Introduction:
The overall goal of recitation 4 was to construct a drawing machine. The purpose of this recitation was to learn about both the h-bridge and the stepper motor; both of which are very useful components. Learning to implement these two components into future builds is on my mind thanks to this recitation. Overall, I hope to be well versed with these two items because if they can be used to make something as complex and interesting as the drawing machine, then they can really help take our projects to the next level.
Construction:
This image here is the first stage of building. This build has a very complicated schematic, that compounded with the fact that I am very prone to making careless error inspired me to use what I’ve learned in previous recitations, and color coordinate my wiring. The color coordination goes as follows: Power=Red, Ground=White, and PIN=Green. Thankfully, I would end up wiring this drawing machine without error. It did add an extra layer of comfort knowing that if I did make an error, it would be easy to spot the it. The parts present here are the h-bridge as well as a ton of wires.
This next stage is a rather quick one. All I did was attach the power adaptor to the breadboard. I included this as an entire step because I was worried that I would end up being one of the unfortunate souls who fried their arduino. I was very cautious to not let the 5 volts and 12 volts cross paths.
This is a video of me finally attaching the stepper motor to the complete build. I uploaded the provided code, and what do you know? The stepper motor starting whizzing away. All that was left was to find someone else who finished and combine our motors together to make a drawing machine!
Here is the code for that simple motion of the stepper motor:
With a little bit of alterations to the code (as seen bellow) and some laser cut pieces, we successfully constructed the drawing machine. In my opinion, the most difficult part of this recitation was adding the potentiometer in the build. After doing so, the result was entertaining to say the least.
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.
My favorite kinds of machines are the ones that test skill. I like the idea of improving skills, so machines similar to the speed game are very appealing to me. Moreover, this belief translated into my midterm project because that itself is also another kind of game. Instead of testing speed, mine tests strength.
For this class, I’d assume actuators refer to actual physical movers. I like actuators a lot because I feel that they add a much needed depth to both art and interactive machinery. While people expect art to stay stationary, I find that perhaps actuators can help breath new life into a tradition as old as time.
Digital manipulation of art is something that has peaked my interest due to an exhibit I saw last year. The exhibit featured paintings of regular images, however there was an external laser component that projected moving images over the paintings. These images proceeded to dance and move around the paintings as if they were in the world of the projected beings. I think such manipulation of art makes it far more entertaining to look at.
When it comes to the creative process, I do not like describing it as a process. I think it is fair to assume that when we do something others may view as “creative” we do not always get to that result in the same method every time. I find the creative process to be more of an independent journey depending on the situation at hand. It is one that requires patience and the ability to leave no avenue unchecked. If done correctly, it can yield world changing results.
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?
The London Fieldworks project was one that particularly peaked my interest. While the other projects give the viewer something interesting to watch, this project goes a different route (and I think the creators knew exactly what they were doing). The main actuators in this instance are both sound and vibrations. The main focus of this exhibit is to make the viewer look at what appears to be traditional art while being subject to experiences one typically does not see when looking at art, i.e shaking and surreal sounds. Such stimulation can drastically change the way someone views traditional art and I for one think that is an extremely interesting shift of the paradigm. While most artists try to change the art itself, the creativity displayed in the London Fieldworks gets you to look at the same art in a drastically different way.