Second Brainstorming Session with Walt Disney Imagineering

The second brainstorming session between REMAP and WDI (Walt Disney Imagineering) was held at the WDI R&D studios, Glendale, on 12 January 2007. A progression from the first meeting on 29 Nov 2006, the second brainstorming session was aimed at focusing on core ideas to be further developed for implementation in the summer of '07.

From the Agenda, some of the aims were to update all parties involved on the project progress, which has now included many more layers than in the previous meeting. For starters:
1. Cisco Systems has sanctioned the deployment of a wireless network covering the entire park site;
2. a 3D topographic model has been generated (see images below);
3. Nokia has sponsored 250 cell-phones for the community-participation aspect;
4. DWP (Dept. of Water and Power, LA) has agreed to support the project in the provision of cable and power infrastructure;
5. Classes conducted by Bruce Vaughn and Fabian Wagmister are underway, at UCLA.

Screenshot of point cloud data for site, viewed with Leica Geosystems' Cyclone

On a closer look (click to enlarge image), it becomes obvious that the surfaces are generated by a large number of dots. 'Join the dots', anyone?

The meeting was attended by REMAP's project participants in Remapping LA, key creative designers from WDI, as well as representatives from LA State Parks.

A congregation of creative individuals under one roof, each wanting to share his/her ideas and lay them on the table, meant that it was impossible to restrict the ideas into any specific focus. Nevertheless, the new ideas that were generated were indeed interesting, some of which are more refined than the ideas brought up in the previous meeting. Some examples (of my interpretation of the ideas):

• "media constellations" - network of interconnected media displays, whose topology would resemble that of constellations of stars;
  
• "media beacons" - large displays of media which encourage remote participation and interaction;
• overlays of maps on the physical park;
• "miniature LA" in which a virtual map of LA is projected onto the site, and visitors can visit the points of interest in the city virtually, both in space and time;
  
• content that represents, or recreates, the cataclysmic events that have shaped the history of LA - floods, fires, earthquakes;
• the rhythm of these events are organic and unplanned - could there be a possibility of employing the moving trains (passing alongside the site) as a medium of projection? This leads to...
  
• ...the creation of an anticipation amongst park visitors who are expecting something to happen on the surfaces of the moving trains;
• "metaphorical geophysical events" in which the media content portrays, within a theme, the history of the city;
• "time travel" concept, similar to previous concept but allowing the visitor to call up any point in time in history of the city, and vicariously experience it;
• "Mecano set" of miniature landmarks within the city, which allows children visiting the park to design an alternatice LA, a la SimCity, but in a real-life scale model;
• augmented reality environments which would cater for physically-immobile people, enabling them to visualise other happenings in the park.
  

Jeff Burke demonstrating the 3D model of the site

At some point in time, when we designers became too engrossed in speculating new ideas, it became more apparent that the focus on the community slowly faded into the background. At this, Fabian pointed out that the park is in fact for the community, particularly the Hispanic and Chinese migrant communities living adjacent to the park.

Four principles were laid out by Fabian, in his vision for the park:

• The consideration for the community.
• The park should be inspired by, based on, owned by and authored by the community, as well as historical events which defined the city.

• The assets in and around the park.
• The physical and built landscapes and infrastructure around the park should be maximised, or in the very least, considered, in the design of the interactive park.

• The dialectic between 'environment' and 'events'.
• The events that occur in the park should be complementary to its environment, and to the city of LA at large.

• The dialectic between 'elements' and 'activities'.
• The park elements should be designed with community activities in mind.

While the ideas were still preliminary, with the possibility of multiple interpretations, Fabian's insistence on the community aspect of the project was something that I very much welcomed. This is in line with my own principles on how the design of a park should be - the result of much dialogue between the designers (be they architects, storyboard writers and artists, content generators or media artists) and the communities that actually use the park. Likewise, the content should as far as possible be open-source.

Future meetings with WDI would involve smaller brainstorming sessions, with the aim of narrowing down to several key ideas, based on the several themes and principles above, and developing on them. This is with the aim of visualising these ideas. Further reviews would then decide if the ideas are indeed feasible.

It also affirmed my thoughts that for the purposes of my thesis project, the ideas were to serve as supplementary drivers for the project, rather than the primary driver. The discrepancy in the timelines for my own project and the overall project at large means that I have to push my thesis in a direction that, while running parallel to the overall scheme of things, would have to begin to take shape on its own.

In discussions with Kheng Soon and later Fabian and Jeff, the key concepts for my thesis began to crystallise. I intend the thesis to be a tripartite project comprising:

• a model of the NUS/REMAP/WDI collaborative effort, and collaborative efforts at large.
• a series of diagrams, proposals and key design concepts that illustrate the results of that collaboration.
• my own interpretations - and design - of what Remapping LA could be. (This would ideally be in tandem with the overall project's directions.)