Sam's Box
The physical experience
​Our final artifact is a roughly 12 by 8.5 inch plywood box. It has personalized art on the sides and two different compartments for storage that can be opened. In the lower compartment is stored a small blanket and some therapy release forms. In the top compartment are found multiple different kinds of mental health treatments such as lavender, healing crystals, fidget objects, meditation guides, inspiring pictures and a journal.
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Additionally found inside the box is the website and log in information for Sam’s online therapy treatment (Login: Samhuumen2042@gmail.com; PW: TherapyPassword). Once on the website you will have to login to view Sam’s information, you can even complete a therapy session as if you are Sam using the 24/7 virtual therapist offered on the website. The website also details why this sort of therapy is prevalent and what happened to the world.
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During the quarter there were very few design elements that changed in respect to our artifact and overall story. After our first presentation we took a lot of the suggestions to heart especially concerning the physical artifact. We changed from a cardboard box to a wooden box with creative art on the side of it. In terms of our story we stuck pretty much with our initial plan and there were relatively no alterations save for some additions. We fleshed out our patient Sam Huumen, giving them a history, a back story and a death. Another thing that changed was our communication and cooperation as a team. As the quarter went on we communicated more and work harder together to get things done.
The digital experience
Overview of artifact
The assembly
Building the box
We originally had a cardboard box as Sam's therapy box but after feedback we decided to make a wooden one and Grace took the lead on creating it. "It took a long time to make the box because of my school/work schedule and the time the maker space it open. When I first went in there I had no idea what I was supposed to do and only had rough dimensions and an idea of how I wanted the box to look. Luckily when we had some time in class I was able to go up to the maker space before it closed and on of the volunteers walked me through measuring, creating the outline and cutting out the pieces as well as helping me figure out the best way to glue them together. After that I went in between my classes and before my work whenever the maker space was open so I could use their wood glue and clamps to make the box. It took me about 5 days to finish gluing it together. After that, I went to home depot and bought some hinges, superglue, brackets, and handles. After another night of gluing the box was very nearly finished. It was then that I passed it off to Sanjevni and went back to the Makerspace to finish the last few pieces for the shelf. I had measured the box down to 3 decimals points so that I could make sure what I was cutting would fit. There was some trial and error with the sizings at first but luckily that was just with the template and I hadn’t cut anything yet. I cut out the pieces and met up with Sanjevni after she had finished with the box to glue in the final components.
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Adding design touches
After Grace finished assembling the box, Sanjevni took it home to beautify."I stained the box and added small details I felt Sam would create. I began with multiple thin coats of coffee. Unfortunately, the wood began to expand so I mixed brown watercolor with coffee and achieved the final tone. Using a lighter, I singed general areas- focusing on different points to make dark circles. Next. I painted purple clouds and trees, which I also singed, assuming these would be what Sam could see out of their window. To express their romance with Chris I carved their names and heart with an old, dull knife. I also went over the carving with a pen to make it more legible. Finally, I credited Grace, boxy’s mother, with her own registered trademark logo. Cleaned up the brass hinges and voila!"
Inside the box
The journal
We decided that creating a therapy journal for Sam would be an important addition to the box and it would hold personal information that would allow whoever is interacting with the artifact to better understand Sam and what they are going through living in the future. Alexis created and weathered the journal. "My process for creating the distressed journal was writing in the journal first. I wrote and drew in the journal to make it look more personalized. Once I did that, I realized that the journal looked too new, so I decided to try to make it look old. So, what I first started to do was prep the coffee. I had coffee grinds and mixed it in with hot water and let it sit. I decided to do this first so that the coffee would cool down before dipping the pages in. After I did this, I then began to take the spiral part of the notebook off of the pages so that I could dip each of the pages individually, I also took out more than â…” of the pages that weren’t used because it made the journal look empty. Once all the pages were separated and the book was taken apart, I dipped each page, one by one, into the coffee. I dipped it, then placed it on a cooling rack to let it dry. I had to be careful because the paper was super fragile when wet. I did this piece by piece and I didn’t layer the wet pages on top of each other because I was afraid it would dry and stick together. I let the pages dry overnight, once it was all dried, I then put back the book together. I had to be really careful since some of the pages holes were ripped. I struggled a little bit putting the spiral part of the book back on, but eventually I got it down. After the book was put back together, I went outside with a lighter and burnt some of the edges of the paper to define it even more. Then, I was finally done! It was really fun to create, I’m super proud of how it came out."
The fidget toys
Inside the therapy box contains items that Sam uses to help them destress so Long had the idea to 3D fidget toys.
"I was only able to get 2 toys to print out. The objects we wanted to print took 3-6 hours each and sometimes my print would fail and I would have to start over again so it was really time consuming. There was going to be a third one but I don't know how that print went because of the people running the maker space threw away my print not know if it was done or not so I didn't want to deal with printing 10 more time waiting 6 hours each time. Still, the prints that I did manage to make turned out well."
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The first toy is a purple folding cube that changes color based on temperature (see top right). The other is a ball with several spheres inside of it that are able to spin on their own (see right).
The medication bottles
One of the final things we added to the box was three medication bottles that were prescribed to Sam via the online AI therapy sessions. People interacting with the digital artifact go through the AI therapy session and at each "end" the bot prescribes Sam a drug to fix his issues. Katharina went through the Twine Story and pulled out some of the common drugs that were prescribed. "I had some old empty pill bottles that I thought to use for this project. I started by soaking the bottles in warm water so I could remove the actual prescription stickers and then took Avery 1"x2 5/8" blank mailing labels and stuck them where the old labels were. Then I attempted to handwrite a Dolas Corp branded prescription but it ended up looking very mediocre. I then was going to find larger sized mailing labels that I could print on to and then stick on the bottles but my schedule didn't give me enough time to do that. I wanted the bottles to still seem professional so I ended up finding a prescription template online and then just hand-wrote the kind of medication on to it and faked the doctor's signature. With some good old scotch tape I taped the prescitption labels onto the bottles and then put some tic-tacs in them to resemble pills."
Debriefing
How we got started
Below is a conversation that took place in a google doc of how we came to relate our project to mental health and climate change. We were really happy with our initial design ideas and just tweaked it a little bit by switching to a Twine story instead of using a VR game but the basic idea stayed the same.
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Long: So one idea would be to use 3D printed object or even regular object on a sort of mini stage to show climate change
I still like my idea of the future where 50 years later is still not so advanced still, not like terminator stuff nothing that far.
Katharina: Yea thats true I don’t think we will advance too far in 50 years
Long:So what are we printing? I was thinking of 3d scanning us and using body language to show climate change. Art pieces, like statues, that depict life at this time-cool, How would it be interactive?
Katharina: What about telehealth? This is something that is becoming more common now? Maybe in 50 years telehealth could be integrated with mental health as well? Not just physical health. Not sure what that would look like ..
Long: If we are to talk about health than i think 50 years in the future VR would be more implemented for therapy
Katharina: Sounds like an interesting idea, but I think for health, especially mental health, making it personal- between a psychiatrist and patient- the patient improves more than simply working on mental issues on their own.
What would the artifact for this be? Like a journal?
Long: What do you mean by a journal?
Grace: Like a journal the patient is keeping as they receive care
Sanjevni: A log of medical records? How do we tie that into an artifact through? Also would we be making a game?
Long: I think if we are to us VR than we would use a game like “Richie's Plank Experience” a VR game that puts you in a tall building with an open window you walk out of with a plank that you can walk off and fall
Katharina: Climate change? → can’t travel to doctors anymore bc the world is drowning / traveling is not realistic for people anymore
Long: So another thing would be using VR to now sightsee around the world where the world in 50 years is so bad that you can't travel to the place you want to physically
Katharina: Let’s say that ALL doctors are virtual now? You can still do behavioral health work via VR. It’s cheaper to have technology help so it is more accessible to everyone, plus we can assume that climate change has made it very difficult to travel at all unless you’re wealthy.
Sanjevni: I like this idea a little more. Mental health is touchy and we don’t want to lighten this serious problem.
Katharina: I agree but I think we can make something that encompasses all aspects of health. Our website could have options for primary care, behavioral health, and everything in between? Or we just do mental health.
Sanjevni: Are we building a VR thing for students to use? Like they put on the glasses or whatever and they can see the doctor.
Katharina: VR is kinda a bitch to transport but we can have examples on our website and then I was thinking about having a patient's log of what they do in a therapy session that someone would find
Grace: Or we have something that tells the story of one specific patient like that one art book from the library.
Alexis: How will our product be found?
Katharina&Grace: We find one patient’s belongings, like a box that they keep a journal, medications, images that help, etc (does that make sense?), patient info login credentials for their patient portal on the website → access to all their logs
Alexis: How are people going to get the VR? Purchase through website? If so, is it affordable to middle class? Do they have free access to it?
Katharina: Yes i think in 50 years we can say that VR is like getting a smartphone. Not free but the technology will be accessible. Our phones have VR features. VR will be our access to doctors who can give therapy
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Our insights
Long
So I worked on the Twine coding and some of the artifacts for our box. I used Sanjevni’s story path to create how the coding will work out. As for the physical artifacts in the box, I 3D printed out an infinite folding cube and a puzzle ball. I would have printed more but with how much 3D printer fails with its prints and how long it takes to print out one object (3-6 hours), we just had to go with the two. I really like how our whole project has turned out, especially with the box. I think we went over and beyond with what we had planned and just went with a complete upgrade. I would have liked to add in more objects to 3D print but I was not the only one with artifacts to add to the box so I think with what we have is really a great amount of work we have all done. With the twine coding, I think what we have for that is really great acting as a therapy a.i. Like care. overall , the whole project was great, I put a lot of effort into doing what I was assigned and so have the others.
Grace
I mostly worked on the physical box. I went the maker space created the blue prints, cut and glued the wood and glued the hinges and handles onto the box. It was hard to find time to get it done but I’m really happy with the result. I also helped flesh out the Dolas Cooperation Therapy Website. I added some information about the company's background and why it created this form of accessible therapy in the first place. I had a lot of fun building the box and learning how to use the maker space. If I had more time I would have added many small wooden separations for each item in the box but I am still very proud of the box as it is. It is one of the coolest things I have ever built with my hands and I think it adds a lot to our project.
Alexis
I helped with creating the narrative backstory, kind of helped fix up the website (but Katharina did most of it). I also included a meditation book, therapeutic photos as well Sam’s journal. Recently, I have mainly been working on Sam’s journal. I wanted to write a decent amount of journal entries that were interesting yet helps people get to understand what goes on in Sam’s mind and life. For the journal, since it looks like a typical, small, spiral notebook, I cut out a piece of paper, wrote “Sam’s Journal” on it and put it on the front of the notebook to make it look more personal to Sam. Inside the journal there are written words and drawings. It was interesting and fun to pretend to be someone else, to think like someone else, to put myself in someone else's shoes. I will say, some journal entries are a little bit repetitive, but that’s just reality. We feel certain ways more than once in our lives. Overall, I feel proud of the journal and how it looks. I think it captures the character, Sam’s, emotions and life pretty well.
Katharina
My biggest contribution was during the brainstorm of the product and then assumed the role of project manager as well as spearheading the creation of the website. I was in charge of pulling all the components together and assembling them on our team website as well as bringing in the medication bottles, the lavender/potpourri. I collaborated with the original design process as well as brainstorming what the contents of the box would be. I’m really happy with how our artifact turned out and how the workload was distributed. Our team’s dynamic was awesome and I’m glad I had the opportunity to work with them!
Sanjevni
I created the narrative backstory, elaborate automated assistant storyboard, and painted the box. My initial backstory was a future in which the human population was completely eliminated by a poisonous gas and mole people crawled out and inhabited Earth. The AI story would have been different as well, a video, similar to many conspiracy videos, would inform viewers of the horrific backstory and the reality that they are all descendants from mole people. Also, the box was going to be covered in numerous drawings depicting the “historian” falling into insanity. The switch to the current storyline, AI set up and box follow a more realistic future for mental health. As in communication within a nuclear family and partnership declines even while confined in small quarters for long periods of time. The creation of the box and the addition of unique content follows the storyline of the future- Sam seeks to solve their mental health issues on their own and avoids sharing with their family. I greatly enjoyed researching each drug and how it affects the human body. My goal was to shock the viewer with the plethora of drugs that are often treated as a solution while disregarding how dangerous they are. Though some are recreational drugs, the ones prescribed today also have incredible symptom lists. When it came to painting the box I used coffee, but the multiple layers was causing the wood to swell so I added brown watercolor paint to achieve a stained look. I chose to paint the purple clouds the smoke created, as described in the backstory, as this would be what Sam saw when they looked out their window. The trees are calming. I credited Grace for creating the box with a trademark symbol. Finally, I attempted to draw a partner for Sam, but was upset with all of the designs so I settled with a heart and Sam and Chris’ name in it.