ABOUT THE +EXTRA PROJECTS

the world is your heartbeat

(gray area showcase, 2018)

Imagine Humans of New York in Virtual Reality with heartbeat sensors

This interactive exhibit explored the experience of closeness through virtual reality. Exhibit-goers listened through headphones to a Humans of New York-style story about the storyteller’s first time falling in love. At the same time, they entered Virtual Reality through Google Cardboard, where they saw two spheres. The red-orange sphere on the left pulsated at the beat of their own heart (while they were hooked up to a heartbeat sensor). The yellow sphere on the right matched the heartbeat of the storyteller whose voice they were listening to.

I was curious whether viewers’ heart rates would align with the storyteller’s over time, and at the end of the exhibit, it did seem like that happened, though more testing would be needed to be confident. I developed this project through Gray Area’s Creative Coding Immersive, and did all the design and coding myself (with a little help to find the best approach for using JavaScript). The project uses technologies including hardware sensors, Arduino, node.js, web audio, A-Frame for web VR, and a Google Cardboard.

familiar, a game to learn about new friends

(product development, 2017-ongoing)

Imagine The Newlywed Game between new friends

This card game was initially developed as a way to help people have meaningful conversations within a ride-sharing service like Lyft or Uber. It went through many iterations, finally evolving into something that any set of new friends can play with each other (first dates, co-workers who haven’t talked before, new classmates). The first round (LEARN) begins with asking deep open-ended questions like “If you had an extra $100 to spend on yourself every week, what would you do?”. The second round (GUESS) follows The Newlywed Game where the pair of friends will guess their partner’s answers to questions like “Would you rather be ten minutes late, or an hour early?” The third round (CHAT) allows each pair to compare answers and ask questions where they’re interested in learning more.

This game has been tested across many different groups of people (with a balance of ages, ethnicities, genders, religious affiliations) and has helped people find unexpected commonalities and also learn about each others’ differences. I continue to develop it with the hope of eventually releasing to a larger audience.

bREAK iT dOWN

(mills fellowship in writing and community engagement, 2016-9)

Imagine alter egos (like Beyoncé’s Sasha Fierce) meet narrative therapy

This curriculum for creative writing workshops was developed after reflection on my experiences at Year Up, a workforce development nonprofit that works with young adults from historically underserved communities. Students mentioned being aware of the stories that other people tell about them - they’re seen as trash, gangster, low-class, etc. I wanted to develop a way for students to be able to break down the Stories that people have about their Identities, and to construct their own stories. In these workshops, we create alter egos and write poems from that alter ego’s perspective to look at what a story even is.

This project has been successful in helping students to process traumas that they otherwise wouldn’t address, to maintain their creative energies while working jobs that don’t allow for much creativity, and to help build connections with other participants who are really different from themselves. Students have given feedback that this should be a required course in college, and I am in the process of writing up the curriculum to share broadly with more teachers.