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Decalogue
At the end of the DWkit, in the hope that it will be useful, we provide a brief list of the difficulties encountered, the criticalities highlighted, and the errors made. The list does not claim to be exhaustive, but it wants to allow those who decide to implement all or part of this project, to find appropriate corrective actions to overcome the problems we faced.
1.
The backrest designed for the seats of the No Wi-Fi Zone was not resistant enough for intense use over time. A structure inside the corrugated tube can ensure greater strength.
2.
The presence of signs placed on the ground (through stencils) could arouse curiosity and attract pedestrians to visit the installations.
3.
To achieve greater visibility and encourage participation, it is useful that the promotion, reception and management of the activities of the “Radio Time Machine” and the “Holographic Periodic Tables” are all carried out outdoors.
The Radio Time Machine lasted two days. At first, headphones were placed inside Darsena (a building at the center of Ciani Park in Lugano), but people did not profit too much of it. The second day, we decided to place a desk outside in the main public park, with a SUPSI student showing people how to use it. Having moved the desk into the openair, the Radio Time Machine immediately got more attention. Moreover, it would have been useful to print flyers and annotations to every track to distribute with every pair of headphones, rather than to rely only on one panel installed.
4.
When using the Laser cutter machine, the orientation of the text (i.e. also of the chosen font) influences the printing performance. To obtain a more uniform output between the tables, it is advisable to keep the horizontal orientation for engraving, even if this choice may affect the amount of material to be used (more waste).
5.
Due to the rain, the panels of the “construction site” installation were slightly stained as they were placed directly on the ground without the fundament. It is suggested to provide a solution that keeps the structure raised to facilitate the passage of water.
6.
The magazine was designed as a bilingual product. All texts and captions were written both in English and Italian, in order to involve more people into the discussion. This meant that we had to use additional resources for the translations and the correction of the texts. Moreover, it had been complicated work for the designers to graphically align both texts and make them equally readable. Due to the shortage and cut of budget, we had to omit German and French versions of the booklet, which was originally part of our project, hoping that English would be useful enough for both the international and the Swiss tourists.
7.
The main installation with the timeline could have included more references to other events. It quoted the website, however, it could have been even more productive to announce all the events of the project not only through the website, social, and magazine, but also mentioning them right on the installation materials. Moreover, this function was carried out by the magazine that was located near the installation, but not everyone who visited the installations decided to take it and to read it. The promotion of events could be enhanced by producing ad hoc other communication tools: posters, flyers, postcards, stickers. However, the budget available did not allow to invest in these tools.
8.
For the night illumination of “The (in)visible history of wireless” we have relied on a supply of electricity from the public power grid. This has led to increased complexity and the use of overhead cables. The future designs of the installations could take into consideration an autonomous power supply or, even better, a solar power system.
9.
It was a matter of discussion even inside the team if having walks during very popular events in Lugano and Locarno would have helped to attract more participants or less ones. In sum, we were quite satisfied by the attendance, but at the same time having walks before in June or later in August (so outside the program of LongLake and Locarno Festival) could have favoured attendance. Installations, on the other hand, have to be placed during popular events to maximise the audience.
10.
During walks, because of the traffic and of noises in the city, a loudhailer could have helped to make our voices easier to be listened to. On the other hand, a device can create a-symmetry in communication, with the two presenters not at the same level as the audience and so it could have discouraged an interactive exchange.
