![](http://www.promdreams.com/thumbs/projects/thesis-norm/norm-process/img_3155-1100x610-q70.jpg)
Norm: Early Process
The Media-Design Practices thesis project develops over the course of a year.
The final project rarely resembles early concepts and ideas.
Here are some of the steps I took along the way:
![](http://www.promdreams.com/content/projects/2-thesis-norm/2-norm-process/screen-shot-2016-12-01-at-1.13.58-pm.png)
Working up to my thesis-midterm I was interested in "Black Box" systems. As part of that fascination I started dissecting and developing a extreme use case for interacting with one. The project was called APIS - the name was a reference to APIS an Egyptian deity that took the form of a bull serving as an "intermediary between humans and an all-powerful god" and API (Application Programming Interface).
![](http://www.promdreams.com/content/projects/2-thesis-norm/2-norm-process/img_3181.jpg)
Part of my midterm display.
To build out this system I worked a fair amount with IBM's sentiment analysis API and voice recognition systems. As well as dissecting and re-engineering a Scientology e-meter.
![](http://www.promdreams.com/content/projects/2-thesis-norm/2-norm-process/e-meter.gif)
An original e-meter movement found in a used electronics shop in the valley.
The initial circuit designs came from a CMU graduate student who "spent nearly 10 years in the Sea Org from 1972 - 1982 .... repaired E-meters on board the Apollo and at the FLB ... trained as an auditor up to Cl V at the FLB .... audited many thousand hours at NOTs"
Pretty exciting stuff...
I redesigned the boards to connect to an Aruduino so the signals could be fed in to the APIS computer program.
![](http://www.promdreams.com/content/projects/2-thesis-norm/2-norm-process/pcb-milling.gif)
Milling on an Othermill.
Transition
After the midterm the project transitioned to a forward look at interaction with the system (or algorithm).
To do so I spent time working with machine learning and search systems as well as developing a language for talking about them.
![](http://www.promdreams.com/content/projects/2-thesis-norm/2-norm-process/img_3545.jpg)
Work-shopping visualizing machine learning methodologies
![](http://www.promdreams.com/content/projects/2-thesis-norm/2-norm-process/img_3176.jpg)
Systems mapping
![](http://www.promdreams.com/content/projects/2-thesis-norm/2-norm-process/text.gif)
Scraping text from genius.com