The discussion started with the question what describes a city. How different city have different people, how they live, and something that makes a city special. Even different parts of the country have a different accent to a single word. Sometimes you can recognize where he belongs to by his way of speaking. So we came up with different possibilities collectively how we can recognize different parts of a country.
Then we discussed what all information can describe our market. So that we can interview the flower vendors about their life, about their selling style and all that stuff. So we can get a sense of their life, they are the sense of flower market because the flower market is because of them only. They are the life and excitement of the flower market. So I think interviewing them was important for us also.

This week was like a new starting to us because we were introduced to our new project which is related to the city ‘Mumbai.’ This is a group project. So, we were told to discuss our cities in a group or any place we visited. So we talked about ‘Kota,’ how Kota developed foam old Kota to a whole new city. We discussed how the streets changed, how the architecture developed, how the style of the city transformed. So, these are some aspects to distinguish between cities also, that how they evolved. I think this class taught us about how we can explain a city in most elaborated and descriptive manner because we tried to discuss all the points by their transformation. So how were they and how are they now is something which nearly covers everything. Also, we were told to visit our site which is ‘Dadar flower market’ and to capture its life and colors. The experience was good because they treated us well. They helped us in our work by giving us space to do our stuff comfortably. It is colorful but sort of monochromatic because of those yellow bulbs everywhere. it is a lively place

So this week we started with our final project, we are using wood for the final project to give it strength. As it’s a powerful and rapid action, so to reduce the chances of wear and tear, wood will be an appropriate option for us. As we started working on it, we found that wood was too hard to work with. But we decided to move on with it. We understood if we need a smooth movement then we have to finish it and smoothen its edges. We also thought of how to attach it to the body. Still, there is an issue we don’t have a piston for it, to accelerate the movement, so we are still working on it.

As a step forward in the design process, now we have to make the prototypes to see which works better. So we started with the prototyping. We took MDF board for our first prototype. As we started with the process, we soon realized that MDF is not the material for the final model we have to use something rigid like wood. So the flaws we found in our first prototype are that the spring which we thought of using is too hard to stretch. Secondly, the joint was too weak to take the load of that spring. Thirdly, it was hard to connect the two pieces of the prototype with a hinge. The place was too less, which ended up making the joint weak. Another flaw was that we have to place the springs at more distant places. The most difficult part of the prototype was to place the hinge because we couldn’t use screw because the end was too thin that it broke the MDF, so we decided to stick it with Araldite( a strong adhesive ). We also have to think about how we have to attach that with the body.

Failed Attempt

So every interaction does have motion in it. Both the person have to move and show their efforts to make the interaction possible.
So we do have some simple machines in our life which make our life easy and accessible. We all use simple machines so that we can do our work with fewer efforts. So what if we combine our interaction with simple machines to make them easy.
We studied some mechanism so that we can compile our work with them and make the interaction much easier. So we worked on many mechanisms to assist the kick. So we used elasticity and pulley mechanism to assist it. We faced a lot of issues with its technicalities because it was hard to choose the right mechanism that too for so dynamic interaction. If the mechanism will be loose or fragile, it can break easily on such powerful force. So we figured it out what are the possible mechanism we can use for this interaction. So we combined the interaction with a simple machine to make it easy.

Now the next step of designing, We started with some rough sketches of the interfaces which we decided last time. So that, we can visually communicate with others, what we are thinking about the interaction. Sometimes people have a different perspective about the interaction they can think of a different aspect of the same interaction because sometimes interactions happen in multiple phases, so sketching plays a crucial role in this. Then we studied how the interaction takes place. Then at the end of the session, I and my partner discussed with the faculty and decided to select the kick and block interaction which was my partner’s idea.

After the 8th week submission, we started with a new project ‘Project 2.’ We discussed some interfaces, how a body interacts with another body like hugging and shaking hands. These are some of the examples that sir told us and then we have to explore this field and have to think out of the box. We usually interact with many surfaces while playing, dancing and in a day to day life. We also interact with one another during this time. So how we interact with one another is like a bond or link between us. So this project is not for oneself but for you and another person. We combined with one another and decided some field and explored their interactions. I chose Hindu rituals, and my partner took sports and athletics. So we came up with some interesting interactions like
1) hand interaction during marriage ritual (Kanya Daan).
2) interaction between head and hand during ‘Sindoor Rasm.’
3) interaction between foot and hand while taking the blessing.
4) hand to hand interaction during the ring ceremony.
These are some interaction which I decided while exploring. I think interaction also link some emotions between two persons while Kanya Daan’ the feeling of togetherness between bride and groom. During ‘Sindoor Rasm’ it’s the commitment to fulfilling all the promises of ‘7 Phera.’ The emotion of love, blessing, respect, and care while taking the blessing. The emotion of new starting during the ring ceremony. These are the interactions of the body with the interaction of emotion.

The three prototypes which I made ow we have to select anyone, and we had to go further with it. So we chose the pulling the pin of the fire extinguisher. So as I told the challenges which I faced while making prototypes. The difficulties which I encountered were the framework was not rigid, the jute was not firm, the look of flame was not there, so the jute was not the right material for the flashes. So to solve them, I used wood to make it more stable, and this time the wire work was also dense. This time I stick the cloth to make it firmer and to give it a shape of the wrist. This time I used clothes of red and yellow color to make it look like a fire. So these are the upgradations that I made in the final prototype.

So the next step of the design process after finalizing your sketch after lots of upgradations.
The next step is to make a rough quick prototype to see that what can be the consequences and what type of problem we can face during the process of the final model so that we can work on it priorly. The rough prototype also gives us a chance to explore different materials. As I chose 3 grips from the sketches that were rotating a bulb, pulling the pin of the fire extinguisher, and sliding a window. I made prototypes of three of them, so the problems I faced were that in the 3rd model I should have used wood instead of file card so that it could be more rigid and beautiful. Nextly to find a proper material for the bulb grip, it was hard to find a hard transparent material to use because we were not allowed to use glass. Also, the cotton was ruining the meaning of that grip. Thirdly, in the third grip, the frame was not rigid, and flames were not looking like flames due to the material. So these are some of the things that I have to think about before starting my final model.