Sensodrama

Representing YOUR world!

Created by:
Mauro Cherubini

Idea outlined at the Science Simulation Lab
with support from Nesta Futurelab and PAL with:

Stephen Boyd Davis	Bob Mohl
Magnus Moar	Nathan Hughes
Roy Hawkey	Julian Sefton-Green

With special thanks to: Graham Toms, Jonathan Maris and Kelsey Smith

Sensodrama – Personalized Data Representation System

Sensodrama is a general-purpose construction kit that lets children create "representational" models of the world, which have personal meaning for them. Sensodrama’s toolkit includes both software and hardware, with a set of sensors that children can use to capture real world data such as light, noise, temperature, pressure, etc. The children can then use the software to construct a creative representation of the physical phenomenon. The project is based on a theatrical metaphor, where the user is the ‘director’ and can pick different ‘actors’ to perform ‘scripts’ consisting of real world data, as well as assign a variety of behaviors related to those data flows. For example, a child might want to represent her heartbeat as a teddy bear that grows larger or smaller, based on her pulse data.

Creative Direction: Sensodrama allows children to be both artistic and scientific in creating personal data representations that are meaningful to them, not imposed on them. This affective solution to a challenging cognitive problem shows a lot of promise. This approach may prove particularly effective in engaging children who are not motivated by traditional graphs, but who are attracted to more aesthetic representations.

Educational Benefits: Sensodrama can help children learn about the world and how to represent it in ways they find meaningful. This construction kit can be used for a variety of school experiments, as well as for more personal projects (such as tracking your health, a topic which students responded to with great interest). The flexibility of this toolkit also gives children the control they want over which phenomenon to study, which sensors to use and how to visually represent the data.

Product Opportunities: Sensodrama is likely to require a vast, media-rich library of compelling graphics, sounds and animations, to fit a variety of personal styles. The user interface will also be key for this project, and the next round of design might be devoted to making the construction tools as intuitive as possible. Lastly, because some personal representations created by users are not always as meaningful to others, the product might benefit from also offering a range of familiar representation templates, with conventional formats that can be best understood by others.

[Last update January 23, 2003]