Published on <a href="https://blog.prototypr.io/urban-bi-spectable-86abe1e2bdb?source=rss----eb297ea1161a---4">| Prototyping: From UX to Front End &mdash; Medium</a> Juneza Niyazi 
<h4>Interactive Installation at Kochi Biennale</h4>
The Project was the brainchild of Ar.Annabel Viegas and Sandhya Rao initiated by Urban Citylab Bangalore, in collaboration with MES College of Architecture (Calicut). The speculative installation was displayed at <a href="http://www.kochimuzirisbiennale.org/">Kochi Muziris-Biennale</a>.
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*_7IFxDWcehrzUlpUb8Z5UA.png">Map of Bangalore-illustrated using after effect and open street maps
<h3>The trigger : Is my city happy?</h3>
During a conversation about what were the layers that sculpted the city (in our case Bangalore, India) that we lived in, we realized that our city in a day is comprised of &#8211;
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*Ki-xz7MYVAyt194GiLhglg.png">data obtained from extensive research through documents received from government officials and papers written by researchers.
<h3>This lead us to question, what are the emotions that comprise the city of Bangalore ?</h3>
Is it crafted with Happiness
Shattered with Fear
Scorched with Anger or
Is there a ray of Hope ?
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*J5SXP693nDTWiPihth2NbA.png">
<h4>The Brief</h4>
The Urban Bi-spectacle is the first part of an ongoing research project on the sensory experience of traversing Bangalore’s multi-layered, hyper connected reality. It uncovers layers of interaction, experience and emotion, and explores the visible and invisible, while revealing the characters, characteristics and peculiarities of the urban.
Tracing the activities of the various urban actors from the IT worker, the waste picker, the traffic constable to the school teacher; we observe a city built on multiple modal ties, a city in constant conversation:
a conscious,dissonant,disruptive city and a city of generative experiences that intersect and intertwine, weaving the very fabric of our existence. We examine the multiplicity of the urban aiming to generate discourses on alternative methods of city design and re-look at ways to analyze and interpret real time data in an environment transformed by technology and digital innovation. (for more information refer — <a href="https://www.urbancitylab.in/projects">Urban Citylab Bangalore</a>).
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*g-P-4hz0PDncfgAjRw9kFQ.jpeg">The team
My Role : I had multiple roles to play in this project as the team was dispersed in different parts of India and we had limited resources and a time constraint of 5 months.
Interaction designer | Research assistant | Data Artist | Team coordinator | Vendor procurement
<h3>The Research</h3>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*NFAxTREXwuMYyiyFprTfcg.png">Over view of the research
For the first phase I built a team of volunteers and we went through 30 years of government files, census data, photographs, news paper articles. We spoke to urban designers, Researchers, the local city community and development authority of Bangalore. We researched on the sudden expansion of the city and the change in dynamics with the local city dwellers and the younger migrants which resulted in a unplanned urbanization and transformation of the city.
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*taXvV2sYIzyjCBhSpD2jFg.png">
Having a background in Architecture, I was excited to see the city from the perspective of a different person living and experiencing the city. As a team we listed out the various characters and sectors that built the fabric of Bangalore. During the course of the research I had discovered multiple trades and occupation that were created as a result of urbanization.
Example — Prostitution increased as urbanization increased. The insight being an increase in the migrant population in the city. IT industry lead to the rapid unplanned growth of Bangalore, this attracted multiple bachelors as it became the Silicon Valley of India. This increased the customer base for prostitution, real estate, Traffic Police.
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/614/1*MbcML4uUkPbPSfWcUiPMsg.png">Mapping the growth of Bangalore
We identified more than forty characters with respect to occupations that were a part of the city due to the growth of built area, politics, crime and corruption. The five characters that stood out from the list of characters were &#8211;
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*S_FUvK195YbczkmNYo3MGA.png">The five personas identified to conduct further research
<h4>Shadowing and filming</h4>
The second phase of the research involved task analysis, interviews, surveys and conducting ethnographic research. The ethnographic research was distributed among the volunteers. We shadowed and conducted contextual inquiry to understand their sensory experiences, their moment of interaction with each other and emotions each of them experienced while they traversed around the city. A diary was maintained to document the path they took, the people they spoke to, their complaints about the city, the quarrels with other characters and their battle for survival.
Based upon the persona research, a general survey questionnaire was created to gather insights from other dwellers in the city.
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*qeycRsdLblCxJPs2bJXYtg.png">
Drawing parallels to Human centered design approach, a city is a product of its inhabitants, so the process could be termed as a “Usability Testing” to understand the pain-points of people living and breathing the pollution, crime, politics that shape the city.
<h4>Data Visualization</h4>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*pzBcVzE8Y_Va0Go11oos8Q.png">Plotting the fuzzy data that has been obtained through the process of research. Bangalore being a multifaceted city lacks rich data repository. This inadequate data documentation posted a great challenge to analyze the various occurrences in the city.
During the course of research it was very evident that the data collected over the years had a lot of discrepancy and inaccuracy. We decided to keep the tone of the visualization abstract and conceptual.The visualization was focused on exploring the multi-layered, fast changing IT city of Bangalore, plotting interactions and emotions as a hyper connected inhabitants navigate the chaotic city, uncovering points of interaction-allowing us to better understand the inter-connectedness of emotion,industry and people by highlighting invisible data that allows new perspective and narratives of the urban.
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*HG5xCf5KAGeGJxsdY4VX7w.png">Average graph showing the emotions of the city dwellers
The graph plotted above is derived from the online survey conducted to analyze the emotional reactions with respect to various occurrences in the city.
<h4>Visual representation of the data</h4>
Video-capture: The representatives where given a go pro to capture their interactions with the city throughout the day.
Data-Mapping : The data collected is visualized on maps which are then projected on the floor for the viewers to interact with.
Abstract Visualization : Mapping the entities that trigger a range of emotions in the city.
<h3>Interactive Experience</h3>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*6KqxFn1x58bFCYoR8MdbWg.png">Interacting with data
The data and the study was visualized as an interactive installation. The participants are given the opportunity to see the city of Bangalore through the eyes of each of the persons. In correspondence to which they relate the story of the persona to the data narrated in the form of maps and sounds that reverberate the space with the emotions felt by 8.5 million city dwellers.
The interaction mechanism &#8211;
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*vlYbTC9wiDvctTfeJcUPdA.png">Hardware used for making the interaction possible
When the viewer enters the space, He picks up the phone and dials the number corresponding to the emotion he wants to experience in the city. In the above image, the number dialed is 0803 which corresponds to anger. This leads to the map projected on the floor to showcase the data collected with respect to crime , politics , environment and urbanization which has induced “anger” in the city dwellers.
The five pedestals represent the persona. The viewer can see the city from the eye of the teacher, police officer, prostitute or the IT engineer. The viewer immerses himself/herself in the journey of the persona as they move across the chaos within the city.
<h3>Final Exhibit at the Biennale</h3>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*NfAffIzLuiqNddDEKEzmfA.gif">Installation at Kochi, India
In order to know more about the project, you can write to me directly at juneza.niyazi@gmail.com . You can follow more of my work at <a href="http://junezaniyazi.com/">http://junezaniyazi.com/</a>.
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<a href="https://blog.prototypr.io/urban-bi-spectable-86abe1e2bdb">Urban Bi-spectable</a> was originally published in <a href="https://blog.prototypr.io">Prototypr</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Urban Bi-spectable

Interactive Installation at Kochi Biennale

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