Mediated Intimacy Final Project: The Vulcan Mind Meld
If you have been reading my blog regularly (besides Mr. Whey Protein and Mrs. Ringtones, my two loyal spamming followers) you may have noticed or not, the heavy tendency to post on two of my four classes, Physical Computation and Computational Media. My reticence about one of my other classes, Mediated Intimacy, is due in part because that blogging was not required protocol for the class and because it is primarily a seminar class with little physical output. The subjects we cover are so incisive and omni-relevant that the pressure to blog them was/is incredibly difficult. I am ruing that choice to not blog about them because we covered some amazing artists’, authors’, and scientists’ work associated with, well, mediating intimacy. I promise to write more about it later! But for now, let me focus on our final project in three parts:
1. Dream up a future technology of intimacy and connection over distance. Write a User’s Manual to accompany it including a drawing with parts labeled, a detailed description of how it is used, warnings, etc.
2. Write a story about a person or people who are using your technology. You will need to express the invented ‘physics’ of the world in which your invention exists. In other words, where you rely on new general capacities available in the future world, you will need to describe those things, in order to situate your invention. The point here is to think through and express what the technology might do from an emotional and social perspective, based on what you know about existing technologies and ideas about intimacy, as well as your ability to imagine consequences of not-yet-possible devices.
3. Present your invention, its context, its function, and its potential or known emotional and social effects on users.
This final was a pure joy to execute. In conceiving of ideas, I cheated myself out of dreaming up a whole new world for this product and focused really on something that I new and that I could construct easily, but still was humorous and cohesive. I came up with, borrowing from Star Trek, the Vulcan Mind Meld.
I had worked on a presentation a week prior and used the mask that you see in the photos for this project; a decent example of cross-curricular projects. I spent most of the time working on the MANUAL and designing the packaging. I actually searched everywhere for some cheap plastic encasing besides the stupid plastic I ended up using. No big deal as prototyping was not required for this assignment. The project went over well! I often tell people that since I hate to present, my main objective is not necessarily to inform or engage but to make people laugh. I could be in the wrong business!
Physical Computation Final – Progress
So I await my dozen Piezo sensors that, I assume, are stuck somewhere in the postal system as they have not reached me yet.
I mention this for two reasons: 1. I have not been able to progress beyond a two drum setup 2. I am getting weird and different readings from both piezos. One seems to be ultra sensitive while the other is a bit harder to read, like a married couple. I am, so far, attributing this quirk to the horrible, horrible soldering job I did with the piezos. I only learned how to properly solder them afterward. Which makes this new shipment of piezos all the more important.
Take a look at this atrocity!
Here is my setup from afar. Two buckets (so far) with piezos doubletaped inside. I made small canals in the lip of the bucket for the wires.
These are the guts of the bucket.
The breadboard is set up for the two buckets with readings coming in from the piezo, tamed by a 1M ohm resistor and protected with a 5.1V Zener diode, since the piezos generate electricity (and shoot it back into the arduino).
More to come!
Physical Computation Final Project Proposal
Once again, I am teaming up with Lucas, and this time Adib, to make a project that is performance based and video based – two areas I have little experience in. This should be refreshing.
Below is the schematic for what will, hopefully transpire.
The mechanics of this project are fairly straightforward. The coding is pretty simple, invoking a switch for video control. As far as I can see, the aspects to concentrate on involve the video software and performance.
Using Arduino, we will code somewhere around six switches which receive information from the sensors, in this case Piezo sensors. Piezos sense vibration by creating small amounts of electricity upon disturbance. This electricity is read by the Arduino and translated into serial communication for the program we will use to show the video, maybe Puredata, Max, Isadora, or Processing. Any vibration with a reading above a specific amount (revealed through thorough testing) will fire the video clips, which will be projected above the drummer. We hope to perform this in some very public square, perhaps even across the street from Tisch central.
Our initial idea was to enlist the help of an actual street performer who tends to perform across the street on fair days. Wwe have not seen this bucket drummer since our idea’s conception, so our plan B is to channel the inner beat of Lucas and his mother country, Brazil, for an all out South American percussive extravaganza.
While I have excused myself from the video software side of things (that is, afterall, Lucas’s domain), I will still try and learn as much about that program as I can. Besides, I will need to know something about it since I will be sending it serial information. We have yet to determine what video will be played, how it will be arranged, and what relevance the video will have to the drummer and the audience. We explored the idea of abstraction and narratives, but have not nailed anything down.
Once again, because of the simplicity of the mechanics, we must focus on the performance for this project for it to really be spectacular. I have complete faith that we will do so.
Stay tuned!
Physical Computation Mid-Term
For our midterm, I teamed up with Lucas and David to create a project that defies all conventional notions of the possible: A chic and sexy time traveling radio!
She is quite stunning if I do say so myself.
Lucas contributing.
David fine “tuning” the knobs.
For more on the process and to access videos of the process, click below. Also check out Lucas’s blog for his interpretation.
Hot or Not? Gertrude Never Made it to the Party.
I built this beauty for her debut at the ITP Haunted House on the Thursday before Halloween. She never quite made it though.
Video Throw Up #2 featuring Serial Communication and Two Pots!
This weeks lab started off a little subdued, but finished strong. We inch closer and closer towards controlling objects on the screen, which, for the diversionary type, means VIDEO GAMES! Ok, for the interactive designer, it means something less pointed. I partnered with Lucas to make this lab happen, and you will here is clear and cogent explanations of what is exactly transpiring.
Without further ado:
My first posted Processing sketch!
So I have been a bit wary of posting my Processing java sketches on this thing mainly because I heard that it is insanely unintuitive and downright buggy. Tutorials on this topic are scarce. But here’s a go.
What this does is parse out data (words) that appear in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness more than fifteen times. At count fifteen, the word is placed on display in a light opacity. For every subsequent occurrence, the opacity changes until the word becomes completely opaque. My only problem with this is that the essence of Heart of Darkness is lost as the screen fills with inconsequential articles. But I will expand on this and hopefully target names and nouns. Stay tuned.
Of course I’m serial.
Another successful lab, this time dealing with serial communication between a micro-controller (my cheap Seeeduino board) and Processing. The outcome is surprisingly game-like, though I admit I did not tweak the screen elements as much as I should have, but I did alter the background color and give it a nice serial dependent, gray scale gradient. I’m sure to fool around with this a little more.
Halloween!
So for those of you interested in my stupid pet trick, the one that precipitated the soon-to-be infamous Video Throw Up, I am happy to inform you that, while still purposefully shrouded in the utmost secrecy, it is a project for ITP’s haunted house. I do not want to divulge too much about it, for if I did, then you probably won’t be scared when you see it. But I will give you a little taste of coming attractions.
Video Throw-Up!!!!!
It’s been a couple weeks since I last updated. For those of you at ITP, you know exactly what this means. It was called the “Stupid Pet Trick” (to be uploaded soon!) and it sent me back one and half weeks worth of work that I am now, on this devotional Sunday, using to catch up. Ergo, I am so christening this video potpourri in employment of my time saving and time effective techniques and to add a little comedic bile to this otherwise snoozefest of a page.
HURL!
This is me conquering the power of my LED!
VOMIT!
Lucas gives us a tour of last season’s trends!
HEAVE!
Fun Lab Alert! I take a flex sensor and abuse it until it makes a little motor spin for my own, selfish pleasure.
PUKE!
Fun Lab alert 2! I use photo (light) sensors to manipulate tones. This got annoying for the others in the lab. But not as annoying as my new voice-altering megaphone will be.
