Creating Influence

People have been asking me what the need is behind my project. And i answer our project is firstly about creating influences. Some of my shoes have very good needs but first and fore most influence. so what influence do i want to make?

- Placebo/wonder/excitement/ imagination - with my films i want people to believe a sort of placebo effect that these things could happen. they can fly with rocket boots and shoes can move on their own. i want to influence their imagination.

- Use - with my electronic shoes i want people to see that shoes are more than fashion and protection. i want people to see more function and produce more interaction with their shoes and see that function and use don't have to come in the form of ipods.

I also feel that shoes as a topic is seen by most people as a bit superficial with no deeper meaning. I want this to change.

I think in the breadth of my project and seeing what can be done with shoes will be a very good influence. we have had shoes since the Egyptians, Romans and Greeks, yet their function has gone unchanged with only variety in their form, which is still essential the same. At this defining moment, change has come to shoes!!

Detachable Heals

I wanted to make a universal heal that you could attach different heals to to adjust the height and style of your shoes - reducing material use and cost of shoes. So i made 10 wooden heals all the same and then cut and latched them to demonstrate the concept. I have also made 007 killer heals that release ball bearings for enemies to slip on.

hand made shoes

I haven't spoken to any shoe makers yet but just wait and I will. anyway i wanted to see if i could make some shoes out of intuition and observation. So my boyfriend had to lend me his feet. I bought some stiffish cotton and just sort of cut it up and made it fit round his foot and held it in place with masking tape. But then i made it into a pattern of 3 parts: 2 heal parts and the over the toe area. Glued it all together and stapled it to an insole. did this for both feet - just reflected the pattern. then i added a tongue and some laces and voila a very rough pair of shoes, but a pair of shoes none the less.

Direction arrows

one of the ideas was to download maps on to your shoes and direction arrows on your shoes guide you the route. for people who get lost easily or find map reading hard- even on an i phone. i was suppose to be filming a proper working video but the weather man told me it was going to rain and i don't want my newly made electronics being ruined, needless to say it didn't really rain but i had left all my electronics on my desk. anyway here's the process of making the lights from some leds.

Walking a 1/4 mile in another girls boots

One of my ideas was to have cameras in shoes that took pictures automatically so you and other people could see your world in different ways with out any effort. My class mate Andy Craig was playing around with cat cams which are micro cameras. anyway not wanting to spend money on them as i wasn't sure if this was even a good idea, i made my own un-integrated camera boots. i had 4 disposable cameras left over from my probes in the play stage so strapped (with wire so i could angle them) them to my boots and set out to take a picture every 10 steps. There were two cameras on each leg, one on the front and one on the side. I took my first photos and then took one step and the cameras all fell out of their holder things I had devised, not good. so then I just held them win position where they would have been strapped for the photos. Also my 10 steps quickly became every 1 minute as 10 steps is not far and would not have much variety in my photos making not much point in the experiment. Using disposable cameras and holding them at my legs (you can see my shadow of me taking the pictures in some frames) meant i had no idea what i was taking photos of and no idea if they were going to be any good. i was pleasantly surprised. Anyway i got them developed and here is the wee video. there's music to. Enjoy!

Search light shoes

These shoes are designed to light up when the user snaps their heals together (ditto Dorothy wizard of oz). there are 2 settings: a constant light or flashing on only when heals are clicked. their use is for children to be easily and quickly seen when lost out and about. these shoes were made by the integration and modification of dynamo powered torches into a simple pair of pumps. For the shoes ( there are 2 I'll pop a video of them working together up this week) to be completely wearable the electronics need to be smaller and integrated better but a quick prototype to shoe the concept works. below is a picture of how bright the light is and a video of them flashing.
thanks

Proving PLAY!!

OK so i have heaps of blogs to post...just trying to find the right time, I've got a spare bit of time now but no photos so this is just a general blog about play.

due to the unconventional nature of my project, I'm playing around with heaps of different things. With the help of Pete (one of my tutors) i have clarified what i am going to make for my prototypes of my 30 or so shoes of the moment. So this is what i want to prove i can do in the very little time that remains of play.

• Making bespoke electronics
• Integrating (roughly) bespoke and pre made electronics into shoes
• making shoes and shoe parts such as heals
• making both concept and experience prototype videos

The crit is on the 19th of December, 9 days away and i don't know how much sleep I'll get. But then after is holidays and Christmas where i can eat, drink and be merry so for the next 9 days i don't mind working hard. There is a lot to do but I'm ready for it, fingers crossed!!

Wine video and drawing

Ok so I made a video of the wine making shoes in action. also here's the first of my drawings for what i hope they will look like. I want all my shoes to be really stylish and fabulous which i hope they are but these are all open to change. I want them to be edgy.

Rocket Boots

My rocket boots. A fantasy pair of shoes...or are they? here are some pictures of them on people and in action. Enjoy

Wine making shoes

Today I finished my prototype of my wine making shoes. There is also a video of me crushing the grapes which i will upload later. Here we go...
This first image is of me cutting the grapes so they could fit into the capri sun bottle. At this stage of my project my prototypes are quick and rough...very rough.
These are of the shoe mechanics. stand on the capri sun which contains the grapes and walk about. The grape juice flows up the tubing as shown below.
So my carpi sun containers were about 1/4 full and i walked for about 2 minutes and this is the result
Impressive I know. But basic proving of the principle. So maybe instead of wine they could be smoothie makers or soup blenders or even heaters...hum maybe too far. Jon my tutor suggested the name "sole food" which I quite like. Maybe I'll do a range of sole food shoes.

Play

So far in the play section (due for critque in 3 weeks) I have made

• rocket boots and a video of them working which i will up load very shortly.
• A prototype of wine making/grape crushing shoes
• the start or the mechanical fingers for monkey climbing shoes.
• tested and rejected the etch a sketch customisable shoes.
• ordered a heap of stuff and deliberating what to do with them

Goal for end of week: Have all 49 shoes figured out

23 of the 49

A list of 23 of the 49. I've just titled them as a description and a one line function.

1. Hollywood search lights for lost children
2. Parent child finding
   
3. SOS signals
4. Hot and cold directional
5. Monkey claw for climbing
6. Webbed toe for better swimming
7. Partial sole shoe for hidden bare foot walking
8. Sole-less shoe for extreme hidden bare foot walking
9. Interchangeable high heals
10. Light up pavement for portable disco floor
    
11. Children connecting
12. Twisties for unlimited spinning
13. Vibrating reflexology for the ultimate foot fetish
14. Etch a sketch customisable shoes
15. Interchangeable sections of shoes
16. Secret spy cam
17. Vibrating shoes to show which direction to go
    
18. Light up arrows on shoes to show which way to go
19. 007 killer release heals
20. forced attraction shoes
21. Wheat grinding shoes
22. Wine making/ grape crushing shoes
23. Beautiful yet comfortable heals

I should hopeful get my Manolo Blahnik style sketches of all the shoes up by the end of the week.

the 49 shoes

After deliberating over my two ideas, I have decided to make an array of conceptual but working - to an extent- shoes apealing to peoples' wants, needs and desires. They are going to be quite practical but very avant garde or falmboyant maybe a more accruate description and yep there's going to be 49 of them. I've choosen 49 because a) it sounds like a nice title b) it is a manageble number of shoes to concive and produce. I was going to go for 99 but in this time frame and given my find sections' findings i'm thinking 49 is a good number.

Ideas and Play

On the 11th on November some big important people came to see us and discuss our work. This was the "Ideas Day". With their breadth and depth of knowledge they were exceedingly helpful. We post- it noted 20 of our best ideas and the important people drew/scribbled/etched comments on them. This was also the start of our Play section.

From this insightful event I decided to go down on of two routes: throwing things into trees or over power lines to create and add to the environment or a gallery of conceptual shoes with various functions to fulfill certain needs and desires. Below are images of the ideas.

Rational

We had to produce a rational and the thinking behind our subject area. Here's mineWalking bare foot in the sand excites me. It is sensational. And shoes, I adore shoes. The way they look, the way they make me feel and the messages they send to other people. This I find fascinating.

Bare feet is an exploration into the most spectacular and most forgotten part of the body:the feet. We use our feet everyday, they take the physical burden of our bodies and the pressures of our everyday lives.

So many people experience joy from their feet, whether it's walking bare foot on wet grass, running a marathon or exploring a new city. Being on your feet can be an exciting time. For others walking or using their feet is a nightmare. Sores, pains and cramp alone can render anyone immobile and reluctant to move. How can you recreate and improve pleasure whilst reducing pain? can our feet be used in innovative and unconventional ways?

Inspiration

I love this photo. I don’t know what to do with it yet but I love it. I wish I could say I took it or was even present when it took place, but alas it’s from my good friend Flickr.com. I hope I get hundreds ideas from this photo & other ones I have discovered, but at the moment all I know is I love it and want you to see it.

100 ideas in 3 weeks

I missed writing up my blog last week and I wish I hadn’t. It seems that in the last week my motivation had dwindled and my project progression advancing at a slow snail pace. So I have vowed never to miss a Tuesday blog! I find writing the blog helps me clear my head about the project as I have to convey it to other people. But anyway enough rambling.

It is 3 weeks until our first hand in of 100 ideas with insights worth 15% of the module mark. 15%!!! So far I have roughly, very roughly have 5 or there about. So where are the other 95 to come from? My research. Hum my research.

As it stands my research is:

Probes – get them back on Thursday

Books – so many books

Film – just for kicks & a bit of puss in boots

Emails

Blogs

Observations

Flickr – I now adore flickr

Below are some items from my probes

What I am really interested in is the emotions we get from bare feet, shoes & movement & possibly trying to recreate these experiences. Had a bit of a chat with Jasmine, Eva & Imran today, juggling about some ideas. It was defiantly a help. But 100 ideas? 100 great ideas? It is feeling a bit daunting. I hope to have a disco ball of ideas not just a light bulb.

The powers of the internet

Wow I’ve had my Gum Tree adverts up for less than 24 hours andalready I’ve had a multitude of willing guinea pigs (or people interested in shoes etc) reply. Keep up the good work, the more the merrier! Some of my probes are defiantly going to be sent by email – saving the environment, cheaper costs, hopefully a quicker response – I just hope they will be as insightful as my physical probes should be.

Stimulating Research

A picture of foot reflexology, aren’t feet interesting?

Today we had a lecture on “cultural probes” as a research method. Basically little activities to engage with people to try and get some kind of valuable research for a project. At first I was skeptical as my probes last year gave little value but after taking to Jayne Wallace (the lecturer) and Pete Thomas (one of my tutors) I’ve come up with what I hope will be fun, useful activities. My probes are geared to emotion & sensations you can get from bare feet or the movement of your feet. The only problem I’m finding is finding people from my exploration groups to contact and speak to. However I did just post a bunch of ads on Gumtree so if you’re reading this having seen my ad & followed the link, PLEASE HELP! I am going to make my probes electronically accessible so no one has to give out home addresses if they don’t want to as probes are physical objects. I am also going down to visit the Dundee road runners this Thursday and try and recruit some of their members. I’ve contacted the uni dance society and continuing to search the internet for forums and discussion groups on shoes. I’m quite enjoying this project. I’ve added “Work extremely hard” to my personal “to do” list.

wish me luck!

Intro

This is my online diary & dumping ground for my 4th year project for my BSc in Innovative Product Design. We have been given free reign to decide what our project topic is and the direction we want to take it. Initially I was excited, but then deciding on a topic I am passionate about, that would make an excellent project and that would keep me occupied for the year was hard and my topic is still vague.

"Bare Feet" is a title under construction (and will probably change when I next speak to my tutor) and basically a broad and hopefully witty way of saying I am looking at feet and all related areas. The main related areas I want to investigate are: Movement, Culture & Personal.

Movement

I want to look at the different ways we move our feet to get around and enjoy our selves. I’m going to speak to Dancers (professional & the rest of us), Runners and other sports people and walkers. I want to look at the physical and emotional sides of movement.

Culture

Here I am going to explore the past & present fascination with footwear. I have done quite a bit of reading on this already and the connotations and symbolism of footwear are extraordinary! I will hopefully speak to some bespoke shoe makers (including shoe customisation- especially trainers), shoe historians and shoe fan clubs.

Personal

In this area I specifically want to explore the emotional effects shoes and movement on our lives and feelings. I will incorporate this area into the other two but will also be exploring it in a purely emotional level. I hope to speak to shoe fanatics & people with shoe fetishes to see what it about shoes that turns them on? Why do you feel amazing in a certain pair of shoes? Why do you feel like you can’t stop dancing even if your feet are sore?

All this well and dandy the project is split up into 4 areas: Find; Play; Make; Talk. Find is our research stage, Play our prototyping stage, Make the making of the final piece and talk a 20 minute presentation of our work. Ahh scary things.