Metaphors are ubiquitous in the English language. We use them all the time, often without realizing it. However, creating a compelling, original metaphor isn’t exactly a walk in the park (see what I did there). My initial idea for this project was to somehow explore consciousness. I was played around with lackluster similes for a while but the one that I landed on is this: consciousness is like a puzzle. At least for me, some of the best and worst times in my life have come from figuring out what’s going on in my own head. And while this might be hard for some people to relate to, I can imagine that at least some of you reading this know what I am talking about. In my experience, the mind is like a puzzle. As we grow, we begin to understand ourselves better. In this way we being to put the pieces of the puzzle in place. Sometimes certain experiences can shake the puzzle, knock pieces out of place, connect a few, or solve the puzzle completely. In this way we construct ourselves, we solve the mystery of who we are.

I wanted to create a metaphor for this internal process using external hardware and software, and I came up with the design below.

The physical components will consist of a nine piece puzzle, a puzzle board, and a monitor, connected through a Makey Makey. The puzzle board and pieces will be magnetized to allow for them to snap into place. As each puzzle piece is added to the board, the screen will enter different stages of an animation loop. With luck, solving the puzzle with reward the user with a super cool animation payoff.

Something I know I will have to research are the capabilities of the Makey Makey, and how many inputs I can simultaneously trigger (let’s hope it’s more than 8). I know my way around Adobe Animate well enough now that the biggest challenge will probably be getting the physical components looking and feeling right. On the technical side I plan on using a paper-and-graphite approach for creating the circuit board onto which the puzzle pieces will be placed. I’m not sure yet if I need to know exactly what pieces are on the board, but in that case I will have each piece connected to a separate input on the Makey Makey.