Zixuan：

This week, we held an online group meeting to discuss our new project. After thorough discussion, we unanimously agreed to focus on the concept of viewing the world from a dog’s perspective.

Additionally, we considered Andrew’s suggestions. His first idea was to create a project similar to Night Walk Edinburgh, where we would start at the foot of Calton Hill and gradually move to the top, capturing the journey from a dog’s point of view. His second suggestion was to focus solely on Calton Hill, using it as our only setting while showcasing different perspectives overlooking the city.

After discussing both options, we decided to base our project on Calton Hill and explore its various perspectives from the top. We also talked about when to gather materials for the project and agreed to go to Calton Hill on Monday for recording.

This meeting helped us establish a clear direction for our project, and we are excited to begin working on it.

1. Key Discussion Points:

• The team debated whether to use “Greyfiars Bobby” as the main character or switch to a generic dog for more creative flexibility. Ultimately, they leaned toward using a normal dog to simplify the narrative and allow for abstract storytelling.

• Three locations were confirmed for the project: the National Museum of Scotland, Carlton Hill, and the Royal Botanic Garden. These landmarks will serve as settings to explore both human and dog perspectives.

• The group discussed transitioning between realism and abstraction to depict different sensory experiences.

2. Technical and Conceptual Decisions:

• Agreed to use normal cameras instead of panoramic ones to keep the process simple and cost-effective.

• Decided on creating immersive soundscapes combining real and abstract sounds for each location.

• Confirmed that the final output will be in video format, potentially presented with installation elements like screens and speakers.

3. Next Steps:

• Develop a clear narrative structure addressing key questions:

  • What is the story we want to tell?

  • What do we want the audience to feel?

  • Why are we using these specific locations and perspectives?

• Create a mood board and storyboard to visualize ideas.

• Research permissions for filming in selected locations.

• Scheduled a follow-up meeting with Jules on Thursday afternoon after class to seek further guidance on narrative development and technical execution.

Individual Contributions:

Yiting:

In this week’s meeting, we changed our thinking and started a new travel experience from the puppy’s perspective. We were no longer limited to the fixed human perspective of the project, but explored things in life that we don’t usually discover. The experience includes the National Museum, the Royal Botanic Gardens and Calton Hill. The project is derived from the perspective of a puppy, and you can experience the world and hearing through the eyes of a puppy. The project interweaves abstraction and reality, combining the two to enhance the audience’s sensory experience. This week we also met with Jules, who gave us some suggestions on our proposal, such as the possibility of layering sounds to record distant and nearby sounds. And conduct relevant research on the puppy’s vision, hearing, smell, etc. This Friday, Li Chao, Wu Ruotong and I went to Calton Hill to do some environmental recording. We recorded the ambient sounds from three different directions of Calton Hill in preparation for simulating the puppy’s hearing later. 

Zixuan:

In this week’s meeting, we renew our project. In this weeks tutorial, Andrews suggested us to simplify our project, and foucouse on one specific thing. So we decided to simplify the entire project, focusing on two perspectives: one from a human and the other from a dog. We aim to highlight the differences between these perspectives through contrasting and switching between them. We plan to use three landmarks of Edinburgh to facilitate these perspective shifts: the Botanic Garden, the Museum, and Calton Hill. The story will follow a person and a dog as they explore these locations, showcasing the contrasting experiences of each. 

We plan to utilize both abstract and realistic approaches in this project. We believe that things possess multiple layers, and it’s crucial not to focus solely on what we see with our eyes. We also need to pay attention to the inside core of things. We aim to employ an abstract style to express the essence of things as we perceive it as accurately as possible. 

Finally, we discussed several issues related to the project and further clarified our goals and ideas. 

Project Goal: To showcase the differences between human and dog perspectives and encourage people to rethink their understanding of Edinburgh. 

Design Concept: Combining abstraction and realism to explore the essence beyond the surface, offering a multi-layered experience. 

Choice of Cultural Landmarks: Connecting with Edinburgh’s culture and citizens through its iconic landmarks. 

Expected Outcome: Encouraging people to recognize the multi-layered nature of the world and fostering an open mindset for exploration and discovery. 

This time, we presented our current ideas to Professor Jules for discussion. Through our conversation with the professor, we decided to further simplify our project. We will focus solely on the dog’s perspective and reduce the number of locations to just one. This will allow us to concentrate better on showcasing the dog’s point of view. Additionally, the meeting provided us with many interesting new ideas and creative suggestions, such as exhibiting the project on Calton Hill. This would enable us not only to present the dog’s perspective but also highlight its unique qualities. Moreover, the professor’s idea of simulating the dog’s hearing and vision through camera movement is particularly intriguing. 

Chao:

This meeting mainly focused on how to quickly advance the project rather than getting stuck in tedious documentation work. I summarized Andrew’s advice from Tuesday morning and shared it with the team members. On Wednesday, we started discussing the story, and the final outcome was to focus the project on switching perspectives between dogs and humans. We also selected three locations in Edinburgh as material collection points for the project. Meanwhile, team members worked together to complete some documentation tasks.

After speaking with Jules on Thursday, I realized that we must take action as soon as possible and create some prototypes. Therefore, on Friday, Yiting, Ruotong, and I formed a mobile team, borrowed recording equipment, and went to Carlton Hill. We recorded approximately 40 minutes of sound material (Carlton Hill soundscape, Princes Street soundscape, street movement soundscape) and captured some videos mimicking human and dog perspectives. The materials were uploaded to the group’s shared space for discussion with other team members to see if these materials could be used for experiments, helping us continue pushing the project forward.

Ruiqi:

Dear dear diary, 

We’ve changed our story to focus only on a dog’s perspective instead of a variety of species and cut off the narrative of the piper boy. And we’ve pulled down the old narrative arc and tried to make a new one, happening in Calton Hill. Thanks to Chao, we now have some ambient sound happening in Calton Hill and Princes Street, and we sort of have a profile of what’s happening in such environments, but the only concern is I now don’t know what to do with such recordings so far since we don’t have a clear narrative, but we’ll figure it out. Also, I’ve made a sound piece of my version of a dog that represents how they perceive, which is set in the range of 40-20kHz and made in far-away-like, mimicking that dogs can perceive sound from far away. Also, I added a distortion plug-in to mimic the deaf-aid. 

Carly:

In this meeting, we discussed trashing the previous idea and creating a new one that could take a simpler approach but still work and make the audience feel what we intend to.

After a long conversation, we decided on Edinburgh through landmarks, meaning we would use the perspective of a dog and a human to portray different types of vision, keeping in mind that dogs see in a scale of yellow and blue, contrary to humans. We also decided on mixing abstract and realism concepts and chose 3 landmarks:

• Royal Botanic Gardens (show a different scenery within the city)
• National Museum of Scotland (shows a specific location of the Old Town)
• Calton Hill (show a general view of Old Town)

Another thing worth noting is that when the idea of using the story of Greyfriars Bobby first came up, I communicated to the group that I didn’t see the need for it. It would go against the pejorative of simplifying the project, as it would mean adding a new layer and also would limit us more than it would expand. The group wanted to use Bobby’s story to represent that the dog is from Edinburgh, but as I explained, there are a lot of dogs in Edinburgh, and as we are setting the story in Edinburgh, it would be redundant, and it wasn’t a need, after explaining my point of view regarding this idea, we decided as a group that it would be best to discard it and just use a normal dog.

We crafted a mood board that can be seen in this diary entry. We discussed what this would entail. The next day, we met with Jules, and keeping in mind his opinions, we focused on just one location and the dog’s perception.

During the meeting with Jules, we also discussed some problems that appeared in the group work, such as communication and proactivity. Since the meeting, it seems that they have changed.

Ruotong:

This week we made a big change to our project, in our initial project, we wanted to express so many things that the theme was less clear and hard to realize. Therefore, we dropped the piper boy and global events parts of the project, leaving only the animal perspective. We chose Edinburgh’s landmark, Calton Hill, as the location for our project, hoping to show the difference between a dog’s perspective and a human’s perspective and to discover the world that cannot be seen or heard due to the limitations of a human’s perspective. On Friday we went to Carlton Hill to see what it looks like from a dog’s perspective, and it was very rewarding. 

Summary & Key Takeaways

Meeting 5 （February 12, 2025)

Summary & Key Points
The team convened to finalize and polish Submission 1, focusing on refining the document, ensuring accuracy in citations, and preparing for the next project phase. Key takeaways include:

• Document Finalization: The group completed the final touches on Submission 1, including adding research, visual references, and a recording plan. Citations and references were standardized for consistency.

• Visual and Sound Design: Members contributed ideas for sound amplification (e.g., low-frequency sounds for earthquakes) and visual construction based on events like fire, flood, storm, and earthquake. These elements will guide future project development.

• Narrative Structure: The team discussed the narrative arc in detail, emphasizing the importance of a clear beginning (waking up as Piper Boy), middle (exploring challenges like climate disasters), and end (light symbolizing hope).

• Perspective Shifts: The group debated transitions between perspectives (e.g., Piper Boy to animals) and their narrative justification. This remains a critical focus for immersive storytelling.

• Documentation Standards: Clarifications were made regarding individual contributions to group documentation. Each member must submit their input with their name clearly labeled to ensure fair grading.

• Next Steps: Preparations for Submission 2 are underway, including equipment rental and planning for video recording within the next month.

Individual Contributions

Carly:

Today, we met to review our document before submission, meaning we made the final touches on it. We added more research, a recording plan, retouched the cites and references, added some visual references, and polished the document.

Ruotong:

In this meeting, we summarized all the sections. I inserted images representing the four events—fire, flood, storm, and earthquake—which can serve as references for our future sound and visual construction. Additionally, based on the storyline, I have envisioned some image recording plans that need to be completed in the next phase of the project.

Zixuan:In this group meeting, we sorted out and supplemented our project documents. Added some references we missed earlier. This is our last meeting before submission1, and we want to make sure that our project is perfect before we hand it in. Carly helped me to modify the citation format of the references in the part I was responsible for, which was a very useful help for me because I didn’t know how to quote correctly. We also supplemented the reference videos we provided to explain why we chose them as references.

Yiting:

Let’s work together to improve submission 1 and change the details of each part. I marked the date and location of each meeting and recording, and looked for good examples for the project for us to learn from. In the case of The tunnel, I observed that the video shooting used repeated montage techniques to create a sense of loss of control. I think we need to learn this shooting technique, which can make the nightmare look more full.In addition, in order to prepare for the implementation of Submission 2, we have contacted for the rental of filming equipment and expect to implement the filming plan within the next month.

Ruiqi:

Since Carly said it’s a cute beginning, I will continue that:

Dear Diary,

Today is the last opportunity for our group to review and adjust what we have and our plan, and it’s urgent. I’ve made a sound recording plan regarding IRs recording, piper playing sound and other detailed elements relating to the narration. Fortunately, we have settled up the research and references, which may look nicer and cleaner and which suits my MBTI so well. Haha.

Chao:

Today we have improved all the content of Submission1. My work is mainly to perfect the research of the historical and cultural parts of Edinburgh and Scotland, and then to analyze the project reference aspects of several reference prototype videos I selected.

Meeting Summary & Key Points
The discussion in Meeting 4 revolved around refining the narrative structure, technical execution, and conceptual focus of the project. Key takeaways include:

• Narrative Arc Development: The team identified the need to clearly define the beginning, middle, and end of the narrative. The story starts with waking up in a tunnel (as the Piper Boy), transitions through challenges symbolizing climate change (e.g., fire, flood), and concludes with a light at the end of the tunnel representing hope.

• Perspective Shifts: Emphasis was placed on using different perspectives (e.g., animals like dogs or ants) to explore climate change impacts. The team debated how to justify these perspective shifts narratively and technically.

• Immersive Techniques: Suggestions were made to simplify immersive elements by incorporating video clips, sound design, and minimal modeling. The idea of live narration versus pre-recorded video was also discussed to enhance audience engagement.

• Project Goals: The overarching goal is to shift audience perspectives on pressing global issues like climate change by creating an emotionally impactful experience.

• Technical Decisions: Agreement on a runtime of 10 minutes for the installation with approximately four “doors” symbolizing different climate challenges. Discussions included sound amplification (e.g., low-frequency sounds for earthquakes) and visual storytelling techniques.

• Documentation & Collaboration: Clarifications were made regarding documentation responsibilities. Each member must submit their contributions individually for transparency and grading purposes.

Individual Contributions:

Zixuan:

During this group discussion, we mainly worked on organizing, integrating, and refining our project. We finalized our main theme—climate issues. Each door in the nightmare will represent a different climate-related problem. We plan for the entire experience to last approximately ten minutes, with two minutes for the introduction, six minutes for the main exploration, and two minutes for the conclusion. The middle section will feature four doors, each leading to a different climate issue.

Next, we discussed the narrative arc and further detailed our story. In the introduction, the Piper Boy will wake up in the tunnel from a human perspective, followed by a brief narration to introduce the legend of the Piper Boy. Then, the exploration phase will begin. In the middle section, we will include four doors, each representing a different perspective on climate change:

Fire – Fish

Floods – Insects

Earthquake – Dog

Typhoon – Bird

Each of these doors will depict climate abnormalities from the perspective of different creatures.

For the ending, we initially considered using narration to conclude the experience. However, Ruotong suggested an interesting idea: instead of a traditional narration, we could have all four doors open simultaneously, allowing the sounds from all the environments to mix into a chaotic noise. Then, the narration would guide the Piper Boy towards a distant, faint light, symbolizing his attempt to escape, leaving the story with an open-ended conclusion.

Through this approach, we aim to convey that these climate issues are inescapable and unsolvable for now, yet we will continue to strive and explore solutions.

Yiting:

Since Assignment 1 needed to be submitted soon, our group increased the number of discussions in the hope of further perfecting the assignment details. In today’s tutorial, Andrew and Jules mentioned that our project might be too ambitious. So we streamlined the content and chose to focus on looking at world current affairs from the perspective of insects and animals, looking at one event from different perspectives or one perspective on multiple events. We have determined that there are four doors in total, representing the four elements of China’s five elements: wood, water, fire and earth. Behind these doors correspond to current events in the world with the same attributes. In addition, Andrew mentioned that the final presentation of the project can be more immersive and screened through multiple projectors. During the group discussion, we also determined the narrative line, which is divided into beginning, middle and end, totaling about eight minutes.

Ruotong:

After our meeting with Andrew and Jules, we identified some issues with our project and promptly held a discussion. At this stage, our ideas were too broad and scattered, making the overall project theme unclear. To address this, we restructured the piper boy storyline, shifting our focus to global climate issues. We selected four global events as focal points— Valencia floods, wildfires in California, storm Éowyn hits the UK and earthquakes—with each news event symbolizing a door. By presenting different audio-visual perspectives behind these four doors, we aim to recreate piper boy’s nightmare. Additionally, in our upcoming research, we need to determine the most effective visual representation—whether 3D modeling or video would better convey the story.

Ruiqi:

We were somewhat lost temporarily, possibly because we don’t have a solid narrative or reference work yet. Today, we had our tutorial session where we felt off track but tried our best to get back on course. However, we made progress on the narrative and developed the narrative arc, which is exciting. Carly suggested finding someone to act as a storyteller at the installation’s start to provide an introduction, while Chao proposed using video narration. I believe it might be better to combine both, though it may require more work. Aha! (Carly’s imitation is so funny.)

Carly:

Today, we discussed the feedback received during this morning’s tutorial and class. We also assessed the research and decided on different ways to change the project to align with the feedback and our project idea. Then, we created the narrative arc for this project. It was a long meeting, but we finally came to a consensus. At one point, I felt that we were stuck and suggested taking a break to clear our minds and come back to the meeting refreshed.

This morning, around 10 AM, we conducted a fieldwork session at Rodney Street Tunnel to capture photographs for our 3D modeling process. During the shoot, we encountered an issue: the tunnel’s graffiti gave it a modern appearance, which conflicted with the historical aesthetic we envisioned. To address this, we focused on photographing sections without graffiti and captured various angles of the walls and floor.

Next Steps:

1. Test whether the current photographs can be effectively used for 3D model synthesis.
2. Consult Andrew during Tuesday’s tutorial to:
   • Evaluate the feasibility of our project.
   • Seek advice on tunnel selection, photo-based 3D modeling techniques, sound design, and enhancing interactivity and immersion.

By addressing these points, we aim to refine our approach and ensure alignment with our project’s goals.

Carly:

In the tunnel, we took around 120 photos total as test photos for textures. We also found some interesting things, such as stalagmites and a piece of art.

From my understanding, we can develop some interesting textures from the photos taken and then apply them to our model to create interesting scenes. We’ve also decided against recording a new Impulse Response and instead used the ones I recorded in the innocent railway tunnel from last semester.

Project Overview

1. Theme and Concept:
   • The project is inspired by the myth of “Piper Boy,” focusing on the theme of nightmares as a metaphor for inescapable global crises such as climate change, inflation, and societal challenges.
   • The narrative will center around a symbolic tunnel representing these crises, with a faint light at the end suggesting a distant hope.
2. Objective:
   • To create an immersive installation that encourages reflection on global issues while avoiding overt political commentary or judgment.

Design and Execution Plan

1. Interactive Immersive Installation:
   • The installation will simulate a tunnel experience using 3D modeling, where participants collectively decide which doors to open. Behind each door, curated scenes or videos will depict various global crises.
   • The audience’s choices will guide the progression, maintaining a balance between immersion and limited interactivity.
2. Technical Aspects:
   • Use 3D modeling software like 3D Max to design the tunnel and its branching paths.
   • Incorporate real-time decision-making by allowing participants to vote on door selection.
   • Ensure a 360-degree immersive visual experience.
3. Visual and Audio Elements:
   • High-resolution photographs of tunnels will be used for texture mapping.
   • Ambient sounds (e.g., door creaks, wind) will enhance realism.
   • Graffiti or modern elements will be avoided to maintain thematic consistency.

Logistics and Next Steps

1. Fieldwork:
   • Scheduled visit to a local tunnel on Tuesday morning at 10:00 AM to take photographs for modeling purposes.
   • Equipment includes a Canon EOS camera for high-quality images; sound recording equipment may be used later if needed.
2. Modeling and Development:
   • Begin 3D modeling based on collected images.
   • Design multiple tunnel paths with varying visual and thematic elements.
3. Team Collaboration:
   • Use shared documents for collaborative editing and referencing.
   • Ensure proper citation using Chicago-style referencing for all sources and visuals.
4. Tutorial Feedback:
   • Discuss the feasibility of interactivity with the tutor during the next session.
   • Explore ways to balance immersive storytelling with technical constraints.

Key Decisions

• The project will prioritize immersion over full interactivity due to practical constraints (e.g., group size, equipment availability).
• Avoid overtly political content; instead, present issues objectively to provoke thought without bias.
• Incorporate a subtle narrative structure (introduction, conflict, open-ended resolution) to align with storytelling conventions.

Individual Contributions：

Ruiqi:

We were somewhat lost temporarily, possibly because we don’t have a solid narrative or reference work yet. Today, we had our tutorial session where we felt off track but tried our best to get back on course. However, we made progress on the narrative and developed the narrative arc, which is exciting. Carly suggested finding someone to act as a storyteller at the installation’s start to provide an introduction, while Chao proposed using video narration. I believe it might be better to combine both, though it may require more work. Aha! (Carly’s imitation is so funny.)

Yiting:

In the third week of group discussion, we focused on the theme of nightmares and discussed what current events in the world we need to include in our nightmares. Looking at current events from different perspectives (e.g. insects, animals) can lead to reflection on global issues. During the discussion, I thought of the Edinburgh gale and the British avian influenza. Both events are worthy of our attention and study, as nature and humans coexist. In addition, the team agreed to go to the Rodney street tunnel in Edinburgh on 2025.02.10 to take photos and collect materials for modeling. After the group discussion, I collected four world current events, namely: Japan’s Fukushima nuclear wastewater discharge caused controversy, South Korea’s Jeju Air crash, torrential rain hits the UK, and Human cases of avian influenza found in the UK. These four events were reported on BBC news and The Times.

Ruotong:

I conducted a research study on global real-time hot topics and collected and organized some major social events that have occurred worldwide in recent years:

• The COVID-19 pandemic sweeping across the globe
• Global climate change leading to extreme weather ✅
• The U.S. presidential election and political turmoil ✅
• Instability in the Middle East: the Israel-Palestine war, the Syrian civil war ✅
• The escalation of the Ukraine conflict
• Wildfires in California, USA ✅
• A presidential coup in South Korea
• The resignation of the French Prime Minister

Among these major social events, I conducted an in-depth investigation into several that I believe could be relevant to our project.I think global climate change is a crucial issue that we should focus on and integrate into our project.

With global climate change, the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events have significantly increased. This not only threatens ecosystems and reduces natural resources but also has profound effects on human physical and even mental health, especially for vulnerable groups. Earlier this year, the wildfires in the Los Angeles area once again highlighted the deep impact of climate change on human life and the environment.

In this meeting, we revisited the real-time news section that I had researched. We decided to avoid politically sensitive topics and instead focus on incorporating global ecological issues that affect everyone into our project. Additionally, since the originally planned location was unavailable, we selected a new tunnel for the project. We then conducted a site survey and recorded IRs to assess the feasibility of the project’s implementation.

Zixuan:

During this group discussion, we refined our project and established a comprehensive framework. Our plan is to depict the Piper Boy being perpetually lost in a tunnel, attempting to escape but ultimately failing. Along his journey, he will continuously encounter doors blocking his way, and behind each door will be various real-life issues we currently face. Through this approach, we aim to bridge mythology with reality. Additionally, we plan to showcase these issues from different perspectives—those of humans, animals, and insects.

During our discussion on theme selection, we agreed to avoid direct political topics. Since the story takes place in a nightmare, it inherently carries a negative tone, and we do not want political themes to introduce additional negativity into the narrative.

Beyond thematic discussions, we also outlined our presentation approach. We plan to create an immersive experience by using 3D modeling and video to showcase our project, aiming to encourage audience reflection after viewing. We also explored the possibility of integrating audience choices into the project, allowing them to decide which door to enter. Additionally, we are considering whether to include interactive elements and plan to discuss this with our professor in the next tutorial.

Finally, we set a date for an on-site visit to a tunnel to collect materials, hoping to gather resources for basic 3D modeling.

Carly:

In this meeting, we reviewed the research conducted individually. There seemed to be some confusion regarding academic text writing, as the referencing and formatting were inconsistent. I took the time to explain how it generally works so we can present our research as effectively as possible. During the meeting, we also discussed the next steps, specifically different tunnel possibilities. As there is no access to the tunnel below McEwan Hall, we determined that the Rodney Street tunnel would be our best option. We also scheduled various meetings for the following week, including one to access the tunnel on Monday and two additional meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday to complete the first submission.