Process:

This is the most complicated circuit that I’ve ever built. Fortunately, the different colors of the cables really helped me. I classified the cables by their colors and to my surprise, I successfully connected the circuit the first time I tried!

With the help of our fellow, I connected the power supply and drove the motor!

Then I connect a potentiometer and map the code, so I can control the range of the motor.

Finally, my partner and I built the machine together.

Questions:

• Question 1: What kind of machines would you be interested in building? Add a reflection about the use of actuators, the digital manipulation of art, and the creative process to your blog post.

I’m interested in machines that can do work that needs a lot of human labor or that are difficult to finish by human labor. For the former one, for example, a machine that can hold heavy things, and for the latter, a machine that can engrave on some extremely tiny things. I think an actuator can drive something to move automatically, so it can save a lot of human effort. Digital manipulation is very helpful. For example, people can use photoshop to make a photo looks more colorful and provide a different feeling when watching the manipulated one. As for the creative process, which includes creative thinking and problem-solving skills, is indispensable for anyone. It is the basis to generate new ideas and create new things.

• Question 2: Choose an art installation mentioned in the reading ART + Science NOW, Stephen Wilson (Kinetics chapter). Post your thoughts about it and make a comparison with the work you did during this recitation. How do you think that the artist selected those specific actuators for his project?

Installation: Daniel Palacios Jimenes, Waves, 2006

My thoughts: I feel it is very interesting to show some complicated pattern or sound effect with the movement of a simple rope, and the connection between the observer’s motion and the movements of the rope makes me feel it interactive.

Comparison: On one hand, I found some similarities between the installation and the drawing machine I made in the recitation: both of them use a motor to drive something and to create a visual effect. There are interactions between people’s motion and the installation/machine in both of them as well. On the other hand, however, the installation also contains sound effects, and even the movements to create visual effects have different modes and look more complicated than my drawing machine. I guess it needs more complex computing and arrangement about the circuit, the motor, and some other components.

A. Puppy Bank – Phoebe (Yongxin) Li -Rodolfo Cossovich

B. Conceptual sketch

C. Proposal explanation

We want to make a puppy bank. It is interesting and can be used in our daily life. Basically, it is a little similar to the classic piggy bank, which people can use to store their coins. What is different is that it can interact with the person using it. When that person wants to deposit some coins, he or she can press a button and there will be a hole opened on the puppy’s back ( for aesthetic consideration it is closed at other times), where people can throw coins in. Then, the puppy will go rounds and/or wig its tails, which means it is very happy. When the person wants to withdraw his or her money, the intention will be “caught” with the help of a sensor (maybe an ultrasonic sensor), the puppy will open its mouth to allow the person to fetch the coins, however, at the same time, it will shake its hand and make the sound like a sob.

My partner and I brainstormed and talked about our ideas together. But we were inspired by a video that uses Arduino to make a smart bin (and its URL will be pasted at the end of the proposal). We thought we can also make something with a similar open-and-close process.

video: https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1TU4y1K78h?spm_id_from=333.337.search-card.all.click

I made two small badges in JRRTolkien’s books with the laser cut machine. To be more specific, I draw the diagram on Gravit Designer and the main cutting method is raster cut.

Video of performance:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HVbOHsC84VzVxBWzZQiMFuq6cOAcauch/view?usp=sharing

About our ideas:

To decide our concept, we shared each one’s artifacts the first time we met together, and then we generated this new one by integrating different idea pieces in our artifacts.

This concept is from the fiction Newton’s Sleep, in which people got illusions about Earth after they came to a new planet. In fiction, people can not really interact with their illusions, and these illusions (which present the bond between humans and Earth) made them desperate. According to the reading The Art of Interactive Design, we wanted to do something have a higher level of interactivity. After reading the novel, which is written in an anti-utopia style, we wanted to make something that can express our humanistic thinking. Moreover, many of our artifacts mention the concept of projecting vivid things, so based on the situation at the end of the fiction, we just came up with an assumption: People wanted to do something to interact with their illusion to fulfill their emptiness in heart, but the illusions are still illusions, so they cannot really solve the problem. And since people rely too much on those technologies,  once there is something wrong with the technologies, people may feel even more desperate. 

So we have our concept: A kind of floor that can project interactive images according to people’s minds. In addition to the floor, there are also other accessories: a helmet, which can read people’s brain waves ( people’s illusion) and send information to the floor; a glove, which can enable people to touch the things projected; a receptor which receives the information sent from the helmet. 

About the process and collaboration:

We started to make the cardboard prototype on Feb 25, Friday, after the cardboard workshop, and started to write our script for the performance on Sunday, and started to rehearse the performance on March 3, Thursday.

First of all, we brainstormed the concept together, deciding what objects we need to do, and drawing a sketch on the paper.

When doing the prototypes, we assigned the work, so each of us did some part of the prototypes. We cut the cardboard and folded them to the shape we want and pasted them when it was necessary. Younian also brought some paint so we could decorate our prototype and make them more vivid( such as the sunflower).

My main contribution was writing the first draft of our performance script. At first, I wrote a theater-style script in Chinese, and other group members helped me to translate it into English and gave some suggestions on how to improve it.

An analysis and assessment of performance from another group:

I want to analyze the performance of group2: The Time Stealer.

Their project could change the time speed of people who wear the project. Their performance started with the birthday party for the main man character who met someone having the same habits as him and wanted to spend more time chatting with her. So he use this project to slow down the time speed of they two so they can talk a lot of things even if it was just a few seconds for people who weren’t wearing the project.

I think their concept derives from the fiction “The Fish of Lijiang”, where there was also the concept about changing the speed of time. However, it is hard to feel that their stories happen in the same universe as The Fish of Lijiang. One of the features in the universe is that people use manmade technology to replace most of the things in the world, so everything just feels fake, but I cannot see this feature in their performance. It just looks no different with a birthday party in our life, except an advanced technology. Also, in a universe where time-speed-changing technology has widely experimented, this kind of machine may not be very creative.

As for the performance, I think it did show their concept clearly, and the acting skill of actor and actress is very natural and immersive and have very good interaction with the audience. However, since the aim of our performance is to show the artifact, I think it will be better if they spend a longer time presenting the function of their artifact, rather than the atmosphere of the birthday party.