Alternative Mapping - Freedom of Choice

Dexter and Nader's Guide:
Everyday we find ourselves waking up and living out each day by making our own options and having the freedom of choice. What if that freedom was no longer available to us? What if you could not directly choose what you wanted to do? If the freedom of choice were taken away from you, how would you feel? In this interactive experience, you will not have to go anywhere specific, you will only have to follow a set of rules. These rules will correspond to a few of your daily tasks such as communication, eating, listening to music, and watching T.V.

• 1st task – pick a number between 10 and 60


• Communication: No Cell Phone use (texting or phone calls), No speaking to people of the opposite gender, Only speak when spoken to


• Eating: Do not eat anything you have eaten in the past week, You must only drink water, x amount of cups.


• Listening to Music: 1st number = scroll down in your albums list, 2nd number = in the selected album scroll down in the songs list, You may only listen to one song on repeat (first song to come up on your shuffle)


• Watching T.V.: Selected number is the channel you must watch, You may only watch one channel on TV (whichever channel comes on first)

Liz and I followed Dexter and Nader's guide, which involved restrictions to daily activities, such as not using a cell phone, listening to the same song over and over, and limiting speaking interactions with others. Living without a sense of freedom is certainly different. I never realized how attached I am to my cell phone. I got around that obstacle by keeping touch online. It’s really hard to keep track of people and make plans without using a cell phone, though, because that’s what people expect you to use. Not talking to people of the opposite gender was hard, too, but not impossible, as was speaking only when spoken to. They were hard tasks, but not impossible ones. They just really make you focus on such a small thing, like talking, and experiencing it in a different way.

I’d suggest adding a time limit. It was hard to know how long to keep myself going on this crazy path. The interaction would be very different if it only had to be followed for an hour, versus a day, versus a week. Also, when I was asked me to choose a number, it was confusing when I was trying to find a song on my playlist. The guide asked for only one number between 10 and 60, but then wanted two, and then wanted it to be decided by shuffle. I used the shuffle method because it made more sense to me. It was odd to listen to one song over and over, but again, if I had to listen to the same song (In Bloom by Nirvana) for 10 minutes versus the same song for 3 hours, things would be very different. Watching TV isn’t really part of my normal routine, so another suggestion could involve the user choosing something that they do all the time, such as checking facebook, and changing or limiting it in some way themselves, such as changing the language. Overall, I thought this was a really creative guide, and it certainly made me think differently about my daily routine.

Alternative Mapping - Exploring the T

Our assignment:
In groups of two, create a “guide” for visiting an existing place/site/event/etc. in Boston that promotes an interactive experience and presents an alternate interpretation of the space. Your goal is to invent an interactive system (an interactive experience and a language that prescribes that experience) that mediates your audience’s experience of a site in a specific way that differs from how they would “normally” interact with the space. Every part of the interactive experience you are trying to facilitate and how you are directing that experience should have a reason for existing that is related to your chosen site. Chance, play and flexibility are potentially key concepts and they too should exist in relation to your idea.

Our guide:
Get on the T. Any line, at any time. Ride until you see someone with Red Sox clothes get on. Get off at the next underground stop. Explore the length of the platform and the surrounding station, staying within an arm’s reach of any wall. Try to get from one side of the station to the other without going more than 5 feet from the wall. Crossing doorways or hallways is acceptable if they are 5 feet wide or less. Otherwise, you have to go down the hall. When you reach the other end of the platform, get on the second train that comes once you are finished and waiting.

Liz and I were a group, and switched with Dexter and Nader. We liked how open-ended our guide was, and decided that any suggestions for improvement only reduced the amount of customization that a person would have. Some of our wording was a little funny - Dexter and Nader commented that they were unsure if they had to explore only one side of the station (the length of the yellow line, for example) or the whole station itself. We could have made that part clearer, but deciding for yourself based on station layout may be a key factor for the interaction, as well.