Appliance Street Gangs is an experiment in expression. How does your microwave make you feel? Not an easy question to answer. What kind of personality does your fridge have? Wah? Yep pretty strange question. How about abstractly thinking about your home appliances as a street gang and visually creating a collage to represent that? The goal of this project was to explore the usage of Polyvore and Mechanical Turk for getting consumers to create a visual language representation of something that is typically hard to emote a notion of feeling around... your fridge. The test was quick hit done in just 6 hours using Mechanical Turk. A bit of data gives us a unique view into the world of 10 Appliance Street Gangs.. enjoy.

1. Appliance
Street Gangs

2. Introduction
How does the fridge make you feel?
How do you get consumers to
articulate an appliance in an
emotional, stylistic light- and how
could you do it online?
The Appliance Street Gang project
is an experiment in expression.
We asked consumers to express their
current appliances as a street gang
and had them visually collage their a My Appliance Street Gang
representation of their street gang
with the online collaging tool
Polyvore.
Consumers created Polyvore user
accounts, surfed the web for stimulus
and created collages along with text
descriptions of their home appliance
street gang.
Participants were paid $1.50 for
their time.

3. This set consists of my favorite and
loudest appliances: the fridge, stove
and blender. The fridge is stainless
steel and has a ton of accessories as
my fridge has tons of magnets. The
fridge is the bad ass of the group.
How can you mess with a fridge? If
there's no fridge, everything else is
useless. Clearly the fridge is the
leader of the gang. The stove is the
matriarch of the gang. It's not
hardcore or tough. It's frilly and low
key. The stove doesn't need many
accessories b/c if they get too close
to the stove, they'll burn up. The
stove may be cute, but let's face it, no
one can take the heat. Finally the
blender. It's crazy and will try
anything. It'll put anything together
and give you interesting results. The
blender wouldn't belong to any club
that would have it, but it's known the
fridge and stove its whole life and it
is loyal.
P1 View Example
the appliance street gangs project
a mechanical turk experiment

4. What a rowdy street gang this is.
Armed with an arsenal of power
retaliation weapons, this gang isn't
one to mess with. They're fighting
back...with a vengeance.
P2
the appliance street gangs project
a mechanical turk experiment

5. My collage's title is Cooking with the
gang. The main members of my
gang are Mr. Stove, Mr. Refrigerator,
Mr. Blender and Mr. Toaster. Other
members are Mr. Counter, Mr.
Table and Mr. Chair #1 and Mr.
Chair #2. Mr. Stove is the leader of
this gang. He is the leader because
he has the power of fire. Mr.
Refrigerator is his right hand
because he is big and heavy. Mr.
Blender and Mr. Toaster make sure
to keep everything smooth and toast
in the kitchen. The other members
of the kitchen like, Mr. Table and
Mr. Chair #1 and Mr. Chair #2,
enjoy moving around and making
sure nobody is out of line in the
kitchen. If they do find someone
misbehaving in the kitchen, they
make them take a sit and eat cookies
without milk. Mr. Counter likes to
stay still and watch everybody. He is
P3 almost like an outsider. He identifies
himself with the pictures that look at
everyone, but that are not part of
the gang.
the appliance street gangs project
a mechanical turk experiment

6. I chose to include 4 washing
machines in the foreground as they
like to be loud and want to be
noticed.
They are loud and rumble when in
use. I decided to put hoody and
bling on the fridge, as it is used to
being decorated with magnets and
such. While the dishwasher has a
cowering cat, with the sign "I Am
Scared" above it, as the cat hates the
dishwasher :)
View Example
P4
the appliance street gangs project
a mechanical turk experiment

7. Based on my appliances:
Washer and Dryer: Partners in
crime, they do (almost)
everything together Stove:
Strong, silent type; works hard
Toaster: Hot! Also stylish (I
actually have a Hello Kitty
toaster). Microwave: Cool but
just kinda stands there (I don't
use mine much!) Fridge: The
leader (I definitely use it the
most!)
Visit Example
P5
the appliance street gangs project
a mechanical turk experiment

8. About this... the TV is the boss of
the gang, because he runs everything
and has the most knowledge. right
alongside the tv is micro, the
microwave...he does everything the
boss tells him and keeps the gangs
affairs in order. taylor, the sewing
machine, is the gang's SHARP
shooter jimmy, the blender, is the
gangs knifeman iceman the
refridgerator is the COLD and
calculating muscle of the gang. and
pyro the oven is self-explantory, he
burns things. bring it on brave little
toaster!!!!
P6
the appliance street gangs project
a mechanical turk experiment

9. My street gang is a kitchen appliances street
gang. Part of this street gang are Freezer
Fridge, Oven McStove, K. Nife, Toasst, Fire
Pan, Knucks Phone, and Chop Chop Blender.
Eacch one very deadly and grew up at the hard
knocks school on the street. Freezer Fridge will
keep you cool as a meatlocker if you cross his
path. Oven MccStove will open up and
swallow you whole for a hot day of fighting. K.
Nife is always the first to throw punches when
there's the first sign of trouble. Toasst will be
more then glad to serve you your last meal. Fire
Pan can cook up a fiery defense and burn you
before you know it! Knuck Phone is the
meanest lady on the block, able to knock you
out with her brass knuckles and strangle you
from far distances. Lastly is Chop Chop
Blender, all cracked up from being in the gang
the longest doesn't mean that his blades are any
duller! The applliances colors are grey as noted
by their grey bandanas, so they better not catch
you on their block wearing someone else's
colors! The kitchen will never be the same
again.
View Example
P7
the appliance street gangs project
a mechanical turk experiment

10. Cool woman in kitchen with cool
refrigerators, nice boots and watch.
P8
the appliance street gangs project
a mechanical turk experiment

11. I created this set with 2 open
appliances in front, trying to look
threatening. The laptop, slightly to
the front, is obviously the "alpha
male", with the DS as his lieutenant.
The blender is set slightly apart,
acting as a lookout, while the hefty
TV brings up the rear.
P9
the appliance street gangs project
a mechanical turk experiment

12. I picked to give my refrigerator a
character... a healthy character...
keeping on check of my food intake
and my fitness activity!! Motivation!
Motivation! Motivation!
P10
the appliance street gangs project
a mechanical turk experiment

13. Learnings?
Appliance Street Gang Metaphor was definitely umm... interesting,
but there are some wins here.
1. One dollar was enough 3. A wide range of URL image
compensation to send participants related stimulus was selected and
to a site, create an account and captured by Polyvore revealing a
participate in the study with the where and price of the related
reasonable success. stimulus. All of which could be
probed on further to get at
2. Most participants appeared to additional insight in style selection
take significant time creating their preferences or how they view their
street gangs, gathering images and appliances.
creating detailed descriptive stories
with roles and added personality
details.

14. Ok maybe it was a baked idea...
I’ll admit this quick hit project was Like all turk experiments you have
pretty strange. Street gangs? Are to be willing to just do them and
you serious? The more I throw caution to the wind. Turks
questioned myself, the more I will often surprise you, as these did
wanted to do it. with this bizarre request.
The results were decent. People Using Polyvore as a means to get
can be sent to a specific site and consumers to create their own
asked to think about their visual vocabulary opens doors for
appliances in a truly abstract light. more ideas and more experiments.
As for the stylistic and emotional
connective result? A taste of its
there for sure. Reworking the
metaphor is needed but the
method and online tool
implementation is done.
Experiment conducted on 7/28/09
by Dan Rockwell of Lextant
using Polyvore and Amazon’s Mechanical Turk