My original app concept was inspired by the idea behind ‘Pokémon Go. I thought the whole concept of exploring in order to gather information would work really effectively in a nature app, so I used the idea of the map displaying the locations of Pokémon and translated that into real live plants and animals.
BLIND PHOTOGRAPHY
I first became inspired by the idea of blind and sensory photography after watching a TED talk on the subject earlier in the year by Hani Al Moulia.
When researching visually impaired photographers, I came across the work of Bruce Hall. I was particularly interested in some of his photography in his book ‘Immersed’, which explores the experience of Autism. I also liked his photographs from his ‘Sight Unseen’ exhibit, which explored the idea of blind photography and light. Looking at his photography is what especially inspired me to try purse a concept that would mimic the same experience of blind photography.
INSTALLATION INSPIRATION
When researching for my installation concept I discovered an artist named Olafur Eliasson, he created an exhibition in 2018 called ‘Reality Projector’. This exhibition took advantage of lights and architecture to create a dynamic shadow play.
Another installation which I took inspiration from is ‘LINES’ by Anders Lind. ‘LINES’ is an interactive sound installation that encourages the audience to participate and create their own polyrhythmic patterns or polyphonic sequencing. This piece is what initially inspired the creation and experience for the blind concept, as I wanted to find a way of mentally visualising nature as Anders had done for visualising sound.
Part of my research was looking into building mental images. I came across an article online which spoke about the best way to a build mental image. The idea is to build up the senses one at a time like building blocks, this gives the mind time to create the image gradually, which leads to a better overall mental depiction.
UI INSPIRATION
In terms of inspiration when it came to app/digital concepts I found I was looking at apps like ‘Periscope’. I liked the idea of sharing live footage with a user’s followers and that the concept would fit perfectly into my app concept and would be the most effective at reconnecting users with nature.
I also took inspiration from apps like ‘Instagram’ and ‘Snapchat’ when it came to creating the concept UI for my app. I paid close attention to how these apps were laid out and tried to figure out how best to build my UI around the same principles.
I also researched into the old coding aesthetic as I felt that I could use the style effectively in my UI. For this I looked at a lot of 90s style examples of coding on computers. Similar to that which you would have seen in the likes of the ‘Matrix’ films.