I was excited by how the exhibit came out, and even more than that I enjoyed seeing how people reacted to it. I loved that upon initially seeing the mirror, the most common response was: "Whoa! How did you make it do that?!" The infinity mirror at the exploratorium is quite obviously two mirrors facing one another; this one, however, leaves a little mystery because the one-way mirror seems upon first sight to be just a protective film. I really like that this causes the user to ask questions--that way, they get to figure out how it works by discovery, not by being told explicitly.
However, I wish I had left more room for discovery and interaction. I think this exhibit has potential because of the questions it prompts the user to ask, but I can think of ways to allow for more exploration. Primarily, I'd like to add a handle to the door so that the user can open up the lid to reveal the mirror, and thus see the reflective side of the one-way mirror film. This opens the door (ha ha) to an explanation of one-way mirrors and all the related optics. I also especially liked an idea someone suggested to increase interactivity: where I inserted all blue lights before, I could leave some empty holes and have various other colors of lights available so that the user can create his or her own pattern in the tunnel.
I enjoyed the infinity mirror---very mesmerizing. Funny thing is, I was almost going to create an infinity mirror myself as my mirror prototype before I realized I needed to somehow obtain a one-way mirror film in time. I like your comment about adding more ways for the user to interact and explore, such as by creating a hinge to open the door. While we were commenting on your exhibit I think one person mentioned it reminded them of water. Upon that remark I suddenly had a random idea of creating an aquarium / fish tank from the infinite mirror---add fish and water. Would the fish reflect and seem like they're going on into infinity as they swim? Or would it be too dim for that effect to show? It might not work as an exhibit, but it was a random idea that popped into my head so I figured I'd share.
ReplyDeleteI think this was a really clean redesign of the infinity mirror, and it looks very nice!
ReplyDeleteRelated to the notion of adding explanations, I was just wondering if having both sides be one way mirrors would work-- It seems like it might be really cool if the exhibit could go transparent when the interior lights were turned off.