leaving the

screen

jiwon paik

prompt: for an enemy

code: download

idea: a 'connect the dots' activity intended to be tedious and time-consuming with no coherent/gratifying end image (dots/numbers are placed randomly on the screen during set up). background color changes according to click location.

process: the original draft had each dot/number as a separate string. then created vector for points with randomly assigned x and y points. also tested out a drawing tool for connecting the dots with mouse clicks/drag, but decided it afforded too much convenience.

possible next steps: add high frequency/annoying sounds that change pitch with mouse location.

prompt: runs while you're asleep

code: download

idea: based on the idea that there are two main types of sleep (NREM and REM), that sleep is cyclical, and that one may feel better rested if they wake up at the end of a cycle instead of mid-cycle (especially when in deep sleep - e.g., stages 3 or 4), this program is meant to start run as soon as the user falls alseep so that others (or the user him/her-self) can be aware of the best time for the user to wake up to reduce sleep inertia. sleep state (which was determined by generic sleep cycle data) is indicated by the color of the bars that appear on the screen every minute - black represents the deepest, most intense sleep, while green represents moments of natural awakening.

process: initially, the 'sleep bars' were coded as individual rectangles with unique x-y positions, color, and timing. in the current version, a sleep bar class and conditional statements in the draw function allow for more automatic assignment of bar location, color, and time information. the timer also now displays the elapsed time by hours, minutes, and seconds.

possible next steps: in this version, the color of the current/most recent sleep bar becomes the color of all the bars (as opposed to the bars retaining their unique sleep level color), so i would want to modify the code to achieve this. more conceptually, given that ideal sleep duration vary by age (among other factors), so perhaps allowing the user to select his/her age and have the sleep cycles adjust accordingly might be something to look into. also, the program could be altered to allow for different types of sleep cycles (e.g., polyphasic sleep cycles like the uberman cycle or the dymaxion cycle). continued challenges include a) the user is unlikely to fall asleep immediately after they start the program and b) individuals have unique sleep cycles, so the usefulness of such a simplistic program is obviously reduced.

prompt: for lonely people

code: download

idea: studies have shown that loneliness often reduces the perception of social support and that it may trigger greater feelings of nostalgia, which in turn increase perceived social support. some studies speculate that nostalgia plays a restorative function that protects and fosters mental health. on that premise, this program asks lonely people to reflect on a fond memory for at least 60 seconds. it then asks them to share their memory, which gets stored in an array. once the memory is submitted via pressing the enter key, the program shares the memory of the previous visitor.

process: in the first attempt, strugged with populating the array with the user's input (and the 'stock' memories) as well as getting the previous memory in the array to show when the user pressed the enter key. this version has resolved these issues..

possible next steps: currently, the amount of text displayed on the screen (both the type being entered by the visitor and the 'previous' memory being displayed) is limited by the width of the screen - i.e., any additional type flows off the screen. for the next iteration, would like to fix this by creating a class that would manage the text overflow by separating this input into multiple lines.