Fantibles

Fantibles: Capturing Cricket Fan's Story in 3D BACKGROUND: Australians are passionate about both watching and playing sports. In stadiums, the physical and tangible experience of “being there” in the moment comes with “built in” memorabilia such as the ticket that can be proudly displayed as tokens of their passion for sports. Unlike stadium viewing, watching sports at home does not offer tangible ways of keeping viewing related memories alive (Griggs et al. 2012). This research investigates ways that the experience of watching sports at home might be captured and communicated beyond the event. CONTRIBUTION: This project offers "Fantibles", an end-to-end interactive design system that captures personal social media datasets (twitter in this case) in real-time and links this with crucial event data to create a unique 3D printed souvenir. The project takes as its starting point the recognition that fans’ twitter comments are a tangible reminder of the feelings they expressed at the moment of engagement in viewing their favorite sport. Sharing those experiences in real-time contributes a secondary layer of a playful memorable experience, ie: response and reciprocity in the network create positive and negative experiences, all of which are captured in real time. SIGNIFICANCE: The research has created a system of data capture and product development that offers the fan a tangible piece of sports memorabilia that moves beyond repeat telecasts or collated twitter feeds (Bennett 2014). This work has created in collaboration with IBM Research Australia and has been exhibited at prestigious international venue DIS 2016. Fantibles also serves as a visualization platform that offers a subjective understanding of the sport from the perspective of a fan through self-expression, layered sense-making, and distributed social interactions.