View Student Interviews for Shape 2018
Interview transcripts
Oliver Bowman
Amy Holland
Maurizio Pagano
Lilah Thompson
Oliver Bowman
My name’s Oliver Bowman. I’m from St. Luke’s Grammar School and I created an app called Tilt.
So Tilt is an app that aims to correct bad posture with phones. So as the phone is lowered, more strain is placed on the neck, it starts to fade to black until it’s completely black forcing the user to lift up their phone to create a habit to look at their phone.
I looked at physical products and different existing solutions to things such as neck straps and different things like that and they were all kind of clunky and just annoying to have to wear and carry around with you. And then I looked at apps, and none of them really forced you to lift up the phone.
initially I created a prototype which had the angles, different angles on it, which showed x and y axis and that let me find the best angles for it to fade in for the neck to be in the right position. So we went to physios and different health professionals to find what the best one was. It kind of took different experimenting, different testing to find the optimal angle for the neck.
Before this, I had no experience with encoding or any app work at all so it took lots of research, I had to do many tutorials, see an app professional to get advice on what may or may not be possible and then once I kind of began the coding process it was very difficult to find the exact lines of code because it’s like a different language pretty much.
Once I found it was a formula that you put in it, which is where you identify the angles you need the phone to fade at. It took quite a long time to get that formula right. Because my app is so simple, I think how it reacts, interacts with the user and how it relates to them is very important. So gradually as I went and I tested it on different people, different parts of the target market I saw how important it was for it to be really easy and comfortable to use.
At the end of it, when it was finished and I could see what was an idea initially and has become a product that we can use, it was really satisfying to see it was actually something people could relate with and use. And we have a showcase that people come in and look at the major works and just hearing all the positive feedback took me by surprise and that was really good to hear.
Amy Holland
Hi my name’s Amy Holland, I went to Davidson High School and I [stumbles] studied industrial technology. My Industrial Technology major work was a stop motion animation film called “Facts about Humans”
I decided to make an educational stop motion video because of my studies in biology at school. I found that I really enjoyed watching videos in class and I would like to make something fun
it required quite a bit of planning and I’m someone that likes to plan everything before I start. So, I story boarded everything, each scene I drew it out.
I calculated how many frames would be needed for each scene. Timed it up to the music, created a little animatic, which is each frame played with the music. So I had a very concrete plan so I knew it would go to plan when I started.
A lot of my problems came with lighting. Because I hadn’t really done anything like this before. And I found that obviously when you’re doing stop motion animation, the light changes because you’re doing it over a long period of time. I bought some lighting. And I made sure to do it with no light except for the lights on so it was consistent. Though I did have a couple of mishaps – I filmed a whole scene and the lighting was all wrong and I had to do it all over again.
The x-ray screen and the dream, the sheep, is actually green screened. it was a photo frame with just green paper inside and then I separately filmed the intestines scene using the paper cutouts that I hand made. So, I guess it incorporated another layer of detail. I was really glad that it did turn out the way I pictured it and it was very exciting to see it come into fruition.
I advise making a time plan to plan out your time. Just so you don’t get too overwhelmed and it’s important not to get too stressed because it will all work out in the end.
Maurizio Pagano
Hi my name’s Maurizio. I went to William Carey Christian School in Prestons and my project is a 1934 Fordpedal car.
Ever since I was a little boy my dad had a 1934 sedan. We always went to car shows and car meets ever since we were little every weekend so I was always growing up around cars, inspired me. When I was little I had a firetruck and little jeeps that my dad built. And one day when I was helping my dad build the pedal cars he said, “one day we’re going to make a … like a replica of my car” and ever since then I always set my mind to building one
So I search around looking for plans so I could get an idea on measurements and scaling because I wanted to make it as true to scale as possible. I based the whole project of the measurements of the grill. The grill is off an original 1934 American National pedal car.
I wanted to challenge myself as much as I could in the process of building the pedal car and I knew there were some tools I had never used before and that I would want to learn in the process of making the pedal car. So, I got the school to put in an order and we bought a shrinker and stretcher and an English wheel and I used those three tools to make the entire body of the car. So yeah, I pretty much set out a challenge to use as many tools as I could in the end I pretty much used everything in the workshop.
when I could start seeing things come together was when the chassis, with the steering mechanism and the drive shaft connected to the rear axel. And just rolling that on the floor and seeing everything turn over and steering the wheels that was probably one of the biggest milestones of the project. I think the biggest achievement, I really like on the pedal car, it’s got headlights and tail lights and its also got blinkers that flash and seeing that all wired up together as a full project that was probably my favourite part of the project.
I’d say the biggest thing to keep in mind if you’re doing industrial technology or design and tech subject is do something you’re passionate about, do something you can relate to that you always want to work on because you’ll always want to pursue and persist and achieve what you want. If you choose something you’re not interested in, you kind of fall out of it and you’re not really interested. So that’s what I did and I feel like that made me achieve what I wanted and be successful in finishing the project and be happy with the outcome.
Lilah Thompson
Hi, I’m Lilah Thompson and I’m from Newtown High School of Performing Arts and for my textile project I did an apparel item and it’s called “The Detail”.
So the dress is inspired by world-renowned architect Antoni Gaudi and he’s Spanish. when I went to Barcelona in 2016 and I actually got to see his buildings I was just amazed and astonished that he could combine all these colours and patterns and textures together to create really unique buildings and yet everything was so simple and everything went together in one.
So I decided to focus on the pillars in his Park Guell which are trumpet shaped. And then I focused on the window in the Casa Batllo which is a mosaic window and I used that in the design.
Once I had my concept it took me eight or more weeks to test what I wanted to do. To test all the elements on the panel because I had 21 different tiles and 9 circles and all the piping around it. So I had to figure out how was I going to put that all together? How was the panel going to fit into the side of the dress?
So, I used applique for the tiles and then I used this dissolvent fabric for the circles. So, it’s this piece of fabric, when you put it under water it dissolves. So the circles are machine embroidered. So I put the normal material that I was using and the 451, which is the dissolvent fabric, together and then I sewed it and put it under water and it left the existing stitches.
I love when I’m doing a project, seeing it from idea to physical appearance. So when I first drew the mock up of it I knew that that was what it was going to be. And I loved seeing the whole process throughout and just seeing it final and then comparing it with the drawing and it’s exactly the same. It’s exactly how I wanted it to be.
I would say the advice is get ahead and start early, even if it’s brainstorming ideas, putting boards together with your concepts and also stick to your idea. You can have advice from other people, you can have ideas and everything but if you’re really passionate about what you want to do you have to find it and make it happen.
