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.