ProbeCreator: Auto-generating Theatre-Inspired Design Probes

I illustrate the application of my framework with four manually-created design probes (background images informed by the Framework of Controllable Qualities) that were deployed by participating livestreamers in a small, exploratory qualitative study. The design probes aimed to foster a spectrum of feelings of safety from extremely safe, moderately safe, moderately unsafe, to extremely unsafe. Through a qualitative study, I examine the values and practices that livestreamers and moderators held surrounding the creation of digital safe spaces, and if the presence of the design probes influenced feelings of safety for the livestreamer.

Based on their feedback, I created a computational program built in Processing to auto-generate the design probes. The attached code is the computational program to auto-generate theatre-inspired design probes. This code is meant for use by livestreamers as background images to foster feelings of safety.

This program is part of Mathilda Colins’ Computational Media Design MSc Thesis “Stream Starting Soon: Exploring Theatrical Design Principles to Evoke Feelings of Safety for Livestreamers”, which can be found at hdl.handle.net/1880/120479. Please credit the author if using the program and its generated images.