
Taking the booth down