Author: rl3546

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Recitation 10: Documentation by Robin Luo

Lab Date:  April 28, 2019
Instructor: Marcela

Aim of Today’s Lab: Create a Media Controller with Processing and Arduino 

Materials used: Breadboard, Jumper Cables, Arduino Uno, Potentiometer, Arcade Button, 10K Resistor

Process:
For this recitation, we got the chance to do manipulate a video or image with Arduino and Processing. I decided to create an Andy Warhol Polaroid Gallery which pixels’ size I could change. To do this, I first set up the potentiometer and changed the size of the pixels through it. Next, I wanted to use the push button to go through different polaroid pictures. I ran into some issues during this part — but it was due to errors in image name and initializing the variable correctly into the array. After I solved this issue, everything seemed to work fine!

  

Conclusion
The ability to use the camera and create manipulations with technology through your movements allows a spectrum of interesting possibilities! You can create installations where technology almost becomes natural and sentient — say facing you when you are passing by (belt installation) or reacting to your very movements without interacting with something that makes it obviously technology. It camouflages into reality. In my project, computer vision wasn’t used that much as I didn’t use the webcam or have my sketch or Arduino interact by mere presence, but in my final project, I somewhat am to do that by creating music and art by effortless movement — but without a webcam and through sensors. 

In conclusion, I think this exercise and learning about the process also aided me to how computers generated images and collect information from images and videos — especially with facial recognition such as snapchat filters which read through data coded by a language a computer can understand (numbers) and perceive contrasts in the face. 

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Recitation 9: Documentation by Robin Luo

Lab Date:  April 25, 2019
Instructor: Marcela

Aim of Today’s Lab: Critique each other’s final projects in our table.

We all examined each other’s final projects. Project 1 was about a driving simulation but through the imagination. I thought this project had an interesting concept, but it’s objective was not very clear. I liked the magical and fantasy quality of the project and how it was to bridge driving with fiction. There were components that I had to clear up on, as their intention was both to improve driving but also make driving fun. I suggested it would be interesting to create a set up that mimicked a car and emphasize on the visuals. Project 2 was about creating a controller that individual’s with disabilities could use to draw. I thought this project was interesting but it’s logistics wasn’t too clear. They wanted either hand motions or a general controller made with the Arduino — the examples for their project really helped shaped what they aimed to do. I suggested various ways for the controller to work — to push past a regular joystick. The final project I critiqued was an expansion of this individual’s project for a different class, which was to control their robot to create drawings in the sand. I was intrigued by this project and thought the use of a marble was really interesting. However, I was not too clear their logistics either. I believe they planned to use Processing to create the drawing and control the robot’s magnet in order to move the marble in the sand. 

The criticism I received for my audio visual project was fairly straightforward. I think most of the were not clear on the logistics of how the user will interact with the project, which I have to yet clear in my head. I think this is the pivtol part of the project that I should clarify as it will be the driving force of the music. Also, I received some critique on the scale of the project. Ideally, it would be projected like the examples in my post; however, I like to think realistically before imagining the end goal. 

I do like the feedback I received for the project and definitely considered it thoroughly. Thinking about my final project overall, I would like to have done something more personal and elaborate — interaction with objects one necessarily won’t think to interact with if I were doing it on my own; however, as a group project, this project marries both my partner and I’s interests and conveys ideas in a way that can make sense for the both of us. Audio visual projects tend to be very common, so I hope I can find a way to interact with the piece through the Arduino in a way that can both bind teamwork and communication through the body and music/art in a unique way that is clear. 

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My Design Practice – Robin Luo

The kind of design I want to do is one that invokes a some conversation either internal or about the external, that is experimental, and that is personal. There are many designers I am inspired by; however, at the moment, I am interested and inspired by female artists that invoke powerful statements. In particular, Yoko Ono, Jenny Holzer, and Louise Bourgeois. I’m also interested in street photography with unique perspectives, invoking a feeling of absurdity or a range of human emotions such as Daniel Arnold, Fan Ho, and Annie Leibovitz’s personal photos.  Other designers I am inspired by are poets, at the moment who particularly define my current feelings are Frank O’Hara (“The Day the Lady Died,” “To the Harbormaster,” and “Having a Coke With You”) and T. S. Elliot’s Preludes. 

I want to make things because I want to invoke experience — an experience of human emotion that may be an imitation of what we have felt, a feeling of inspiration, a feeling of beauty, or an invitation to think. My medium would be anything that I think best achieves this experience I want to invoke whether it is through sculpting, written pieces, conceptual pieces, digital graphics, or paintings. I don’t think I would design for particularly anyone as what my design practice for work I aspire to do is relatively personal. The impact I want to make through my work is either to start a conversation, ways to explore emotion, or therapeutic. Ultimately, my goal as a designer is to create an experience or thought that I know and convey it into the best way I think I can present it into a reality. 

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Design Trends – Robin Luo

The trend I chose is the Ocean Clean Up Project. The goal of this project is to clean up the plastic waste in the oceans, particularly in the “subtropic gyres” where most of the plastic concentrates. 

Analyzing current trends, at this rate if there is no clean up, plastic pollution in oceans will only exponentially increase. If there is clean up, plastic pollution will reduce to zero by 2050. This project’s solution is by using the natural current, wind, and waves of the ocean to direct plastic pollutants, they will be able to clean up the ocean to our benefit by understanding the ocean and not using external energy sources to power the clean up processes. 

The future implications of not cleaning up the plastic waste in the oceans is that the plastic will break down and poison the oceans — killing wildlife and poisoning the water. By poisoning the water, chemicals could even affect human life as we depend on water to live. Different kinds of bacteria will grow in the water and potentially different diseases we have never dealt with before. A drawback would be to clearer plastic pollutants in other smaller areas in the ocean where there are also wastes specifically in poorer communities. Another is how some of the plastic regurgitates and does not get captured in the “net.” This is due to lack of research in the ocean and the way it functions. 

A solution to tackle the lack of research about the ocean is first by understanding how to collect trash in water by conducting several tests — perhaps in a smaller scale, as well as collecting data about ocean currents and unpredictable weather conditions and use machine learning to understand and predict the movement of the oceans. Not only that, we need to rethink how we dispose of our waste globally and better ways to be sustainable in the future. 

Through this, I think we need to create a software that analyze patterns of the ocean through satellite and a trackable device that can sense the direction of the ocean. We also need to analyze how we collect trash from the water — analyzing the best solutions to scooping up pollutants in order to find the best way of cleaning up plastic waste. Finally, we need to enforce programs which rethink the way we dispose of our plastic waste and inform the implications it has in our environment. We need to prioritize it and its sense of emergency.   

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6 Hats Workshop Reflection – Robin Luo

6 Hats Workshop

In the 6 Hats Workshop, we were separated in teams of three and assigned a hat which signified our position. My team was the black hat, which was to point out the drawbacks and potential problems. We were to analyze the ideas of the green hat regarding Eric’s problem of routinely meditating. 

I think this process of critically analyzing the facts and ideas of the situation is particularly useful because it allows you to think about your idea in every area — facts, ideas, benefits, drawbacks, feelings, and summarize the analysis. I think it helps combing through aspects of your idea to figure out a better solution in an organized manner and hearing the thought process rather than going conversing with a general direction. I think it’s good to challenge your idea and considering all perspectives and potential problems and benefits — improving critical thinking skills and proactively thinking about your design than considering your first solution the best solution.