Ah, self-confidence. How strange. I want them to rip me to shreds so I can improve, yet after 3 months, learning to sandblast and cut glass, how to use a table saw, band saw, how to program in processing (even if I did rip off borrow most of the code), I still lament the fact that the only positive feedback I got was that the hay smells nice.

That's not to say that I didn't get good crit. I did: The flower is confusing. Lose the flower. Nobody blows on a flower. Whats the point of the flower? It looks like hallmark. Okay, it almost looks like hallmark.

I was hurt by that at first: the flower was the coolest part for me. It made the piece. Suggesting a fake flower struck me as downright sacrilege. But now I see: its InfoBreath, not InfoPlant. If I am trying to show information in the air what do I need a bloody plant for? So, simplify, start over. Get back to the point. All the glass and the wood and the flower do not work towards the feeling of a breath of information that links us to our ecosystem.

Also: a dandelion. You blow on those.

As for The Mobile Unit: I'm more confident on that. I've got so much in there and its all my made up world and when it comes down to it I love making ridiculous wooden gear icon things, so as long as the story gets through I'm not too fussed by consistency or concept.

Though I do really like the comment that it was too constant in tone: always the same punchline. I'll remember that.

So, short-list:

• keep surprising them with approach in the Mobile Unit
• Don't make up shit, if the reason for the Hay is becase you like the Smell, just say that.
• Speak less, think first, be as eleoquent as you can write
• Use a plant instead of a flower, or rethink this whole information ecosystem thing
• Focus on writing, not showing, over break. You're good at writing.

  Whats bugging me:

• I forgot to credit chris: I feel embarassed for that. it's not like me.
• I didn't inspire awe; a buggy flower and a crazy room of hay: not exactly whitney. Chris and Lisa and Geong: siggraph at least.

Next steps

• Robotics + Planked?
• Huge crazy Gear?
• Rethink InfoBreath
• Publish two essays
• Use wooden-icon-gears to show more conceptual, political links.

Anyway, since nothing really exists until Google says it does, I will now link to everything I presented.

The Early (Failed) Prototypes, which existed as an exhibit with Hay, now exists as a series of photographs, a clunky ppt-to-web page, a downloadable powerpoint, and a wiki page. Perhaps I'll turn it into a classy web-site, but for now this amalgam will do.

And InfoBreath exists as a webpage and some overly eloquent writing.