Instructions for the strangers
Group project of Jerry Tan and Karen El Asmar

Design commission:
Design an installation for strangers to communicate with each other and interact with the surroundings in public areas.


Ideation:
New York City is famous for street art, which is an important part of NYC's history and culture/subculture. NYC is considered the "Mecca of Graffiti", the place where graffiti originated. We decided to visit graffiti areas in New York in hopes of learning more about this culture, observing how people interact with the graffiti and try to enhance this interaction between strangers and graffiti and reflect the diversity and tolerance of NYC.

Location:
Bushwick Collective, 19 St Nicholas Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11237, USA. It is considered as an outdoor gallery of graffiti artists from all over the world.

Research and observation:
Daytime:
There are always a lot of visitors wandering around the blocks in Bushwick to appreciate graffiti. Visitors would take pictures for or with the graffiti, and post them onto social media, which is the most common interaction behaviors between people and graffiti. Various kinds of artistic performances can be found in the place. People are so delighted to watch or participate in the art activities.
Nighttime:
The central area of Bushwick is at a cross intersection. This area is filled with entertainment facilities like bars, restaurants and nightclubs. It is the only active zone at night in Bushwick, and the other zones are quiet and seem unsafe. It is a dark zone and the overall lighting condition is limited so graffiti works are hard to be seen or appreciated after sunset.
Crowd analysis:
The area seemed to be dominated by youths in their 20-30s. We did see a few elderly and a few kids on Sunday afternoon. Family tourists and big tour groups can sometimes be seen on weekends.
Special finding:
All the walls are occupied with graffiti works except only one white brick wall at the central area. Many people pass next to this wall on their way to the restaurants, bars and nightclubs and this area stays alive even after midnight.

Basic setup:

Guiding questions for brainstorming:
What kinds of narrative does the space suggest?
How might we create a new form of graffiti that allows those who were previously "spectators & observers" to participate in its creation?
How might we create "sustainable graffiti"? What is "sustainable graffiti"?
Can we decentralize storytelling and the process of creating with a graffiti?

Brainstorming and ideations:
Concept 1: Playing piano on the wall
It is a graffiti work entitled Recordeal, which is created by Oji. Music could be a good cure for strangers to communicate and the trick of light and shadow could make the graffiti come to life at night. The idea involves shadows and light and can only be done at night but the location is so deserted at night, hence, we decided to abandon the idea.
Concept 2: Create Your Own (on the white wall)
Passersby can create shadow and graffiti on the wall using their own bodies. The shadow of other passersby can be a part of the shadow graffiti. In this way, an interactive activity and a decentralized storytelling can be established among the passerby "painters", passerby "actors" and the unique white wall.
We selected this idea for further exploration.

Guiding questions for prototyping:
How to get the players aware of the game and stand on the proper positions?
What is the content of the shadow graffiti?
How many players should get involved in the interactive process?

Making process:

Types of interaction (findings of the field test):
Roles: The actor, the controller and the spectator

Type 1: Complete strangers

Type 2: Different groups of friends

Strategy: Puzzle/Easter Eggs encourage explorations

Overview of the field test:

Future iterations:
More intuitive way to draw
Subtle cue of where to place the hand at the beginning
More potential triggers as feedback for players to explore while playing
Enable "actors" to participate in painting with "controller"

Behind the scenes: