*Avo* is the story of an avocado, brought to life by a brilliant young inventor, Billie. The experience sits somewhere between games and television – an interactive journey where you play as a 3D-scanned avocado in live-action world.

```cv
vimeo
{"url":"https://vimeo.com/805164387/a683937a19","width":240,"height":344,"thumbnail":"https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/1625733741-bde86169bce3b78a3f035ebaf24e922bc0b850e459e4c7797d547242d27d46f8-d_200x150"}
```

I was a creative on the team at Playdeo that made and released *Avo* in 2019 on the App Store – described by Apple as “Groundbreaking ‘playable TV".

Dan Hill wrote a great series of articles on Medium called, *[Avo, Bandersnatch, and The New Grammar of Television (and Games).](https://medium.com/a-chair-in-a-room/avo-bandersnatch-and-the-new-grammar-of-television-and-games-part-3-interacting-with-4e1197ecaa20)* 

We also created a film about how *Avo* was made, exploring the making and thinking (and of course love!) that went into what we made.

```cv
vimeo
{"url":"https://vimeo.com/772093779","width":426,"height":240,"thumbnail":"https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/1551398164-3df8170a6713936b26c34b23bfc74d3f0973202f75b926aeb4f95be4065ef0b4-d_295x166"}
```

**Playdeo Team**

Nick Ludlam, Ruby Bell, Geraldo Nascimento, Jonathan Topf, Peter Martingell, Jamie Swanson, David Evans, Jack Schulze, Timo Arnall, Sophie Knowles. Music by Graham Hadfield.

Avo | Playdeo

Nature's Pollinators is an Augmented Reality flashcard experience designed to teach children and young people about different pollinating insects and their favourite flowers. In the experience, you meet a bumblebee, an elephant hawk moth, and a painted lady butterfly, who each look for and recognise their favourite flowers on the cards.

```cv
vimeo
{"url":"https://vimeo.com/1024697871?share=copy","width":426,"height":240,"thumbnail":"https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/1944098034-37575f09457f6bf3b55fa5430c3dc6b7e3150fcf4d0e5db7060ff8e4b18d4ffa-d_295x166"}
```

The project came about as part of a research programme at the Royal College of Art in partnership with Snap Inc, where we were given the opportunity to explore new directions for AR using Snap Inc’s software, Lens Studio.

One of the lovely things about AR is that the user still has the ability to see and engage with elements of the real world. The sensory experience isn’t completely replaced in the way that it might be in VR.

This meant that we wanted to start from a place where we were making the most of the affordances of AR, by creating an experience where the digital information has a connection to something in the real world, be it [body tracking](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5cTgKx1wUs), [site-specific work](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFaKhtlBU7A), or [image tracking](https://youtu.be/1peWF8ThC8Y?si=QJRY9b6MGmdHKDUU). Linked are some of my favourite AR projects that I think do this really well.\
\
Our group was particularly interested in exploring educational use cases for AR, and we started by prototyping ideas for image marker-based AR material. 

Flashcards felt really lovely, because they fit in the palm of your hand, and in AR it feels like you can bring something closer to you – almost as if your phone was a special kind of x-ray magnifying glass.

```cv
gallery
{"layout":"hscroll","images":[{"src":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/maitake-project.appspot.com/o/pages%2Fd5t9wJalu0fnGww6Nw3fCykk8QF2%2FuxqQ7y5ii88sdXSlCxX8%2F8ca3cace-7f80-475a-864a-5b270e99be2c.mp4?alt=media&token=4e49bff7-50ca-4f18-b2b7-488e987663e8","id":"8ca3cace-7f80-475a-864a-5b270e99be2c","width":1920,"height":1080,"filename":"NaturesPollinators_Prototypes.mp4","type":"video/mp4","caption":"Prototypes: 1. Experimenting with the Marker Template in Lens Studio, 2. Introducing a bee to follow a flower tracked to a card 3. Introducing 3 cards / image markers and a carousel","border":false}]}
```

Other AR cards experiences that we had looked at were beautiful, but tended not to have much interaction beyond triggering a tracked 3D model to the card. We wanted to have a game-like mechanic where there was an element of matching or ‘finding’ the correct card, and could imagine this being a fun activity in a classroom or interactive installation setting in a museum.

```cv
gallery
{"layout":"hscroll","images":[{"src":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/maitake-project.appspot.com/o/pages%2Fd5t9wJalu0fnGww6Nw3fCykk8QF2%2FuxqQ7y5ii88sdXSlCxX8%2F70bceb78-86fd-4872-864f-fbedec207566.jpg?alt=media&token=17274508-686c-4dfb-9850-306cd6539ff0","id":"70bceb78-86fd-4872-864f-fbedec207566","width":1920,"height":1080,"filename":"NHM.jpg","type":"image/jpeg","caption":"We were inspired by this interactive matching game at The Natural History Museum in London","border":false}]}
```

It was also important to us to have sound as part of the experience so that it wasn’t purely visual, so we worked with composer, Lian Dyogi, from MA Electronic Music at Guildhall who made a looping soundtrack for us to use. A voiceover narrates the on-screen text that gives the user fun facts associated with each insect and flower pairing.

One of my favourite learnings from the research behind this project was that [moths are one of the most underrated pollinating insects](https://butterfly-conservation.org/news-and-blog/moths-are-more-efficient-pollinators-than-bees-new-research-shows#:~:text=Max%20says%3A%20%22Moths%20are%20important,of%20what%20happens%20at%20night.) as they do most of their pollinating at night. Perhaps this project can give a little more credit to our moth friends alongside bees and butterflies!

During development, filmmaker Sung Hoon Song made a video that documented our research and work in progress on this project. The project continued to develop after this video was made, but it's a great insight into our progress along the way. 

```cv
vimeo
{"url":"https://vimeo.com/1009793761/0bc24e522f","width":426,"height":240,"thumbnail":"https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/1927039669-f5adb88f96a80422ba8c2dc1adc428344488b43e47cd59ee4a33abf8097ec8a5-d_295x166"}
```

So far, the project has been exhibited at The Snap Inc x Royal College of Art Symposium in September 2024, and our Lens has had over 53k views on the Snapchat app.

```cv
gallery
{"layout":"hscroll","images":[{"src":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/maitake-project.appspot.com/o/pages%2Fd5t9wJalu0fnGww6Nw3fCykk8QF2%2FuxqQ7y5ii88sdXSlCxX8%2Ffb98b35e-4ebe-464b-b207-158f29b09b2b.mp4?alt=media&token=a93be518-8617-4190-8437-70db80c64a58","id":"fb98b35e-4ebe-464b-b207-158f29b09b2b","width":480,"height":360,"filename":"NaturesPollinators_4-3.mp4","type":"video/mp4","caption":"","border":false}]}
```

*Made by Aarti Bhalekar, Ayushi Saxena, Riya Mahajan, and Ruby Bell. Music by Lian Dyogi*

Nature's Pollinators

Designer

Beazley Designs of the Year Shortlist

Helen Hamlyn Design Awards Shortlist

Vice Chancellor's Achievement Scholarship

Camera Craft 1 & 2

Executive Education – Typography

Frameless London: New exhibition showcases artwork created by London schoolchildren

World Toilet Day: RCA students design solutions to tackle toilets

STALL is a 360 short film about getting your first period.

STALL

Slit-Scan Photo-Booth is an interactive installation to encourage play and curiosity in public spaces. The project was made as a prototype for what could be an 'digital funhouse mirror'.

Slit-Scan Photo-Booth

Some lettering I made out of blue candle wax on the RCA Typography short course.

Wax Letterforms

An interactive experience somewhere between games and TV, where you play as an avocado that has been brought to life by a young inventor. 

An AR experience designed to educate children and young people about pollinating insects and their favourite flowers.

During a storytelling co-creation workshop, young people aged 10-14 were asked, “If your emotions were monsters, what do you think they would look like?” In this project, you encounter the work that they made in a digital sculpture garden.

The project aims to support children and young people to develop emotional literacy through narrative design and play, as well as to help adults see the world through the mind of a child.

Moody Monsters

A compilation of my directing and editing work.

Director & Editor Showreel

Mentor

Video Editor

Creative

'Imagined Realities' is a captivating three-part audio-visual journey that explores and celebrates the space between dreams and reality.

Artist in Residence

Student Promotional Representative

Researching and prototyping future possibilities for AR on the RCA x Snap program.

Ruby Bell

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