It was a fun and enjoyable week this week in DECO3850, as it was project ideas and critiques week. It was interesting to see all of the project ideas, and the general themes evident within the presentations. A large majority of the ideas were related to emotion/mood and mental health, incorporating the use of light to visualise emotional information. Another popular theme were smart devices and how they can be used to improve daily tasks. There were some ideas presented which have already been solved with pre-existing technology. Perhaps these ideas can be discussed and altered to form a fresh idea.

My idea was titled DrumBeats and aims to teach drums in a new manner via the use of a lighting kit, similar to what’s available for keyboards/digital pianos. Reflecting back on the performance of my presentation, I believe it was sufficient, but it did leave room for improvement. Unfortunately, I forgot to cover some of the specifics of my idea during the short presentation. Next time I will be sure to have some notes with me to ensure I cover all bases. It would have also been beneficial to format the poster in a landscape orientation to increase readability during the presentation. Given my observations of the presentations and the feedback I received on my own, I do not believe it is necessary to change my idea or approach, but it would be great if I can find a way to make the interaction more unique.

The most exciting projects for me were the ones that offered different interactions with music such as the percussion glove and the musical bus. Having new ways to interact with and enjoy music is a very exciting prospect. Overall, I believe the quality of the presentations was high with some projects having great potential for the exhibition.

After the presentations, we were asked to categorise the themes within the project ideas. This was performed by the whole room. I believe we were able to successfully categorise the information and identify the themes present within the ideas. The themes will form the basis of discussion next week. There were definitely a wide range of themes categorised in the session, which will hopefully result in some interesting discussions and ideas next week.

I look forward to the World Café session and team formations next week!