Study 2 Motivation and Rules

On Friday I had the opportunity to opportunity to observe a K'nex build off sponsored by the engineering student society. The established goal for Playspace here was to watch and determine if I should alter the level of competition and the level of instruction in the space. Initially I did not intend to create any level of competition nor intruction for Playspace, it was to be extremly freeform, zero instruction of any sort. However between 1st hand data collection and the online polls I have set up along with the previous experiments the emerging trend seems to be that the average person regardless of their creativity or playfullness cannot reach their full potential without at least some direction. The K'nex contest was proof positive that a bare framework of rules can actually lead to more creativity than an open form activity. It may have something to do with having an anchoring point to work from (another thing I learned in Kludge), the human mind prefers to establish a point of reference and then move from that point on to other solutions, a phenomenon known as "anchoring". Either way it seems that I will have to give some manner of direction to the participants or else they may simply loose interest. However now the trouble falls on the fact that I must add some semblance of structure to the piece without focusing the creative energy too narrowly onto a specific area. As it stands currently the goal will be to decide between two ideas for a direction method, implied rules and setting a precident.

Implied Rules
The challenge of implied rules is finding a way to lead the participants towards directing themselves. Ideally this approach will make the user feel like there are no rules but still prevent him or her from from being too lost as to how to interact with the piece. The implimentation of this piece is still in the creation phase

Setting a Precident
When specific rules sets are not an option setting a precident seems to be the way to go, giving the audience a suggestion as to things that could be done with the space not only allows them to recreate what they see in the examples but also leads to the very rewarding experience of game breaking and the feeling of accomplishment that ensues. Whether there will be an series of pictures or a video or other examples of work in the piece remains to be seen.