The Idea

Imagine a flower that never wilts. Instead, it blooms and then closes up steadily. And then it repeats. It takes on the form of an ever-breathing, ever-fidgeting, ever-changing presence.

However, when a loud noise is heard by the partner’s proxy body, the flower closes up to protect itself. The red lights shine to symbolize the disturbance in peace. Tones of high pitch ring, as if sounding an alarm in warning. Lashes and maybe some other features that will form a face when the flower is forced shut shows. The flower remains agitated for 10 seconds.

Once the peace has been restored, and no more loud noises are heard, the flower slowly regains its natural state. The lights fade from red back to their calm blue state. The pitches stop ringing. The flower blooms and shrinks repeatedly once more.

For our project, we will represent each other’s proxy body as a flower, perhaps an orange lily. We plan to design tendons that hold up the petals when it is closed and then the servo will twist under it to move these tendons so the petals can fall open. The flower will be made from painted muslin, perhaps fortified with bent paper clips. It will rest on top the tendon structure attached to the multi-horn servo attachment. We will decorate the “stem” (the servo and below) with extra green fabric. We haven’t decided the exact placement of the CircuitPlayground but it will add the the experience of the alarmed and close up flower.

Drawing

Materials/Technology

  • muslin
  • acrylic paint
  • paintbrushes
  • paperclips/tendon wire?
  • sewing machine
  • servo (sweeping movement – normal, sine wave – agitated)
  • circuit playground (red LED and music)
  • alligator clips
  • battery pack
  • breadboard/wires