10: new media. new headaches

I have been working all morning on the sync discs. Ironing the transfer paper to the copper boards and cutting, sanding the substrate. The entire transfer process (trial:BATCH 3) had oirr adhesion. The ink didn't transfer although I was using high temperature and tonnes of pressure--following the same recipe I used to complete trial:BATCH 2 successfully. During BATCH 2 I transfered side one to the disc using the same staples copy paper but using images that had just been printed approx.15 minutes before the transfer process. During BATCH 3 I did the printing days ahead of time and waited to transfer the traces later in the week. I think that was a mistake because I'm working with a Canon laser copier on glossy settings and it must be that over time the ink bond to the paper strengthens. Lesson learned.

UPDATE: Apparently, the biggest issue with the transfer application was not time but was, in fact, soap. During the soaking process the copper discs were submerged in hot soapy water to loosen the paper bond to the ink. Oily soapy residues prohibited the transfer process. I discovered this after re-doing the entire batch with fresh trace prints (trial: BATCH 4) only to have the transfer process fail for the second time.


trial: Batch 3 poor quality traces

TIP: Thanks to Darcy for suggesting that copper should be cleaned with soya sauce?! I'll try that next.

graphite sequencer

I can definitely see some similarities between my sync disc collection and this Graphite Sequencer by Caleb Copock:

From Make Make Magazine

"Graphite conducts electricity. Two wires brush against the surface of a paper disk as it spins. The wires are connected to a simple electronic tone generator. When a line of graphite is drawn across the disk, connecting two wires, a tone is heard. The quality of the line affects the sound. For example, if the line is thick, allowing more current to pass over it, the pitch changes to a lower tone."

the newest script

I just wanted to quickly post the newest image from the processing script Josh was working on. It's amazing. You can start to see its resemblance to the doodle I posted earlier in the blog. The goal was to use the scripts on my circuit boards but with deadlines approaching I'll have to wait and make do with what I've got. I'll be exploring the processing environment soon enough. Thanks again, Josh!

I also wanted to mention that last Friday I had a crit with visual and sound artist Ken Gregory. His work is really intense and his insight definitely helpful. I explained about the sync discs I'm working on and also showed him Roman Kirschner installation Roots. This led to a really interesting discussion on micro-welding and electrolysis and the possibility of making 3D circuit boards. Ken also suggested a few ways for me to get my toy motors under control and suggested friction fitting some interesting parts to the motor shafts.



Click on image for source

take 5 and focus

I’ve been busy creating the PCB sync discs and finally have 5 floating in a warm water bath to dissolve the staples copy paper so that they will be ready for etching this afternoon. It’s a bit like removing wine labels from glass bottles. I’ve peaked at the discs briefly and the traces are not adhering correctly. Right now I’m working on the mechanisms that will hold the disc and also the key that will rotate to complete the circuit and fire off the motor bank. I’m still debating how to control the DC toy motors but my studio peer Nick had a spare gearbox from a remote control car that should work nicely (image to follow). Now the key will spin slowly and the pattern of action of the motors will be more apparent. So… great, I have turning motors but the BIG question becomes; what will the motors actuate? I have two current ideas that I’m working on.

Puppet 1: I’d like to get the pony’s eyes to work again without the body. The head will be attached to a sync disc that will cause it to turn and blink intermittently. This puppet is a prime candidate for some microcontroller attention—i.e. I could use the Arduino board. I would love to attach temperature or IR sensors to the mechanism so that as people approach the puppet her head swivels towards the individual and the eyes blink.

Puppet 2: I’ve also laser cut lightweight paper marionettes that will be suspended from a motor bank. The marionettes will be controlled by a bank of servo motors which will be turned on and off randomly by the sync disc. These should be suspended at eye level in the gallery space.

The whole purpose of my investigation is to create areas of play that will engage an audience on some level. This preliminary research has been key to developing my thesis on interactive architectures and how we might be able to play with buildings rather than in them. I’m eager to see how these puppets take up space, how they move and react to each other and how an audience/participant responds to them. I’m attracted to the notion that these puppets will possess a life of their own, and in some highly rudimentary way exhibit “intelligence” with or without human interaction --almost as if they are going about their business and we walked in. Inevitably, these characters will inhabit their new homes while in Montreal in ways that I have yet to imagine.

09: designing switches

New Designs: Create with Adobe Illustrator

The above images are the newer sync disc designs. Since I'm not sure exactly how many motors I'll be running off these discs, I've made my traces "expandable". I had hoped to learn to write scripts to be able to generate traces for the switches. That will happen at a later date. Better to move one step at a time. I have been using Adobe Illustrator to draw the traces for my discs. I've been creating brushes and using the spiral tool which has produced some really interesting "organic" results. Much more organic than I originally had hoped. I've also been running a few "borrowed" scriptographer scripts and changing the brush patterns for those with decent results. However, I still need to go in and custom cut paths in order to keep the traces separate. I am bound and determined to be etching by tomorrow morning. The Montreal trip is looming largely in the distance...1 wk to go.

08: processing

After my preliminary idea sketch, Josh sent me this great bit of processing code which starts to execute some of the basic geometries I was looking for. I have to spend some time playing around with the script so that I can understand its parameters, but for now it seems pretty straight forward. The confusing bit is a big chunk of variables part way through the code which I think is truly the "meat" of the spiral form-- (unfortunately, my images aren't better). I also have another script which I'm planning on playing with and posting shortly.

07: scripting

Immediately after playing with scriptographer you can get a feel for how scripting can work to create dynamic evolving images. An analysis of Ernst Haeckel's work suggests that branching patterns and nesting patterns should work well for the traces. In the case of my sync discs I'm looking for geometric patterns with a "biological feel" that fit some stringent rules. In order for the traces to work on the boards they can't touch one another. I also need to be able to access each trace with a wire so that I can actually solder the switch to the system. I'm soliciting help from java pros to help me script, what I hope will be a fairly simple tool. A big shout out to Josh Cotten who I've already harassed to give me some advice. The curly cue below is a rough sketch example of how the script might appear graphically. The basic outline is such that:

1. I'd like to make spirals with tapering widths.
2. I'd like to draw one "parent" spiral and then have random spirals generated from that single one in tiny curly cues--sort of like branches in a tree script. Where no curly cues touch each other but they do taper.
3. When I execute the script I'd like to make sure that no "parent" script touches another "parent" script but that they almost nest really close together.

06: motion

Over the last few days I’ve been getting a few different aspects of this project up and running simultaneously. I’ve made minor progress towards the puppet “brain” and I’ve begun sketching out a few possibilities for the puppet “body”.


Demonstration of the sync disc that partially controls the motors. One node of the motor is connect to the switch and the other node is connected to a (+) power supply -- in this case I'm just using the power pack that came with the toy Pony. As the key revolves over the disc it completes the circuit and the motor fires. The motor stops when the key revolves past the patch and disconnects the circuit.


Simple circuit. A speaker has been added to the mix to amplify the sound of the motor. The speaker stops and starts in sync with the firing of the motor.

The Brain:
In order to give this puppet a story and create the uncanny illusion of “living unpredictability” I’ve started to fabricate my own sync discs. Each disc acts much like a sequencer turning motors connected to the “body” on and off. By etching my own circuit boards I can control how the electrical current moves throughout the board and therefore how the motors will react individually and to each other. The overall idea for the discs is that they begin to form a visual collection of behavior-- or drawings, which embodies behavior. The process for etching the discs requires that a trace pattern be applied to the double copper plated substrate. The copper plates are then placed in a Ferric Chloride copper etchant solution. The trace pattern must be drawn with a material that will resist the ferric chloride and preserve the copper underneath. This resist material can be something as simple as sharpie marker. However, I’m attempting to transfer the plastic micro-particles found in photocopy toner to the copper board. This is done through significant heat (an iron) and pressure. The transfer paper also makes a difference. In my first attempt I used regular copy paper and found the transfer to be awful. My next attempt will use Staples brand copy paper*. The trace patterns themselves are still in an experimental stage. I’m currently exploring the beautiful biological drawings of German biologist Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) as one avenue of inspiration. I’m also interested in the idea of using scripting as a means of generating related patterns. One approach is to explore scriptographer—a scripting plug-in for Adobe Illustrator. A drawing produced with a script that has been executed 10 times shares a similar geometry but looks entirely different that a script that has been executed 100 times. In this way, the discs would have a systematic relationship to each other but might function in very different ways.



Etching Tank: acrylic panels, silicone seams, suspended clips, air pump and airline tubing, wood base and metal supports.

The Body:
Using the existing mechanics of the Pony as a point of departure, I’ve begun to examine how I might begin to use gears and cam techniques to amplify or transform the rotary movements of the existing DC toy motors. The Pony’s eyes are particularly interesting. When she was intact she could blink her eyes and twist her head from side to side. I’ve taken a closer look at this mechanism and discovered it’s both ingenious and simple. Plastic components are perfect because they are lightweight, strong and completely customizable. So far my major challenge has been in controlling the motors (which revolve so quickly that they require a series of gears to transform the size and speed of rotation. Supporting the gears is tricky and has had required me to re-purpose much of the pony’s “chassis’. Also, I would love to be able to manufacture a few more eyeballs and sockets through a vacuum forming technique, but that will require the assistance of professionals. I’m hoping the crew at Winnipeg Patterns and Model Works will help me out. To date, I've simply cloaked the motors with a flexible skin to see what might happen as they stop and start.






Flexible skin covering the motors. The skin bulges and pulses as the spring attached to the motor makes contact.

hektor: spray can output device

This is an amazing project called Hektor. Hektor is a portable Spray-paint Output Device created by Uli Franke and Jürg Lehni in 2002. The device is contolled via a laptop computer running Adobe Illustrator and a programming language called Scriptographer.

fyi: lilypad arduino

Found at Sparkfun Electronics:
LilyPad is a wearable e-textile technology developed by Leah Buechley and cooperatively designed by Leah and SparkFun. Each LilyPad was creatively designed to have large connecting pads to allow them to be sewn into clothing. Various input, output, power, and sensor boards are available. They're even washable!

[the main board consists of an ATmega168V with the Arduino bootloader and a minimum number of external components to keep it as small (and as simple) as possible. Board will run from 2V to 5V].

Processing

http://www.processingblogs.org/

I've just order the Arudino board and downloaded the Ardunio environment so that I can begin to multi-task--that is, to set up my etching studio for the circuit board switches I'm working on and start to play with the Ardunio so that I'll be ready for our Montreal trip. If that's not ambitious enough, I've been reading Processing by Casey Reas and Ben Fry and have realized that Processing and Arduino environments are not interchangeable but rather complementary. The processing end is responsible for the visualizations (software drawings) while the Arduino is responsible for the physical inputs and outputs. For now my focus is on making the physical gears wind and grind. I hope once I work out these switches I'll be able to turn my pony into a few small bots inspired by puppet motion.

biology, electonics, aesthetics, mechanics

Gorgeous BEAM creatures created by Zach Debord

narrative environments

05: switch

Eureka! I love it when in a moment you feel as though you have a better grip on the trajectory of your work. While performing the vivisection on the pony I came across a really interesting circuit board//switch called a slip ring. "A slip ring (in electrical engineering terms) is a method of making an electrical connection through a rotating assembly" (source: wikipedia.org)*. After a brisk survey of slip rings on-line I realized that most of them are commercial grade and so the connections are hidden within the casing. Not great for the inquiring rookie. Basically, the slip ring works in a rather rudimentary and beautiful way. The disc is a multi-layered circuit board. The top is connected to the underside via tiny conductive holes (Image 1 far left) . Each colored wire is a different switch. The top side shows a continuous circuit which permits the colored wire to only be connected in one place (Image 2 middle) - otherwise the wire would have to connect to each of the semi-circular patches on the bottom side. The bottom side shows the on/off function of the switch. As the key (Figure 3 far left) touches the pattern it creates a connection between the central most circle (called the common) and one or more of the patches. When this happens the switch connected to that path is turned on. When the key rotates off the patch the switch turns off. What is demonstrated is a direct relationship between time and distance - the larger the patch the greater the distance the key will have to pass and the longer the switch will be turned on.

Next steps: The switch function is definitely worth pursuing further. I intend to make my own switch using D.I.Y circuit board techniques such as the ones seen here. The question then really becomes what do I want this switch to control? Unfortunately, I'm still trying to figure out what the slip disc was responsible for activating within the pony. My best guess is syncing the variety of leg movements with the voice recordings. In that case, it would be fairly straight forward to have the switch operating on motors. So what to the motors do? The second issue is that once I commit to the switch I maybe precluding the use of programing and a microcontroller set up in the project. Something I'm also interested in. The switch itself is a rudimentary form of programming with a digital on/off function. Perhaps I could introduce some analog life into the overall design through a micro-controller. My hunch at this point in time is that the switch will control the puppets operation when human interaction is not sensed. However, once the machine senses someone to interact with the system will evolve.

* Don't give me grief about this source!

04: software/hardware

Cycling '74 offers discounts on some of its software to currently enrolled students. You can purchase Max/Msp with Jitter for only $59 dollars for a nine month lease. [Mac and PC versions]. Click on the cycling image above to get more information. Physical computing recommends Teleo microcontrollers for Max environments but I know that the MAKE microcontroller will work too. Not sure about Teleo costs. Anyone looked into it?

FYI. http://www.makingthings.com/
microcontrollers/sensors/electronics (in canada):
http://www.robotshop.ca/c214708.2.html

paskian environments

This video is a little long but I thought it added a little perspective to the monster-machine dialogue. The Cybernetics "tutorial" is provided by Paul Pangaro.

"The Paskian model is much more difficult to implement, though far more productive, in particular because it relies on intrinsically more "intelligent"-type interactions, and because it requires a stronger foundational model of what an intelligent interaction is. We analogise it this way: when we meet new people, being intelligent does not necessarily mean we will like them; we tend instinctively to like people if they are amenable and affable rather than if they are intelligent. However, it is conversations with intelligent people (in whatever terms) that in the long term are most productive because they are generative. That is, they lead to new perspectives and actions."

I'm currently reading through Microman: Living and Growing with Computers which was written by Gordon Pask & Susan Curran in 1982. Obviously, technology has come a-l-o-n-g way since then but the discussion is still the same. I would argue that it is even more apparent today that computers are no longer merely tools but a species in their own right. Gone are the easy distinctions between living and non-living systems, between human intelligence and machine intelligence.

Just a little something to chew on.

03: interface and interaction

After observing Jean Pierre Gauthier's magical drawing creatures I finally decided to explore a hunch I've been kicking around. That is, I've begun to research puppetry as an approach to discussing narrative, interface and play as a physical and cultural construct. There are so many cultures that use puppetry as part of their traditions, to teach ancient narratives or to expose lessons that effect social change. I think I would be able to produce a substantial body of work which looks at puppet making and puppetry in a historical context and as myth and legend. As well as techniques and tools of the trade. I am also drawn to the intimate connection between the puppet and the puppet master. The puppets are extensions of the people who control and operate them. As an appendage, the puppet exerts a certain freedom for the puppet master, allowing them to act, create or play in ways that can skirt social conventions. This intimate interface between operator and operatee can be seen in custom made puppets which respond to the dexterity of their owners. There is also an intense relationship between the puppet and the audience. This interface is primarily sight and sound but also highly interactive. Puppets are approached and accepted by the audience not as mere machines but as personalities.

Puppetry is also explicitly spatial: it challenges accepted dichotomies between audiences and performers and it deals with the movements and actions of people and puppets in space. As you blend the audience and the stage, as children clamor to get near puppets, as marionettes walk down the street, they suggest a model of spatial design (and by extension architecture) that employs interaction to create spatial experience. I’d like to explore this line of thinking further through research and also through the vivisection. I think it could be really interesting to create a series of puppets which might:

1. Function differently for whoever is operating them based on sensory information.
2. Look at how a puppet might exist for a non-human—such as how the action of a door closing might direct puppet movement.

I'm sure this discussion will evolve and change as the research continues.

drawing machine

Jean Pierre Gauthier, Montreal : Uncertainty Markers
Marqueurs D' Incertitude

02: vivisection

Hasbro ™ My Little Pony Good Morning Sunshine
The first stage of the dissection processes—the removal and catalog of all the external components is finally completed. This preliminary vivisection revealed that most of the electronic components that run the toy are housed in a 4mm hard plastic shell. The power supply consists of 4 x 1.5V “AA” batteries. Pressure sensors on the back and rump are connected to play and demo circuit boards. Each sensor corresponds to a preset number of greetings, sounds, and pauses. The speaker is located on the rear of the toy and is connected to the main circuit board at the front of the toy. Wires running from a sensor in the head of the toy connect the head with the body. Front leg motion is generated by a series of plastic gears and springs. Head motion will be determined soon. Next steps will be to further investigate the interior circuitry and wiring.

on a side note: ACADIA 2007

02 October – 03 October. The Metabolic Network Sensory Workshop provided a hands-on approach to the concept of interactivity, modeling of dynamic systems, software craft, sensors and actuators, fabrication and textile arts. That last bit is ripped off from the ACADIA website but it's all true. We spent a very intense few days—unwinding, stretching, inserting, imagining, laser cutting and manipulating a tangle of ropes and fiberglass cable dangling from a rigging 20ft in the air at the Dalhousie School of Architecture.

After listening to the general vision proposed by the workshop leaders, I found myself gravitating towards the group led by architect and computer scientist Mette Ramsgard Thomsen. Her approach was biological in nature—suggesting that motors and actuators might be implanted or grafted within the overall rope matrix. She challenged us to visualize the overall installation moving, flexing and pulsing like an organism.

In this test version the servo motor and its corresponding lever is fastened to the rope with a makeshift cardboard buckle. Eventually, this approach led to an alternative acrylic harness for the servos which kept the motor suspended within the rope coils. Working with the servo motors led to a few key realizations, namely, that the motor's rotational abilities had to be amplified in order to maximize the overall effect to the rest of the matrix. Also, the servos themselves were limited to 180 degrees of rotation and weren't able to move the solid grey ropes. Because of this, the servos were situated within the ropes but actuated the light weight fiberglass cables and thinner membranes.

The eventual installation had four different apparatus which were responsible for actuating different areas of the overall matrix. The clam apparatus, the infinity apparatus, the swerving apparatus and the sway apparatus. The clam apparatus was designed to flex a bamboo rod which was connected to several circles of fibreglass cables. This mechanism created an instantaneous localized movement within the mesh of fibres. The infinity apparatus and the swerving apparatus were connected to one another to help form a servo bank which created slight sporadic horizontal movement through the installation. Together these mechanisms caused a less determinate, pull and push of the fibreglass cables. Finally, the sway apparatus was designed by Allan Macy and installed on the mezzanine level above the installation floor. A DC motor pulled ropes connected to the rigging which caused the suspended polls to sway back and forth.



Matt's clever demonstration of the clam apparatus (with me bossing him in the background).



Mathias Gmachl (from the design research studio Loop.ph, based in London) and Carole Collet (course director MA Textile Futures, Central Saint Martins College of Art, London) discuss the direction of the installation.




Each servo motor was attached to a micro-controller. We used Arduino boards attached to daughter boards for added flexibility. Each servo had to be programmed independently from the others. Although I'm not sure why this was the case. For a quicker alternative the servos were tested using a MAKE micro controller (hardware) and MAX MSP (software).

01: range of motion

Through out the vivisection I’ve also been looking closely at architectural works and theories inspired by my previously posted list of obsessions. I’ve also been trolling through pictures of my recent travels through Western Europe, Italy and Croatia. The work of John Hedjuk and the short stories of Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges are currently, at the forefront of my explorations. I am arrested by the cultural poetics in both of these works and I plan to incorporate the richness of narrative into my own approach as it progresses. I have just read Borges’ The Library of Babel from his collection of short stories entitled Labyrinth. For now, I am fascinated by Borges delicate description of the universe as a many tiered library of hexagonal galleries and interconnected air shafts. The library is “unlimited and cyclical. If an eternal traveler were to cross it in any direction, after centuries he would see that the same volumes were repeated in the same disorder (which, thus repeated, would be an order: the Order)”. I can’t help but imagine that this eternal traveler must be a machine or a program running repeatedly through the matrix of the library. I wonder what the web of this machine in continuous motion would look like after centuries of travel.

I’ve also been reading way too much Douglas Adams. I keep getting trapped in his fantastical world of machines, aliens and the ridiculously unexplained. I read Hitchhiker a while ago—but for now I’ve read The Restaurant at the End of the Universe and Life, the Universe and Everything. I think what I find so interesting about Adams is that his narratives seem to mimic my thought processes. I have a tendency to hop, skip and jump from one interest to another, dappling intensely for a while in areas only to be attracted by something “shiny” – another idea, or inspiration that can’t be ignored. The creative process is an intimate one, and I think the more we learn about how we work and think, the easier it becomes to create successfully. Adam manages to haul the reader back and forth across his narrative, sometimes violently, sometimes s-l-o-w-l-y, but you never forget that he is in control. The story makes sense despite itself. I hope to manifest some of this manipulated chaos in my own work. I want to explore my own idiosyncrasies through this final project.

getting up to speed: introducing PONY

I’ve almost completed the vivisection of my original pink cow/pony toy. For now I’ll refer to her as a pony for simplicity sake. The vivisection exercise was designed to introduce us to electronic processes and components, as well as to familiarize us more intimately with the materials, textures, forms and organization of the object at hand. The vivisection has been a painstaking process of cutting and drawing to reveal the automaton within. This pony doesn’t really serve a function beyond amusing small children—most likely, girls under 4. The pony has, however, become a point of departure for my thesis project. The notions of toy, play and interactivity have started to influence an idea for how we might play with our buildings as opposed to in them. When I first brought the pony out of her battered box I was amazed at her range of motion. She is able to prop herself up, lie down and rotate her head from one side to the other while blinking her eyes and laughing. She also has a litany of phrases, giggles and exclamations such as “oh-oh”. “Good morning, Mommy”. “I love you”. “Let’s play!” “Can I have a kiss?” “Yawn, good night!” and “Brush my hair please.” It appears when activated, pony will sit up, lie down, move her head or blink. When she moves, she makes baby sounds or says one of the seven expressions. I’ve included images and video of her talents. The pony also has several accessories: a pacifier, bottle and brush. If you feed her the bottle she'll make drinking sounds, if you press her foot she'll giggle and if you give her the pacifier she proceeds to fall asleep. Each time pony has completed an action and/or expression, you can pat her back, press her foot or re-insert the bottle or pacifier to reactivate her. At first I was repulsed by this strange little creature, but the more time I’ve spent analyzing her, the more I’ve grown attached. Once I remove her over-sized pink head and expose her inner mutant the more attractive she’ll become.