Capstone Progress Entry 03

Now we’re getting somewhere! Above are the 3 chosen capstone directions I have gravitated towards over the past few weeks.

The first, a variable font family that’s activated through sound waves, would manipulate the look of typography based on an individual sound, whether it be a single instrument, song, or voice. While entertaining and individualized, this technology can also be implemented elsewhere such as with live music, or even for hearing-impaired individuals to be able to express more specific feelings/thoughts.

My second idea would be a trend research thesis on the future of music consumption, including live, physical, and digital formats. Starting with a backcast over the years, I would research the popularity of these formats and their correlation with artist compensation, and compare to today’s streaming services and the mere cents artists receive per play. I would also analyze the live music scene in a post-COVID scenario, and how issues such as safety and accessibility will be considered, and create an application based on my findings that supports future-forward thinking in music consumption.

My final idea is a verbal journaling application that helps record your daily thoughts/moods/states of mind, targeted at those who feel it’s hard finding time to journal. While recording these thoughts over time, it will also collect and display data about correlations with your emotions over the past two weeks, and connections with certain repeated words/thoughts said. This in turn would make individuals more content with personal relationship with their own emotions, and eventually lead to breaking stigma around mental health.

Now realistically, I’m not sure I’ll be able to pull off my first project, unfortunately. As neat of an idea it is, it would be a coding nightmare and take me years on my own as opposed to the two semesters I have. So in that case, I’m somewhere between my second and third ideas. What excites me about my second is the possibilities with the unknown of the outcome, that is, having a strong basis of music consumption trend research but then creating an application based on those predictions I’ll come to, which is to be determined. I also appreciate this giving me flexibility with the absolute final deliverable, since that will have to be decided on with the research in mind. The third one interests me since I haven’t seen anything like this application in use today, so I would be fulfilling an opportunity space for individuals that would benefit from tracking their thoughts and feelings over time as a form of coping.

Hopefully later this will I will arrive closer to my final decision, but I have much to consider.