Presentation Images - First 3 Slides

Welcome to "Sing-a-Sketch"!

Sing-a-Sketch is a unique conglomeration of a variety of familiar toys and technologies, fused in an unconventional way and projected on an unexpected location. Sing-A-Sketch relies on everyday users' sense of play, allowing simultaneous or iterative collaborations of community- created artwork, and, by way of vocal interaction, spontaneous performance art.




Users familiar with the SingStar series of games for the PS2 may recognize the voice-activated game mechanic used here, but that's largely where the similarity ends. Children who grew up with the classic "Etch-A-Sketch" toy may also feel at home, but the privacy of their creations is no longer limited to a friend nearby to whom they can pass the sketchpad.

Graffiti artists have long used public space to make a statement, or to add to existing statements created by earlier artists. The final result never fully solidifies: the space is consistently added to, refined, roughened, or simply painted over. The space itself is as fragile and as engaging as an Etch-a-Sketch.

Mobile phone users have long had gaming facilities on their devices - some of which even have the facility to play against other users. Mobile users are also very familiar with the voice-driven nature of the phone's primary use, and will no doubt be comfortable speaking into the device.

Using their voice with their phone to control their contribution to collaborative community artwork is the key mechanism of play in this piece. Users are invited to pair their Bluetooth-enabled devices with [possibly one of several] Bluetooth audio receivers. These receivers then take the users' sound input as a single button device to control the direction and speed of the users' pens, represented and projected onto a suitably flat public surface.

Without further instruction, users could potentially play with the interface: some may feel they need to sing to the device a particular song - others may sense that they have to move around the device's broadcast radius. Still others may invite their friends to help them control their pen. Users may even unknowingly influence each others' pens if their voices carry far enough.