Being able to understand my experiences, thoughts, and emotions play a huge role in how I take on life. Having time dedicated towards reflecting and documenting the past and present, (recent or not) helps me understand myself and my way of thinking. I also find it fun to look back on previous moments throughout my life, with seeing and appreciating the different changes and experiences that happen throughout time.

However, each day, week, and month, I "don't seem to have enough time" for those moments to get back in touch with myself. With the distraction of social media and the online world, it is now rare that I take moments for reflection and to just be present.

So when starting off capstone, I made the choice of creating a large scale installation to challenge my high fidelity physical protyping, along with allowing myself and others to take time for themselves in an interactive space.

Background

• Focusing on staying presents/ in the moment/ slowing down
• time for reflection
• time for yourself
• physical interaction with the space
• adding to the space
• creating/ visualizing your own path while seeing /connecting with others' paths (?)
• colorful - visual interest
• tactile - interactive interest/ curiosity (?)
• 

Personal: Why does it matter to me? Why did I choose this?

intro

• too much time wasted/ spent on my phone/ Instagram
• wanting to take more time each day for reflection
• wanting to take time to record the happier good moments that happen in the everyday life
• 

add picture here :>

add another sentance about/ introducing making a larger installation

alsos people to pause and reflect

This is why I decided to focus my capstone on an interactive exhibition that would allow people to reflect on their life journey and be in the present moment.

Research Says...

Memory

Emotions

Experiences

In this process I started to dig deeper into research to better understand the effect of our current culture on youth mental health - social media bla blah- and how memories are formed and how it connect with emotions

• Emotions:
• decreases emotional well being with over consumption/ other
• Memory:
• can decrease the strength of holding onto memories - especially when getting older in age
• over usage of phone/ social media etc also takes away time for creating more core memories and experiences

Paula as my advisor, - creating goals / pinpointing design elements etc

shes a deisgn coach from nuvu that helped me with my concept development

john with the fabrication production

Picture of John

Advisor & Special Thanks

Paula Garza Gonzales

John Mendizabal

Design Coach

Physical Fabrication

Wonderspaces - Austin TX Looking for Inspiration

Path Patterns is an interactive and immersive installation that encourages people to reflect in the present moment. The installation is based around us living in a fast-paced culture and fosters people to get back in touch with themselves and their surroundings.

The user chooses a colored yarn and weaves their own visual representation of their path that brought them to who they are today. Users start their weaving in a panel and wall of their choice, and add as much of a design as they want. Their choice of color and visual exploration will help them further reflect on their paths and how they interact with others'.

Project Statement

• focusing on staying presents/ in the moment/ slowing down
• time for reflection
• time for yourself
• physical interaction with the space
• adding to the space
• creating/ visualizing your own path while seeing /connecting with others' paths (?)
• colorful - visual interest
• tactile - interactive interest/ curiosity (?)
• path/ path in life

• encouraging thoughtfulness, staying in the moment, and reflection

where people are reflecting on a memory and representing it through threading and weaving in a panel.

What to prompt people with? reflective question

 installation's form

interactivity of people

Elements of Design

- User & Form -

user and form

Installation Form/ Visual Structure

User Interactions With The Space

User Experience & Reflection

form= organic vs orthogonal, be intrigued by the visuals

user experience = reflection prompt, talk about all the iterative prompts, have fun

user interactions = how are people entering the installation, moving, interacting with one another, pause staying in the moment, be immersed

(Physical experience vs mental experience)

[more sketches/ structure ideas]

say "why" about each sketches/ how did i do that with the sketches

Prototype 1

(oragami boxes)

[more sketches/ structure ideas]

sketch model

Material / Form Finding

Form Tests

prompts - (add sample of journal?)

Data Collection Prompts

• Sketching "small" things I notice or experience throughout each day
• What are

• joy
• gratitude
• openness

Prompt Iteration 1:

What’s a moment in your life that you appreciate?

(Something/ someone you cherish, something that someone did for/ with you, a core memory, a collection of moments, etc,)

Prompt Iteration 2:

Reflect on your day-to-day, what is something that you might take for granted but makes your day a little brighter?

Final Prompt:

Think about the path you took, today or the path that you have taken over time to bring you to this moment. “As you weave your path, think about the people you encountered, the feelings, and special moments.” Be thoughtful with the colors and shapes you create, reflecting your journey and others’ paths.

…or just play around with creating different shapes with various colors!

Elements of Design

- User & Form -

Installation Form/ Visual Structure

User Interactions With The Space

User Experience & Reflection

after figuring out these 3 pillars of design for the project, I then moved on to the final concept and fabrication phase

Small Scaled Prototype

Final Construction Process

final photos

Thank You!

Capstone 2024 Final Review || Lalita Bellach