Exercise 7: David McInerney

Exercise 7- katie

I attended Interaccess on the corner of Ossington and Queen. Located on the second floor of a small building, once inside I was finding difficulties getting inside to Interaccess itself. Their were two doors, one on each side of me. One had a sign on the door saying "Please use other door" and the other door was locked. I went up to the third floor (where there is a tattoo parlour) and asked the man in there if he knew where I was able to get in. Two other people in the tattoo parlour said that they had tried to get in but the couldnt either. I went back to the second floor to see if I could get in again and there was another man tring to get in. At this point I was really confused because I had called prior to coming to make sure that they were open, which they were (might I add the woman who answered the phone was unpleasent and came off that I was bothering her....how welcoming). Oddly enough the door that had the sign posted on it was unlocked. The two of us entered the room....

Psychogeographical Map - Jennie

1.) As we walked down the hallway that changed colours, I felt as if I was entering a club because of the loud music and flashy colours. The blue lights made me feel mellow, and sad, however as soon as they changed to green I felt a bit sickly, and the red made me anxious and excited.
2.) I then entered the room we were meant to “experience.” The first thing to catch my eye was this big circular table directly in front of me. I also noticed a keyboard, so I walked up to that and started to push the keys at random. As I did this, I noticed that inside the circular box there was goo that moved up and down in a spiral-flower pattern. The goo would pump out in different places and amounts depending on what key I pressed. This was cool, but then I decided to move on.
3.) Next, I stopped at a station called Disco DJ. I had absolutely no idea what I was meant to do. The green light kept flashing, and the controls didn’t seem to work so I got really frustrated and left.
4.) I continued to walk around until I found another station that caught my eye. This one was called Pipe Dreams. It was a bit confusing at first because the screen and the camera station were not noticeably connected. However, David and I managed to figure out that if you took a picture, it would then transfer to the screen in bubbles. We thought this was quite cool because you could see your face up on the massive screen.
5.) Furthermore, I stopped at the stress level station. I sat down here, but quickly realized it was a bad experience because the screen and the mouse weren’t working properly. I would recommend upgrading to a touch screen to make this more user-friendly. To be frank, I found this whole stress level station really quite stressful-trying to figure out the buttons and controls.
6.) Next I wandered over to the smelling machine. It was cool, until I got a headache from smelling the different boxes. According to the chart, I liked flowers the most.
7.) By this time I was getting quite bored, so I was ready to leave. On my out I saw a TV that was showing a film of an individual yawning over and over again. I watched it for a few minutes, and then subconsciously started to yawn. This experience was frustrating as I was not tired, nor did I feel the need to yawn before I watched the film. Then I became tired, so I left.

Exercise 7 - Joanne

Psychogeographic map - Shona

Ontario Science Centre - Gio Petrucci

My first trip to the OSC was a bit of a let down. Now, due to time constraints, I wasn't able to explore anything beyond the one main room we walked through for the Exercise, but from what I was able to gather, it sucked. Here is my personal vision of how it went about:

1 - This was before the actual beginning of the self-tour. It was a giant printer. I loved it. I want one. This was in the back where they printed larger jobs for the Centre. I was very impressed.

2 - This was the great entrance way to the Phase II part of the exercise. Flashing lights and nightclub sounds were very cool. I like this part, and it made me want to go out drinking.

3 - Robot table. I saw it right away to my right as I walked in. Junk collections. I wandered around the table, and it was all too much. When things are chaotic and jumbled I tend to lose interest instantly.

4 - Sound activated goop: best thing ever. Ok, maybe not the best thing but I saw Diandra and David playing around and because I was with them I was interested in seeing what they were doing. Only reason I came over, otherwise I probably wouldn't have noticed it. It was cool to interact with, the keyboard made the goop react making it ripple.

5 - When I saw the planetariums I walked over because of my interst in nature. Then I found they were empty tanks, which was boring, and one filled with cockroaches. No thanks.

6 - A chair. The only reason I came to it. I wanted to sit down.

7 - There was a very interactive station where you would sit inside of a booth and get your picture taken and then across the room, about 15 feet away there were tubes filled with water and then they would reproduce the image from the camera onto the tubes, which were actually bubbles forming the photo. This was cool. I stayed here and played around with it for about 15 minutes. I liked it a lot. It took me a while to realize what it was because I noticed the bubbles and the tubing and THEN realized what it was for. So discovered it backwards.

8 - This was the last thing I wandered to and I didn't even remember what it was. A barrier of sorts blocked this section off from everything else and it was just a jumble of colour and chaos. Too much visual stimulation made me want to leave. And then I did. Burger time, oh yeah...

Exercise Seven: Miriam

Exercise Seven - Andrea

Exercise 7- Kristen Burns

Science Centre Map:I walk down the glowing tunnel of colours and the assignment begins.

1. When I finish be mesmerized by the colour tunnel, I enter the room and I am attracted to many little twinkling lights that what looks to me to be a speaker/ music area. As I walk over to the little lights I am stopped at what looks like to be a table guitar, and on the side it says hemp big band (weird) So there are two buttons on it one says record and the other play. So I press record and I start playing with the strings then I press play and nothing happened. So I don’t know if I did it wrong but I was not to impressed.
2. As I walk away with disappointment to find my next thing to explore I see this cube thing with drawers. Once I seen it was a smell table or something like that. I wasn’t to sure what it was. Well I didn’t like it.
3. Then with a twinkle in my eye I see glue guns and scissors my specialty. I spent a lot of time there just gluing random fabric and sponge together to make a animal. Near the end of finishing the animal I found out I was suppose to make a shoe. I had no idea so maybe that should be better labeled, because there was really no point to what I did, but it was really fun.
4. Then my friend and I were stopped by a man that worked there asking what we were doing. He was very friendly, and sounded very interested.
5. As we said bye to the man I noticed over his shoulder a very interesting wall of bubbles located in the middle of the room. I then walked over to it and examined what it was. As I looked at how the bubbles were coming out at different times I was convinced it was making a picture. So I stepped back and instantly saw Elvis. I was very impressed and loved it. I think that this piece should be placed in front of the long entrance so you see the face as u walk down the colourful hallway. I think it would be more impressive, because I wouldn’t have seen the face if I didn’t step back a lot.
6. In the corner of my eye I saw paper fly out of a tube. I don’t really know why they had it. Maybe things should be better labeled. But it was very interesting as I got hit on the top of the head with paper.
7. Music Pill Station. Works by sensors, a bit confusing but fun when you understand. I got a but of a headache when there was a lot of a people in there playing with the sensors. Cool Sounds.
8. Saw a Chair sat down because I was tired and It vibrated when you twisted the circle. Weird. Then I lost my pen lid went to find it.
9. As I was retracing my steps for the lid I found it and then ended up looking at this screen were you look at your eye. I liked being able to see my eye. It was a bit blurry but interesting. I didn’t really understand the whole weaving of materials so I didn’t do it.
10. Saw a station with metal poles which was the sniffing station. Reminded my of the magic school bus. Didn’t understand what origami had to do with smelling. Maybe have something other then origami. Also I don’t know why they didn’t put all the sniffing station together.
11. I walked across the room where I saw these platforms where you shoot these iron shaped things down. Could be a good concept if it was made more fun, Maybe with more colours.
12. As I looked to my left of that I walked over to this glass case saw cockroaches and ran away and left.

Exercise 7 - Kaylyn Frecker

Exercise Seven: A Psychogeographic Map

"In a dérive one or more persons during a certain period drop their usual motives for movement and action, their relations, their work and leisure activities, and let themselves be drawn by the attractions of the terrain and the encounters they find there… But the dérive includes both this letting go and its necessary contradiction: the domination of psychogeographical variations by the knowledge and calculation of their possibilities."

(Knabb, Ken, ed. Situationist International Anthology, Berkley: Bureau of Public Secrets, 1995)

"Although conventional maps convey a certain abstract, geometric kind of 'truth' about the urban environment, the psychogeographical maps were supposed to convey a social, experiential or existential 'truth'. The maps show an experience of space as fragmented and discontinuous; areas which are experienced as distinct are pulled apart on the map. However, the arrows serve to relate the different areas and are based on the forces of attraction and repulsion or exclusion experienced in the course of the dérive."

(http://mypages.surrey.ac.uk/pss1su/lecturenotes/documents/nakedcity.html, accessed February 6, 2008)

At either the Weston Family Innovation Centre Phase II, or at the INTERACCESS show, perform a dérive. Enter the space with no direction, and follow your desire. Take detailed notes of your experience - the sights, the sounds, the sensations, your feelings, your reactions. Make every effort to free your mind of any preconceived notions, and make note of anything and everything that comes to mind.

Referring to your notes, create a psychogeographic map of your experience. Be creative about how your express your data, and which data you choose to express. The map should not make reference to cartesian (conventional map) space. Rather, it should emphasize the experiential qualities of the space: it should map the space of your experience.

The map may begin as either a digital or an analogue artifact, but please format the map into a digital file with the following dimensions.

1600 pixels tall
1600 pixels wide

Post your map to the blog by Friday, February 15 at 11:59PM.

You are not required to take an extensive interest in psychogeography, but you can refer to the uploaded presentation and readings if you wish. The essence of this exercise is to attempt to experience space a direct, visceral manner, and to release your mind from the constraining directive elements of our built environment. We will be presenting the results of this experimental research to the hosts of our field trips, so please make a special effort with this exercise (it will be marked accordingly).