Plans for Monday = 3 prototypes to represent the 3 stages of "previvor" I have identified:(1) DECISIONS: to get surgery? what kind? when? what needs to be done before then? kids? relationships? and the many dilemmas that occur there. This is where I would present an object that allows you to analyze your choices, such as the mix/match block doll
(2) WAITING : you have decided on surgery and now there is a waiting period from when you have decided to when it is actually being done. Anxiety, anger, fear are emotions that can be experienced. This is where I would have an object you could release your anger on, such as the punching bag or dart board.
(3) RECOVERY : surgery has happened, you have a changed body image and you are reflecting on what has happened. You are sad and vulnerable and need care. This is where some women suggested a crying pillow, perhaps in a form that reflects the lost body part.
Need to:
-make all objects look like belong together, having a hard time finding my visual language for this.
-come up w/ a better name...
-make the board less creepy?
-30 sec pitch
2 comments:
Monica,
Coincidentally, I just watched a movie called The Burning Plain. It was pretty twisted, actually, but quite good, in retrospect. Kim Bassinger plays a mother who is having an affair. She doesn't want the guy to touch her breast, then we find out that she just had a mastectomy, and she shows the missing breast and the scar (just like on your little doll). It is a pretty shocking moment, somehow, partly because it looked real, and I don't think that Kim Bassinger had a mastectomy (although how would I know?). But in thinking about it, it is no stranger looking than a flat chested woman who has a scar in that location. I just thought I would share that with you. If you have access to netflix, you can watch that movie on your computer for free.
Now, as for your project: I am a little worried about the "humorous" aspects of this. I think this has to be treated fairly delicately. I don't think that it is helpful, exactly, to make it seem like this serious illness and radical surgery is something to joke about; at the same time I think I understand the message you are trying to get across, that it is silly to become anxious because you might have a gene that indicates that you might someday come down with an illness (unless, of course, you get hit by a truck sooner than that). Yet, one can empathize with this kind of fear, which in some ways is a product of technology, something new that humans have never had to confront until before. So, you have tread very carefully, I think, to capture the right tone for your product(s). I don't think you want to give the message, "ha-ha, you are giving in to an irrational fear. you should just feel lucky that you have the luxury to think about things like that, and you are not busy trying to stay alive, like most people in the world."
I am not sure which of your ideas best gets this across, if any of them.
Monica, take a look at the article that I just posted from NY Times. It is dealing with precisely your topic. Clearly, you have chosen a very important subject, one that is of great interest at the present moment in our culture.
steven
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