processing

We have started the programing for creativity paper, my previous experience with programing was with visual basic, so having to draw items is new to me, the first day we learned how to draw lines, ellipses, beizier curves, and points. this was somewhat tedious. but baby steps are required. We were set the to create a character. i just made a simple humanoid

The second we got into if statements and simple logic. I decided to make a homing dot which followed the cursor due to I didnt set it up to refresh the window each frame it left a trail,like a nerdy etcher sketch! I was just doodling and came up with a random face with a excessive jaw.

Today I futher played with the dot tracing, and have started on scaling based upon distace from another point, this could be used for perspective, Im mostly focusing on creating individual elements instead of creating it all on one "sketch", which respectively are getting progressively more ambitious.

documentation arangement thoughts retrospective.

Ive noticed whilst going along developing an idea during the planning stage ill come up with a idea and got down as much as i can as fast as possible as the frequency of ideas weans more intricate drawings and detailed descriptions arise, I have started using watercolour pencil instead of my usual gouache due to speed and convenience you can add colour on the bus and blend it in later. which ratio do you sacrifice form for content?

As my projects have developed I've difficulty in keeping a journal accurately showing development of ideas, as a lot of my developments have been driven by interaction with the materials. With the NXTs forms were developed by fiddling around with pieces to get the needed form or function and slight modifications [where necessary] were minuscule adjustments with little significance to the big picture. In the most recent prosthetic I created switches these started as list of attributes I listed down, then played with cardboard and built a suitable switch for my sensor that is triggered when a body of mass is applied onto the beans squishing it between the beanbag and the floor. Due to the near null importance of sensitivity the first prototype I made was retrofitted with two tinfoil pads wired up and was ready for use. how do you show development of ideas when it occurs within a short space of time?

Ive approached the research with a degree of caution trying not to gift the prosthesis with a complicated existence, by overcomplicating the ideas with a perceived complexity beyond its simple purpose , Its a simple concept, I looked at the alienation and intimidation of an inorganic object becoming part of oneself my outside reading was a part of a book called "Prosthetics and Patient Management, a comprehensive clinical approach" by Kevin Carroll and Joan E. Edelstein which looks at the emotional implications of losing a limb and the emotional impact a prosthesis has on the patient.

my prosthesis is a big bean bag a large round shape it has a squishy reaction to touch has texture and has a feeling of warmth due to the insulate nature of the filling, a non intimidating object.
As someone with all my limbs it is designed for a able bodied person but could be easily modified. due to the mouldable nature of beanbags

we often give an emotional attachment to objects they have a physicality. having a large physical object is a nice tangent from what is often viewed as future interfaces with computers
a compromise between precision and a sophisticated form, for tactile and emotional needs of the user.

I'm not sure if I enjoyed this particular brief, it seems fragmented possibly due to being blitzed by a cold a few days out form the end, the usual time for a project to get that sense of completed cohesion. i did enjoy not having a mental inability to conjure up any ideas, although the end product doesn't seem to have a tangible need to exist, but neither does many other irrational objects we adorn our homes and workplaces with. as a collective we created a series of tech demos which were unique and could possibly be modified for a meaningful existence. but maybe I'm being unnecessarily critical.

prosthesis and the extention of the human form

For my prosthesis I am focusing on the extension of the body not so much of addition physically, no exoskeletons or replacement limbs for me, but an extension emotionally, often with a prosthetic there is some alienation a cold solid object to which you attach or that augments, its somewhat like a spork it helps you do lots of things but you wish you had a separate spoon and fork since they have more character. I had a think about how we give an emotional attachment to objects. as soon as the brief was given to us i made a gestural drawing as a basic "prosthetic" I wanted to make, I also wrote down 3 words the first being emotion. a came up with a bean bag since they are big, soft, round, squishy, its like a big insulative marshmallow

How do you portray or preferably enhance emotion between the user and the object? sound, sound was the main area i focused on. after hearing the whale like calls of slowing down audio
I also used video to support the sound, i set up max to create 2 vidoeos from 4, 3 which were prerecorded of the texture of me, the texture of the beanbag, and the inside of my mouth, I also had a live camera with microphone with a torch to film the inside of the beanbag visualising the way the beanbag reacts to the actions applied visualy and audibly to it.
I was planning to build the built the prosthetic on the Monday night before but this was delayed to Tuesday night due to mental incoherency of having a cold.


For switches I used cardboard which was bowed outward in the centre with tinfoil contacts. the benefit of this method was that I could create large sensing pads instead of fumbling around trying to find small little switches,also it had the ability to flex and take on the shape of the beanbag without deforming the shape or feel dramatically. and its more fun actually making something instead of just showing something you bought at the shops.
unfortunately one of the sensors died in transit.

My presentation wasn't fancy I just talked about my idea. max msp threw a conveniently timed hissy fit which I wouldn't be bothered restarting to fix. I could have glossed it up to cover up the flaws but as we saw if there is just presentation and limited substance its quite easy to see through. at the end of my explination there werent many questions hopefully that meant i got my ideas across adequately, or with a incoherent rambling and no pretty moving things on a screen to show, the class got lost.

Ive come up with a cutesy idea for my documentation, a more effective way to show the emotional attachment between the prosthesis and the user. a faux ad for it. showing a user and its prosthetic sharing moments together. skipping, having tea, going for a swim. I dont think i will actualy make a glossy version just a mock up.

keyboard interface

For this project we took apart a keyboard.completely striping it away to the control board and some soldered on wires, a good point to introduce multiple inputs into max msp due to a usb keyboard already is reconised as a input and it has over two hundred possible combonations,

For mine I decided to focus mostly on making a fine degree of control, instead of an awesome animation. the base was the same trees from the animata + appleremote task. added in extra frames to stop the trees from heeling over.

From playing around I discovered that when you had two terminals that connected to the same single horizontal plane cable it creates a value in the thousands. not only this but it has a seperate value for when button A then B is pressed and when button B then A is pressed. for example ( Q= 20, w= 26, q+w = 6676 and 5146 depending on whether you pushed down q or w first) this would allow for the sensor to be able to tell the program which direction of a slide was, which could be useful depending on the desired aplication.

My sensor was simple a cross using tinfoil as a thin conductor surface
it consisted of 5 pads. The centeral pad had no comand allocated to its individual press but when combined with on of the directional pads it would give a small add or subtract to the length value. in comparison when its just the directional pad it would give a movement value twice that of the shared pads.

Overall the task was quite enjoyable it was good getting to make something and having it work, I had more fun discussing the refinement other peoples work than my own. possibly since there was a dissatachement to this project, it fell a bit flat emotionly towards it due to the lack of strongly inspirational ideas.