Phase 4: Weeks 13-16
Define, Test and Prepare
More Iteration and review
More further development
Weekly learning objectives
Brief overview of final two rooms:
Bicimáquinas & Wellbeing
The ‘bicimáquinas’
Bicycle machines, technology that contributes toward the sustainability, self-reliance and economic development of rural communities in Guatemala.
Bicimáquinas, such as corn de-grainers, corn grinders, water pumps, coffee de-pulpers, macadamia nut shellers, aloe shampoo blenders among others, help people in rural areas of Guatemala increase their productivity in a way that is both economically and environmentally cost-effective.
People in rural Guatemala who would otherwise spend long hours or large amounts of money to process their agricultural products, save time, money and their environment by using bicimáquinas, which can be easily repaired and maintained with bicycle parts and knowledge from within their communities.
A creative use of the Bicimáquinas
Although the reason behind the need to create these machines is a serious one, the concept for this room is to have a collection of the Bicimáquinas ready for visitors to use but rather than stripping corn or grinding coffee these are repurposed in a way that they can produce a piece of art. A scaled-up, human-powered giant Spirograph from which visitors can take away their creations (too large for the scrapbooks but very interactive…).
Imagining a two square meter spiro drawing being created by pedalling. The room would have more than one machine on show, and each would create its own pattern.
Calm and wellbeing…
See all about it
Riding a bike is relaxing. If you’re stressed at work, you can often burn it off by cycling home. And if you’re dealing with a more serious problem, cycling can help you regain some balance in your life.
Mental health problems are widespread, varied, and complex. However, one of the things that can help is simple: get on a bike.
One of the things I like about riding is that you can decide to either plan a route to follow, or, you can start off and see where you end up. Decide on a direction as you pull up to a junction and just follow the road to wherever.
The idea for the Wellbeing room in the exhibition is based on that, to create an immersive room that just contains the bikes and VR headsets which you can use to go wherever you want to. Along with the technology, the room also adds to the other senses by creating the breeze and smells of summer (or other seasons if preferred).
The stations (will be real bikes this time) will consist of groups of bikes together, you can ride on your own, with friends or ride whilst making new ones, just as it is for real.
Like the virtual training programme Zwift, you can choose where to ride in the virtual world.
but unlike Zwift you wouldn’t have to spend a fortune to do it.
Reflection; quite a lot to reflect on with this post…it’s the last one 🙁
In regards to the work above, even though the explanations are brief I think they’re enough to get the ideas for the final two rooms across enough to see them in a similar light to those which have been developed much further. To imaging a room setting and the items which could be created to include in the visitor scrapbooks, to the warm breezy feeling in the barest of all the rooms.
Overall
Looking back over the Final Project it was an utter nightmare up until around week 16 so probably not much use in checking out the blog on the weeks before that.
Now though, now it’s finally finished up to the hand-in, I feel it’s a project to be proud of regardless of that hellish time it took to evolve into itself, maybe that time is what made it what it is if it hadn’t been for the nosebleed inducing despair of weeks two to 15 how would this have turned out? If it goes any further I’d need it to be with a team around me, stages beyond this wouldn’t be possible to work on alone without losing the plot.
(I don’t want to stop typing because that will mean the end…
Industry Feedback:
“Thanks for the links — lots to look at and review! — but top level feedback — the exhibition looks compelling, unusually designed (a good thing) and makes me want to find out more… all very positive.
“The branding feels fitting and sets up the exhibition outside of the norms of cycling… quite possibly a good thing. I wonder if it may miss out on the ability to capitalise on the huge cyclist fan-base that would naturally flock to it… but not emulating Rapha etc could also enable the work to reach a new, wider and more diverse audience… so no bad thing. Only research would tell if this hunch is justified!
“Over all an interesting and considered approach — with a real personal passion driving it — bravo!”
Simon Manchipp, Founder of/at SomeOne.
