Just thought I'd share a video showcasing about the indie game Fez (still in development).

Teaser Trailer here

Better demo video here, starting at 5:28

(The very cool Crayon Physics game, wherein objects you create by drawing immediately start behaving according to Newtonian physics, starts at 2:08 in the same video.)

Concept: user-contributed signage displayed according to frequency of usage at each path-decision-making point in the building

Rationale:
1. people generally don't use systemic overview maps to structure their paths. They remember turns and a sequence of points.
2. user-contributed information is most trustworthy from a user's perspective, especially when the contributions are combined over time.
3. user-contributed information is up-to-date, all the time.
4. this keeps all the benefits of tracking individuals' location without infringing on privacy because the data is anonymized in the process of extrapolation.
5. when finding their way through a building, people aren't so much concerned with finding a particular room as they are with finding the people and the events in it.
6. if people don't need directions, dynamic displays can adjust to be more ambient, while at the same time providing dynamic interesting information in a visually pleasing way.

Hello everyone,

Just wanted to let you know that we have uploaded resources about E14 on the E14 Info page, linked at the top. Current content includes floorplans, sections, and a 3d model. Feel free to use these in any way for your assignments throughout the semester.

If you would like something (anything) that isn't there, let us know and we'll see about getting it for you.

The offer also extends to things that aren't E14 -- if you would like something (anything) about space or information that isn't here (or anywhere), let us know and we'll see what we can do.

Enjoy!
-your fellow TA's

Consider a digital wayfinding system for E14 or the E14/E15 complex. The system should address the needs of the many different users of the building - staff, researchers, students, guests. Think about how each constituency makes use of the space and how that influences your design. The system should do all of the things that any good system does: clarify the arrangement of spaces within the building and guide people to the places they want to go. In addition, you can think about new functions - locating friends, encouraging collaboration, connecting the real and the virtual, providing greater openness and transparency, etc. Your design should also speak to the kind of place that the Media Lab is (or wants to be).

Negative example:
Steelcase Inc. headquarters.
Grand Rapids, MI.
Designer unknown.

The space was a demonstration of Steelcase's new focus on the concept of dynamic-use office space. All space dividers were modular, enabling easy reconfiguration of the floor plan to suit the needs of people. However, their signage was not only badly lighted, information-starved, and visually inaccessible, it was static and incongruous with the activity needs of the people and visitors who will inhabit that space.

Positive example:
Museum of Cinematography (La Cinémathèque française).
Bercy, Paris/France.
Design by Intégral (Ruedi Baur et associés).

Projected guidance system designed with consideration of the architectural form and material of the building, and complementing the informational content of the space. (In addition, the projections are positioned in such a way that visitors can interact with it.)

Find and prepare a presentation of one positive and one negative example of spatial information; That is a spatial situation in combination with information which relates to the space, may that be typographic, audible, tactile etc. (Examples for this could be signage in a building, a map of a specific space or a memorial like the Vietnam Memorial we showed, etc)
Find a particularly beautiful, useful, unusual, or illuminating example of the integration of information and space, and find one example of where bad integration yielded/yields disastrous results. Prepare diagrams and analysis as necessary to explain your choices. Be prepared to give a 2 min presentation about your examples.
All the assignments will be posted and presented on the website. Please create a user account and post images and text on the site.

1. go to blog http://mas960.media.mit.edu/
2. go to "create new account" (on left)
3. enter user name
4. enter email
5. check your email
6. happily start posting!