Intermediate Progress Report with revision plan: Ribbon Instrument

Although I faced some difficulties with the volume of the piece being too quiet and, what I found most valuable about this demo experience was seeing that the way that both the children and adults interacted with the piece was correct to how the project is meant to function. The instrument was set up in the Make Shop in the doorway, and the colors and general aesthetic of the piece fit well, especially with the hanging scarves of the supports above. Some people would walk through the doorway, causing the ribbons to move with them. This motion would cause the IR sensors to trigger an audio response. (these were unfortunately incorrectly soldered, so they were non-functional at the time, but despite this it was good to see that the motion was the same). Some people would stop and pull on the ribbons triggering the audio response. This was too quiet for people to hear unless they were positioned in the right spot, but both kids and some adults seemed to find the motion and click of the ribbons satisfying enough to continue interacting with is for a bit despite the apparent lack of response. Some parents stayed around with it to try to figure out what it was “supposed to do” coming up with many different ideas before realizing that they were triggering a faint audio response. Kids just appeared to enjoy, tugging, pulling, and dragging the ribbons with them. It was good to see that nobody tried to hang from the ribbons themselves and the system was durable enough that it outlasted the aggressive tugging and did not break!

Need to have for next rendition:

Speaker that is not reliant on Bluetooth, but plugs in directly to aux, and make sure that the sound is loud enough to function in the high volume space.

Minicomputer to hook up so I don’t need to use my laptop (optional)

Correctly soldered IR Sensors.

Final Project Plan

For the final project I want to expand the number of ribbons being used. Totaling about 50 ribbons (for now), half of them triggered by pulling, half of them triggered by IR motion. This will create an interactive audio space.

My first points of focus will be on creating the structure to build the ribbon and sensor system on.

I will be building the support for the ribbon in the SOA DH woodshop and assembling the electrical and ribbon structures in the PhysComp lab.

From there, expanding my goal is to complete two rows of ribbon sensors per week.

I will need to record more marimba noises for tones and for the ambient soundscape.

I would like to get a 4 way inward facing speaker setup functioning (optional, but would be really cool) (two speakers at the very least).

To Do:

Need to order more switches and IR sensors

Need to purchase more ribbon

Raid woodshop (and potentially ideate spaces) for more wood

Record sounds

Look into how many speakers I am able to set up.

Unknowns:

I will need to figure out how to run 50 outputs form a single Arduino, and may need an external power source for this.

I may want to have two different types of ribbon to distinguish between pull or ir sensors (?)

Pattern to set up the pull v. IR triggers in