Wednesday, August 12th – 7:05 pm PDT

Approaching closing time, so here’s thanking all of my PIRT colleagues, all of our guests visiting us in our booth, and you for reading! Another day of experiences are now in the (virtual) books. Join us here tomorrow for LiveBlog coverage from the AIDS Quilt Touch Experience booth, the final day of SIGGRAPH 2015. Take care and good night!

 

Wednesday, August 12th – 6:35 pm PDT

A report from PIRT research assistant Leticia:

Now that we are in our fifth day, we are having new experiences related to being here for an extended period of time. For example, with our guests, we have been looking at the Touch Table a lot, and it is possible to identify the most popular symbols within the digitized quilt blocks: red ribbons, pink triangles, trees and birds are among the favorites. We also saw so many beautiful panels and blocks made with the most diverse materials, like paper, buttons, clothing, and teddy bears. It feels to me that there is always something new and unexpected to discover in the Quilt Touch Table. We also have now some visitors that come back everyday, sometimes more than once a day, to chat, take another look at the Quilt Touch, tell a story or just to hang out with us. We are very glad to have met these amazing people and to get to spend some time with them. It enriches the experience of being at SIGGRAPH.

Wednesday, August 12th – 6:05 pm PDT

We were very fortunate to be visited by a guest who was interested in allowing us to document their specific impressions of our booth and of our technology. They shared some wonderfully insightful information about how our digital presentation worked for them in conjunction with the physical quilts. We were really appreciative that they took the time to share an in-depth account of how our booth affected them. Prior to that, I was visited by a guest who is not from this country and, as I was talking to them, let me know that they did not speak much English. I found myself doing my best to describe how and why the Quilt came into being, and how the Quilt situates itself in a particular time in American history. My guest was drawn deeper into our booth by the Touch Table Browser presentation, then for a closer look at the Quilts, examining each more closely as I shared more details about them in the best way I could. We stood together with the Quilts for a little bit of time, after which they asked to take pictures of them. One of the goals of the AIDS Quilt Touch project is to communicate to the international community who were not of age to remember the initial appearance of the disease in the early 1980’s.

 

Wednesday, August 12th – 12:30 pm PDT

A continued steady stream of guests into our booth this morning. We’ll be open until 7pm tonight which is the longest day of the conference. Earlier Anne and Angela continued with their audio/video walkthrough of the Quilt panels we have on display with Sean. I’m really excited to see that footage, and will be posting as it becomes available. Dale (one of the principal investigators on the project) is in the booth keeping an eye on the software side of the Touch Table presentation, as well as taking guests on tours of Quilt blocks represented in the browser. Earlier, as I was walking though Hall G, I saw what I think was the conference’s first telepresence visitor. In the spirit of inclusion, it was encouraging to see a guest have that opportunity to experience what is going on here.

 

Wednesday, August 12th – 10:10 am PDT

A good morning to you from SIGGRAPH 2015! Welcome back to our continuing coverage from the AIDS Quilt Touch Project booth. I’m your LiveBlog moderator David Wilson, research assistant with the Public Interactives Research Team at The New School for Public Engagement, School of Media Studies. We’ve had an amazing time at the show so far. To lead things off for today, a video post from research assistant Sean featuring School of Media Studies Dean and principal researcher Anne Balsamo along with our research faculty Angela Ferriolo, describing the first of the Quilt blocks we are featuring in our booth.

 

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