Nicholas McLaughlin Blog

The Last Open Share:

The end of another academic year and with that OpenShare again for IxD considering last years exhibition I wanted this one to be good, better than last year and promoted more than last year.

So after discussing it on and off with my colleagues and with my added confidence after this year and more specifically projects such as Interactive Systems I had a want and need for this project to be better than the last year.

My motivation is from that when I was in first year, OpenShare had such a great turn out and as a first year I really benefited from it and I think it set me up in a great space and a great mindset for the coming years after it. So when it came to my hands I wanted to pay that forward and use this as an opportunity to show off the amazing work done at IxD.

My plan was three fold , first the posters and getting them out, second was the IxD Instagram and promoting the show online and third was word of mouth.

IxD OpenShare

Promo Work:

Firstly the poster. I thought that Interaction Design has great opportunities for icons and visual identification with the “IxD” short hand but before I had the chance to complicate it or over design it, I found a fitting clean yet digital font on adobe fonts and after running it by the others it was a winning success.

And the main focus of this personal ‘promotional project’ is the work that the students of our course produce so it felt natural to put it in the forefront and again with input from my colleagues a framing was decided and I made a template that would hopefully work for the visuals they provided.

Personal Work :

For my open share project it was between my expressive data project and XR project but with the time we have I think there would be too much work to do with expressive data to get it to the place I want but with the VR project it only needs a couple of minor tweeks and possible scripted events to get it where I’d like.

Extended Reality (XR)

Above is more of my mad scribbled trying to make sense of the ideas I had and trying to come up with new ones that would elevate the BlackLight demo to a higher quality.

BlackLight Logo Design:

As my mind was in the space of graphic design and giving things a brand I made a quick mock up of a possible logo for the finished project.

The name change was an odd one, so initially it was called BlackLight during the concept stage when the idea was to have a custom shader or the visuals inverted so that the light itself was a cone of black in front of the player. But when re-visiting the project for OpenShare and realising I might not have time to create my own shader I thought of renaming it ‘Light the Way’ as BlackLight might not make sense but then when I went to edit the Unity file I learned that I didn’t have the most recent build and didn’t have time to rebuild it. So with the file unable to be changed in time and the name being BlackLight on the makeshift title card of the game then BlackLight it had to stay.

Displaying the work :

So with the work itself frozen in its current state I wanted to give more time to the displaying of the work and the promotional aspect of the exhibition.

Insta Bookends:

To tie the instagram post together with the poster design, I thought some designed bookends for the post could be used when uploading other IxD images.

Troubles :

Ok so major/ not major problem. I do not have the most recent unity scene that is running on the headset. But, it is running on my headset at home, I have a finished that version. I would have liked to improve the current version of it but to do that I would have to rebuild at least half of the project in a day which I don’t think is possible.

As I do like this project and think it does have some legs to go further I might rebuild it during the summer in my own time improving and rebuilding it at the same time.

But with the time remaining and what I have at this moment I’ll present my work to the best of my ability.

Location :

I claimed the space closed off from the rest of the exhibition as to allow space for the people more enough and explore the space within VR.

And by complete accident the starting point of BlackLight doesn’t look a million miles away from how the space I have in the gallery looks.

Setting up the VR :

With my work being on the VR and it being self contained, it felt like there was very little to actually display as the work was contained within so with the time I have I’m trying to make more of a display for it.

IxD Promo Poster Collection :

The collection of posters for the exhibition, I was so happy how they turned out and was so proud of everyone that submitted such amazing images for the posters, it really shows the varied work from everyone on the course.

Posters around GSA:

With the posters designed and the deadline passed we got to work putting them out around the campus trying to hit high traffic areas around GSA.

BlackLight Screenshots :

During this time I played through BlackLight for two reasons, one was to re-familiarise myself with the application as well as getting stills from the game to display with the headset.

To be honest as soon as I put up the stills they felt silly and cheap so I took them down.

Stripping back the set up:

Before the opening of OpenShare I was just adding more and more to it, screen shots, decals, but after talking with my colleagues they reminded me that the art work is what is in the VR headset and that in that headset you are transported to another world and that world is the art, not the headset itself and to not “give it away”.

IxD Open Share 2024/25

https://videopress.com/v/9i1cyQmr?resizeToParent=1&cover=1&autoPlay=0&controls=1&loop=0&muted=0&persistVolume=1&playsinline=0&preloadContent=metadata&sbc&sbpc&sblc&useAverageColor=1

Credit going to Blaise Treverton for this great video!

Reflection:

There is a few things that I would have wanted to do differently for this OpenShare and there are things I would have wanted.

I would have liked to be able to improve my previous project and get it to a better level and made sure it was gallery ready with things built into it like resetting the scene when finished or failed along with title screens and end screens. I would liked to evaluate my displaying of the work within a gallery to a higher level with either a projector showing gameplay or more of a thematically representing display.

I would have liked more engagement and energy from some of my collaborators.

But all that aside I am very pleased with OpenShare this year, I am happy with what I got done, I am happy with the work I did in promoting IxD and the show and I am so happy and proud of everyone that put in so much work and effort into the show and helping me produce and promote everything, I couldn’t have done it alone and thankfully I didn’t need to.

Thank you to the lectures, to everyone that helped and contributed and thank you to everyone that came to the exhibition.