Our stand (pictured above) received good critical acclaim for our process orientated presentation, clever use of recyclable cardboard boxes and diverse appearance in relation to many of the other university stands.

Puppets of propaganda or POPS for short is my final outcome for my major project at Edinburgh Napier university. The project stemmed from dissertation which looked at Guerrilla tactics in design. I undertook this project with the help of my final year atelier group leader Chris Hand.

Taking influence from such projects and groups mentioned on this blog such as Troika’s guerrilla projector, IAA, Tad Hirsch’s trip wire and after a lot of prototyping, testing, user research. I finally arrived at this final outcome which i am still constantly iterating.

The proposed is a Toy for children 6-11 years old which allows them to record a subversive message and play it back without being present…..

A project which looks at subverting the preconceived ideology of toys to promote anonymous audio freedom of speech. Aiming to challenge the social idea that children should be seen and not heard, the puppets act as a medium for social communication in the hope of provoking social commentary. The puppets work by allowing the child to record a message and communicate it anonymously when the inbuilt sensor is triggered.

The puppet has a microphone in the left hand ear and a  tactile switch in the right hand ear. The child records a message by holding in the record button and speaking into the puppets ear. The puppet then listens to the child and the message is saved onto the inbuilt Arduino board which is linked to a SPIKENZIELABS VOICE SHIELD (Pictured bellow)

The child then places the puppet in their desired environment to ensure it has the best effect and there message his heard. The puppet is then triggered by the inbuilt sensor when someone walks within a certain distance ( This is currently a variable which is being explored) by doing so the child’s desired message it replayed anonymously to the masses through the speaker in the face of puppet.

when designing the puppet i undertook a very iterative approach, Modelling and re – modelling over and over again until i was happy with the form of the puppet, This was after a lot of sketching and research. The shell of the puppet is currently produce via a CAD file which is printed of to form the solid shell using a 3D printer.

Soft versions of the puppets are currently being worked on and tested, producing soft ones will allow for the puppet to be hidden around the house, in amongst soft furnishings, cushions etc. Sort of like domestic camouflage.

The puppets were exhibited in me degree show – Napier creative showcase,  along with the rest of my fellow students work to great success and warm review.

I will Also be exhibiting at new designers 2009 from the 14th of July. New designers is one of the biggest design shows in Britain and a must see for anyone interested in the creative industries.

Feel free to visit me at www.rosscoffield.com or contact me at ross@rosscoffield.com.

all images copyright of Ross coffield 2009.

There’s some really nice, interesting proposals from both professionals and students alike this year!

My design T3 cups and stands  are lucky enough to be one of the designs up for the second stage of voting. (Pictured bellow)

Its a public vote to see which designs go through to the next stage of voting .

The link to my voting page is

http://dwell.co.uk/designfordwell.php?design=46

Go on, have a look and vote for the designs you like, hopefully mine is one of them!

The winning design gets put into production and there’s a competition running to win the winning design for simply just voting!! it takes less than a minute!

Thanks if you vote!

http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/28602/street-cred/

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/04/adidas-gardening-grun-eco-shoes.php

http://www.behindthebuzz.com/guerilla-gardening-with-adidas/ - video

http://www.graphic-design.com/DTG/Design/guerrilla_marketing_design.html

“Given the ubiquity of mobile devices and wireless networks, and their proliferation throughout increasingly diverse and sometimes unexpected urban sites, what opportunities – and dilemmas – emerge for the design of public space in contemporary cities?

The Tactical Sound Garden [TSG] Toolkit is an open source software platform for cultivating public “sound gardens” within contemporary cities. It draws on the culture of urban community gardening to posit a participatory environment where new spatial practices for social interaction within technologically mediated environments can be explored and evaluated. Addressing the impact of mobile audio devices like the iPod, the project examines gradations of privacy and publicity within contemporary public space.

The Toolkit enables anyone living within dense 802.11 wireless (WiFi) “hot zones” to install a “sound garden” for public use. Using a WiFi enabled mobile device (PDA, laptop, mobile phone), participants “plant” sounds within a positional audio environment. These plantings are mapped onto the coordinates of a physical location by a 3D audio engine common to gaming environments – overlaying a publicly constructed soundscape onto a specific urban space. Wearing headphones connected to a WiFi enabled device, participants drift though virtual sound gardens as they move throughout the city.” – Tactical sound garden

http://www.tacticalsoundgarden.net/  – watch the video it explains it all.

I think its an excellent example of the relationship between sensory experience, technology, Interaction, ”geurrillaism”  and narrative.

“Troika teamed-up with Moritz Waldemeyer to create ‘Tool for armchair activists’, a machine for remote rants and protests. It can be strapped to lampposts in front of pro-eminent buildings like the house of parliament, or other institutional buildings in front of which many protests occur.

Thanks to its embedded mobile telecommunication device, the machine is able to receive incoming sms messages and speak them out loud through its powerful megaphone, thus allowing the armchair activist to shout out its rants and protests in the comfort of his sitting room.

Tool for armchair activists offers a modern alternative to the speaker corner, and saves you the hassle of sitting in the rain, waiting for your favourite MP to pass by.” – www.troika.uk.com

The projector can be related to the ideas of guerrilla tactics and actavism.

“The SMS Guerilla Projector is a home made, fully functioning device that enables the user to project text based SMS messages in public spaces, in streets, onto people, inside cinemas, shops, houses…

Small, portable, and battery operated, the SMS Guerilla Projector contains a mobile phone which enables the device to receive and project messages from other people.

The SMS Guerilla Projector is made by recombining available technologies. As an open object, the projector generates a wide range of applications, allowing the user to display messages and share his reflections.

Its unpredictability creates a very special and disturbing experience for the people who watch the projection, and invites them to reflect on the content or the implications of the message.The images below show actual examples of projected messages.” – www.Troika.uk.com

This project uses Guerrilla tactics to promote, provoke a reaction, interaction and response. the interaction may be person to person, person to the projected message etc: whatever the interaction may be this is a brilliant example of how technology and guerrilla tactics along with a creative mind can produce a thought provoking proposal.

http://www.nextwall.net/content/projekt/taggedinmotion.php