Name Rosie Gao
Instructor Eric Parren
Project 1 Melon
Melon” is a 1-minute composition with Analog RGB LED Strip based on Ocha’s music piece with the same name. I want to use LEDs to visualize the beats and melody of the song through coding based on what we have learned in senses relationship and synesthesia.
During the presentation, I get feedback from the audience on the strings and circuits part exposing and the lack of variation in the light frequency of the composition. The audience mainly experiences the project by staring into the lights, which is too straight forward, kind of boring and eyes-hurting. The connection between the music and the pattern makes sense, but it is not strong enough.
I would consider my work in this project as incomplete, partly due to the misunderstanding of me not getting the device I need to code upon in creation process, and also not investing enough time and thoughts into it. Also, thinking about the decoration of the physical project is of great importance, which is something I ignore in my creation as well.
Project 2 Jellyfish
Partner: Tiger Tian
code-Rosie
Jellyfish is a group project of a 2-minute composition in light with two Digital RGB LED Strips using Arduino + FastLED. We have the original inspiration from Tiger’s original soundtrack and the pattern of jellyfish, especially tube jellyfish in the sea which looks exactly like the LED stripes we use in the project. We want to create the feeling of mystery, live and fantasy of sea creatures.
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We use a cardboard box which we color blue and cover with laser cardboard to reflect the lights. Then we use transparent laser plastic paper to extend the light range and play with the tone of colors of LED light colors.
The biggest hardship we encounter in the creation process is to figure out how to work with FastLed Arduino library. We spent hours to debug our code realizing we were using the NUM_leds wrongly and to modify the code to suit the rhythm and timeline of the music. We use different solutions in our codes eventually with me using millies and Tiger using delay because I am trying to the Fire sample code of FastLed in my stripe. The choice of using two stripes causes more difficulty of hiding the wires, but create more variation of visual effects in our final outcome.
During the presentation, it is surprising to see how the audience’s interpretation of our project varies from each other. Some consider it as a tree and some say fireworks, which is also playable. I as the creator do not hate the thought of leaving the audience the space of imagination in the experience.
The lesson I learn from this project is the importance of studying through a library I am using and the use of functions in coding which saves works of repeating the code or mess up with inputs. I still need to find out the reason why the millies function I use does not work in plans in time controls, which I would like to explore more in future coding.