Category: Assignment-09-Sketches

20 November 2013

Looking Outwards + Final Project Sketches

Looking Outwards:
1. The Kinetic Chandelier

I personally found this chandelier quite endearing; the way it follows you around reminds me of something that just wants a hug. In fact, I see this less as a chandelier and more of an ecosystem within and of itself. Arguably, this could belong underwater as well. This chandelier also boasts a utilitarian feature: the light is always pointing towards you, so say goodbye to shifting around awkwardly while reading, trying to catch the light!

2. D.O.R.T.H.E.

While this particular piece is also somewhat endearing, I like the idea behind the typewriter. If this were on a computer running a program in your background it would be less artistic but adhere more to the idea of one’s life having a soundtrack. (I always imagine mine does.) If my computer were able to sense and generate music based on my mood, I would be extremely impressed. Granted, the majority of the work done here is in the hardware which would be difficult to transfer to a computer, but it is possible to completely transfer the program to only software. I think I’m seeing a trope here — I like the idea of a machine being able to read one’s emotions. (Although perhaps not in the style of Marvin from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy). It really gives these machines a life force of their own.

3. Touch Vision Interface

Not a novel idea, I know. With that being said, the idea of being able to hide in a corner and control some piece if technology (in particular, with the goal of surprising someone — can you imagine an augmented haunted house with controls like these?) appeals to me. This kind of technology is already implemented in Razzy’s down on South Craig in a similar fashion — one choose what song to play over the speakers from from one’s own phone. A touch interface like this, however, gives that extra degree of control that makes the experience a little more special.

My Project Sketches/Ideas

1. An Electric Violin

This violin would be feature pressure pads on the neck where each of the four strings would normally be situated. I realize there should be a second set of pressure sensors just below the fingerboard to emulate a bow, but am at present unsure as to how these two would interact with one another. One thing is for sure: If I am to implement this project, I will have to switch to using a Teensy.

Violin body would have to be lasercut, and potentially layered (depending on the thickness the lasercutter can deal with). Fancy futuristic body shape.

I think perhaps it would be more “realistic” to use the cord which changes resistances as it stretches. Granted, it would have to start off fairly taught. There also needs to be an output device somewhere.

Additionally, would it not be awesome to make the body/bow from acrylic and insert lights?

Second Idea Coming Soon!

I guess a second project (also music-related) would be to have a piano with pressure sensors under say, a certain octave of notes. When pressed, lights on the piano would light up in different ways.

20 November 2013

Dave – Looking Outwards Final Project

Inspirations

1. Simstudent

http://www.hcii.cmu.edu/research/simstudent-computational-model-student-learning-advance-sciences-learning

Simstudent is a research project at HCII at CMU. Humans learn by teaching, so we can take advantage of that fact by having real students teach algebra to a computer program, the Simstudent, so in turn the students themselves can learn. It uses machine learning algorithms to find patterns in algebra problems to solve them in logical steps. At each phase of the problem, the Simstudent will perform a step in an algebra problem, and the real student has the option to accept it as right, or correct the computer, which will proceed to remember the operations taken so it will not make the same mistakes next time. This is not an art project, but I love the feeling of accomplishment I get when my once-derpy Simstudent became a master at algebra and starts mowing problems down with ease. Thus, I wanted to create my final project based on a machine learning algorithm, so that my audiences can feel what I had felt.

2. Falling Stars

“Falling Stars” is an iPad app that lets the user draw objects on screen, which will produce sounds when drops of falling stars collide with them. The ability to easily create a musical composition that sounds decently coherent with seemly random drawings impresses me. The visuals themes are also great looking and create a calming mood. As an interactive program, it allows the user to create something that not only looks cool but also sounds great. I have always wanted to create a project that uses music and sounds, but I myself do not have enough understanding of music theory to create compositions myself. However, if all I do is set up the environment, and let the audiences and computer take care of generation of music instead, just as Falling Stars did, that might just be possible.

3. MIDI keyboard in Processing

I originally wanted all the music creation to be taken care of by the computer. However, if the user’s only interactions are to rate a composition as good or bad, then he or she might have to brute force through a lot of bad music to find one that is good, which is not exactly a rewarding experience that I had been hoping for. In order to make the experience more interactive, I decided to use a Processing library which can receive input from MIDI keyboards known as RWMidi. I also found an example project made from this library, which displays the robustness that I need. I am currently waiting for my MIDI keyboard to be shipped to me so that I can test it as soon as possible.

Ideas:

1. There is a fish tank filled with fish. When each of them flails up out of water, it sings a note. When these fishes do this over a sequence of time, they will produce a composition. The user will then vote whether it is good or not. With a machine learning algorithm, the fishes will remember the label and modify their future compositions based on the user’s taste. This effectively lets the user train the fish to produce “music”. The user can also choose to play music with his/her MIDI keyboard, thus giving more teaching power to the user.

2. Something with music information visualization. I invested money into a MIDI keyboard so I will be using it no matter what. It would be nice to create a visual story with music. This will be something similar to the reverse of “Falling Stars”, so it will probably grow things via pattern of music.

Update: 11/18
I have finished the machine learning backend, and it can play music correctly. All that is left to do is to implement the frontend and sync its timing with the backend, which will not be trivial, but it is not going to be planning intensive.

18 November 2013

Flying Carpets and Related Ideas

http://www.artcom.de/en/projects/project/detail/symphonie-cinetique-the-poetry-of-motion/

I have seen the work of these artists around vimeo before, and their sculptures are always seamless and breathtaking. There is a mystical harmony between the reflective light, music, and wavelike motions. This documentary describes the artsts’ inspirations and process pretty well, and shows their different variations in the sculpture. Their blog and videos didn’t say much about how their sculptures were implemented, but there was one comment that said each string-bound obeject was controlled by a stepper motor, and that the movements were coded in hardware (I’m not too sure what that means).

I’ve wanted to do a ceiling-type installation for a while, and I am extremely intrigued by the idea of making a sculpture that looks like it is floating. I imagine the challenge would be to get all the stepper motors to work at the same time and coordinate a sinusoidal motion. Even better, it would be cool if they were arranged in an array to look like a levitating mesh (flying carpet). But I realize this project needs to be scaled down, so I will just think about how to get all those stepper motors working. I would need a bigger power source for sure, as well as a shift register or something to get them to be programmed in the same way. I also am not that great at synchronizing the visual with music, so I think it would be cool for the movement to correspond to a sensor measurement.

I’ve seen a lot of drawing bots during my research, and I think this is a pretty interesting one because it is not a bot, really. It is controlled by motors reeling the string. This would be an interesting way of transforming a sensor measurement into a visual. Again, this would involve a lot of calculations between stepper motors, which would prove an interesting challenge.

This piece is really charming because it gives life to these typically inanimate objects and hides the mechanism behind its operation, which makes it quite mysterious. The artist uses a Lilypad and a servo for each book. It would be very interesting to take at least two inanimate objects and have them be able to communicate in a cute and humorous way. There method of communication would be through motors and maybe sound or light, and they would either have a sensor to interact, or maybe they could be connected through the internet. The idea would be that they have a story to tell together, and the viewers can watch or participate to figure it out. As for the actual objects, they could be salt and pepper shakers (Blue’s Clues anyone?), newspapers, rocks, water bottles, or generally anything that can conceal an arduino.

Sketches: