Week 1

There is no rest for the weary. After returning from the West Coast Trip (a week-long networking trip in LA/SF), we are immediately diving into our project course. For most of us, this is our first project at the Entertainment Technology Center (ETC), which means we are both very excited and very confused.

Per usual ETC fashion, we hit the ground running, no syllabus week for us. Selecting our producer was the first action item, and it was a no-brainer. Dustin Stephan, the fearless producer on the Miracle Workshop project was unanimously chosen to lead our project. We’re thrilled to have someone with years leadership experience on our team.

This week we mostly performed housekeeping: establishing our core hours, faculty meetings, roles, and most importantly, selecting our team name. After much deliberation, we finally selected “One Small Act,” a tribute to the essential theme of our project, kindness. (Other options included: Be Kind, Growing Kindness, KindSight, and by far my favorite, Third Eye Kind.)

On Thursday, we went on our first site visit to the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh with our faculty advisors, Shirley Saldamarco and Heather Kelley. We donned our safety helmets and got an exclusive inside-look into the MuseumLab and TechLab, a new space targeted towards children 10 and up. The Carnegie Library currently being renovated for this space boasts original Carnegie stamped steel and an eclectic mix of architecture styles from the 1800s, 70s, and now. This will hopefully serve as the sight for future ETC collaborations.

ETC Alumni of 2012 and current MAKESHOP Manager at the Children’s Museum, Rebecca Grabman, provided us with a tour of space that we’ll be designing for, The Attic. Every room in the Children’s Museum is themed as rooms of a house; the attic space being a collection for all the weird and odd things one might find in their attic. This space will be renovated into the new Kindness exhibit, featuring items from their Fred Rogers and Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood collection. Their hope is that we design an interactive component that will be housed here.

Located in the same space is a former ETC project, Marioneta, a virtual puppet exhibit that uses the Microsoft Kinect to allow children to control and interact with 3D models of the puppets on display, with their bodies. Rebecca let us know that the exhibit is still up and running, and very successful with children. (We’ve got a lot to live up to…)

Aside from visiting the space, Rebecca provided us with many design tips to think about:

• Don’t use a lot of signage (kids can’t read!)
• Get children to move their bodies (kids are hyperactive!)
• Create multiple entry points (kids are wild!)
• Think about height (kids are small!)
• Play with real stuff (the Children Museum’s design philosophy)

After visiting the space, we have a much better idea of what we’re designing for.

On Friday, we had our first Playtest to Explore Workshop. We created our composition box and started to think about what we were designing. Our goal is to teach children to be kind. But how do we accomplish such a lofty objective when words and attention span are out of the question?

We polled our classmates, asking them, “how did you learn to be kind?” Most answered that they learned kindness from their parents, their friends, and community. One person answered “Twitter.”

Next week, we have our kickoff meeting with our clients and will hopefully get more questions answered.

Until then, be kind,
One Small Act