THEME
Play/Object
CONTEXT
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marimo
This week while trying to come up with ideas for my object I kept coming back to my marimo and how I wanted to use them somehow in the context of an app or AR rather than their actual physical state as buddies for my desk.
Chia pets were on my mind as I started moving towards plants as my specific objects for the week, I always liked the idea of them even though I never had one myself.
https://www.amazon.com/Ceramic-Bulbasaur-Flowerpot-Decorative-Painting/dp/B01F94FCCW
Little decorative planters, as shown above, were another source of inspiration as I was thinking about how I wanted to integrate plants as well as a little virtual pet.
METHOD
I was fairly set on developing a concept that included both a virtual pet and plants, but I couldn’t quite settle on what the larger purpose of such an app would be or how I could conceptualise it in such a way that would lend it to longevity. In the end I decided that an app that caters specifically to Australian native flowers would serve a dual function of education as well as entertainment; the idea being a user could take a picture of a flower that they came across which would then influence what their little buddy would look like. Users could then curate a library of different appearances with a small snippet of information about the flower as well as a graphic showing the distribution of the flower. The little buddy would be in a similar vein to tamagotchi and other such pocket pets, but with the added flavour of being able to customise it by bringing things encountered in the real world (i.e, the flowers) into the virtual.
RESULTS
I had a lot of difficulty coming up with a solid idea to fit this weeks theme, but overall I’m not unhappy with where I ended up even though I think it needs to be fleshed out a little more. I like plants and I like little virtual pets, and I think that the take a picture of a native flower > get information and collect appearances is one with potential.
