Smontina – Project 2: Barbershop & Home Hair Cutting Kit

For Project 2, I originally wanted to create an interactive soft sculpture out of a durag and Max Patch that would replicate the experience of getting a haircut. However a lot of obstacles were encountered during the making process. The durag was not durable enough to embed 8 Adafruit speakers or the continuous handling necessary for exhibition so it was quickly replaced with a headset. The patch was made to have 2 modes: a manual setting, in which the user could choose the “clipper guard” and move the “hair clipper” around in ambisonic space over the audience’s head; and a automatic setting, in which presets of 7 hair styles (a normal Fade, High + Low Fade, Buzz Cut, Shape Up, Temple Fade with Sponge Twists, Frohawk, and High Top) could be automated and experienced. A reoccurring issue in both the automatic and manual version is having continuous sound when switching between the 8 different wavetables. The audio must be turned off and on again to reset the patch to play the new sound. In addition to that, on the automatic version, the audio for the most part is seemingly disabled. With each addition to the automatic patch (the Barbershop), more usability was lost, this may be due to the multiple presets that are theoretically needed for the project to function.

Home Hair Cutting Kit: Presentation Mode
The Barbershop: Editing Mode