Hi all and welcome to my first blog post. This blog will act as a digital research journal in which my journey through the Creative Technologies Toolkit module will be documented.
The brief for the module requires one to "research, design and develop an interactive Audio/Visual system based upon some aspect of nature in or around Bristol." The brief also states that it must engage children and be designed and installed in Bristol
Since I live in Bristol and next to a large nature reserve, I decided to conduct some field studies of the reserve.
The Bradley Stoke nature reserve is situated in the north of Bristol and is positioned between many housing estates, schools and local business, sitting right in the heart of Bradley Stoke. Its origins are both from natural woodland and farmland through to man-made lakes, rivers, and large hill created as a result from the spill from the construction of the second Severn crossing. As a resident of the area since 2014, I have enjoyed systematically walking around the area in early mornings. The area is enjoyed by many others also, and is close to many local primary schools and nurseries, and is frequented by families with young children.
Bradley stoke in North Bristol
Outline of the Bradley Stoke Nature Reserve
My initial idea for the project is to create an installation that allows people to scan leaves from the local trees and in turn software will synthesis a tree from a data representation of this leaf. Such a tree can then placed by the user in a virtual world using on-screen controls, to grow a digital forest of trees, created from many different users. This is aimed at encouraging children to collect various leaves from around the reserve and see how these grow into digital 'out of this world' trees. The installation will react to the outside environment from temperature, humidity and wind speed to have real-time effects over the virtual forest.
While exploring the area it was important to consider the area in which such an installation might be installed. I considered three main areas, shown in the map below.
Map showing three possible areas for installation
Map of the local area.
Location 1
Location 1 sits between a large retail centre and Ormonds Close. It is also on a footpath that links the main woodland area and the large meadow.
Location 1
Location 2
Location 2 is right in the heart of the woodland area and is surrounded by a variety of trees. This area is slightly off the beaten path but provides ample room and natural seating areas.
Location 2
Location 3
Location 3 is positioned in a popular area of the reserve, that links up several footpaths and housing estates. Furthermore, it is next to a large duck pond and is popular with families and children. It is also close enough to local infrastructure for utility needs (i.e. power).
This large hardstanding area is an ideal place to place the installation.
Location 3
This large hardstanding area is an ideal place to place the installation.
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