Hair in a Wall
I am truly obsessed with the time piece I presented for my midterm. What originally started out as a somatic time piece exemplifying chrono-biology has turned into comedy; just the way I like it.
I started out prototyping a hair growing out of a box. I blogged about it here. I soon found out that the feeding mechanism was faulty if imprecise. It seemed that the paltry output of a dc motor would not have enough torque to turn the strand of hair (a long piece of heat shrink).
So I tackled this midterm project by first building a new box, as the original intention was to refine and build on the last weekly project I did. I scavenged for parts in the junk bin and soon found what I needed from a thrown away printer. The wheels of the printer paper feeding mechanism had thick rubber bands on them. I thought this would make a great freewheel and motor wheel for my own feeding mechanism. I also wanted to include more interactivity. Perhaps some knobs to control speed or some other function of the hair growth. Half way through plotting and conceiving, I went to sleep one night with my mind racing over how I might “punch” this up. I decided that I did not need to embellish what I already had. The comedy is in its simplicity and any added control should be hidden from the visitor. It would be the only way to make it its own organic system- a stubborn, self sufficient system.
So I decided to scrap the box and have the “strand” of hair erupt from the wall. This involved a slight change of building plans, one that would prevent me from testing out the feeding mechanism, a major problem with the prior version and a lesson I should have tackled first.
Needless to say, all was well besides the feeding mechanism once again. The new hair material was great (some foam tubing purchased at Canal Rubber), the materials used were, on the whole, of better quality and execution than my last prototype, the project in general was more elegant than before. Comments were positive and somewhat prescriptive, suggesting the use of actual hair for a final iteration. I disagree with this suggestion, but will definitely take it into consideration. I think using real hair increases the uncanny quotient, but it does nothing for comedy. On the flip side, while a single “strand” is funny, it would be difficult to recognize as hair. The major downfall was again experienced by the failure of motor, a stronger stepper motor, to assume enough torque or how I adhered the wheel to the stepper axle. I will investigate this over the much needed week break I am currently basking in.
Everyone agreed and liked the comedic aspect of it, something I think saved my presentation from the harsh criticism I expected.
Precision, precision, precision. The keyword for my next iteration. I have already ordered a much more powerful stepper, and I am sure to accurately calculate what sort of wheel I might need to make this thing grow. I will also test the amount of space I need to allocate enough friction for the hair to grow while not stalling out the stepper motor. Wish me luck.
