Block Diagram:

I am excited about interactive artworks where the act of creating the art can become a kind of performance. For this project I was trying to think of creative inputs that can be translated to a range of outputs and I decided that working with force sensitive resistors could be fun. This project is designed to be an installation that produces a colored image gradient based off of the users interaction with a pressure mat. I imagine a grid of force sensitive resistors on a flat mat either placed on a table or mounted to the wall. Users will be encouraged to touch the mat and apply different levels of force around it to change the intensity of colors on a projected artwork. Each blob of color will correspond to one force sensitive resistor. The output making up the artwork can either be projected light (if I can figure out how to code that) or a grid of LEDs to communicate a similar effect. More pressure applied to a force sensitive resistor means there is less resistance therefore higher voltage being sent as an input to the arduino. I can program certain colors to display at different levels of brightness depending on what range of voltage is recorded.

If I use a grid of LEDs instead of a projection then the set up would have a greater range of possible sites. It could be left in my architecture studio for people to play with or set up in Hunt library. On the other hand, if I use a projector it would be sited in a dark room where the interaction is more of a planned event. I think this project would be a fun interactive experience that gets people excited about pressure mapping since they are able to generate their own unique artwork without ever picking up a tool. It would be designed for members of the public or friends of mine in the architecture studio to use.

This project is loosely inspired by the concept of an aura. An aura is thought to be the energy field that surrounds all living beings. Certain spiritual practices or special cameras can translate these energies into colors which then have various meanings. The images produced by this project are based on the users intuitive interaction with the pressure mat. No one would be telling the users how hard to press on certain parts of the pressure map so I feel like each artwork would be a unique representation of the person or people making it. While it is not exactly depicting their auras, the concept is derived from that idea.

Materials:

• arduino uno (ideate)
• wires (ideate)
• 9 force sensitive resistors (ideate? or order online from Mouser Electronics)
• fabric? for some kind of covering on the pressure map
• projector or grid of LEDS (ideate)

Idea 2: Musical Limbs

This project would use physical movement of the body as an input and the output would be sound.

Block Diagram:

I would attach four accelerometers to the user in total with one on each upper and lower arm. Each accelerometer would correlate to a different musical note and the volume of the note being played would increase with higher acceleration of movement. The four notes would be predetermined to make up a chord so that no matter the combination of movements, the output sounds nice.

This project would be interacted with one person at a time where people could volunteer to be the performer. It is sited on the body but the actual performance of the musical piece could be done anywhere. I am not sure yet how I would attach the accelerometers to the arms of the participants but ideally they would not hinder their arm movement. The experience is meant to be exciting and unexpected as the user discovers what types of movements produce which sounds. I would be interested to see if any of the participants start making calculated movements to try and control the chords being produced. I am also interested in what styles of movements the users might do and how many unique versions of the chords can be produced. For this idea I was inspired by my past experience in classical dance training. I wanted to translate physical movement into sound because I think it is an interesting subversion to the traditional way that dancers usually respond to sound with movement.

This sketch shows an example of how a participant might keep their body still if they know the accelerometers are only on their arms.

Materials:

• arduino uno (ideate)
• wires (ideate)
• 4 accelerometers (ideate)
• speakers (ideate)

Idea 3: Inflatable Sculpture

For this idea I wanted to use an inflatable sculpture. One option for the output could be voltage to an air pump that fills an inflatable sculpture I would design. For inputs I would use an ultrasonic ranger or another type of distance sensor. There would be an inverse relationship so that when a user gets closer to the sculpture the voltage to the air pump decreases and the sculpture begins to deflate. When a user gets further away from the sculpture the voltage to the air pump increases and the sculpture inflates quickly. One part of this idea that might be tricky is I would have to figure out a way for the air pump to know when the sculpture has reached max inflation so that it doesn’t pop. If this becomes too complicated maybe instead of the output being power to the air pump, I could have the sculpture already inflated and then make the ultrasonic ranger send signals to power a servo motor to shake the sculpture around like those inflatable mascots outside of car dealerships.

Block Diagram:

What inspired this idea are those inflatable Halloween decorations that people have on their front lawns. I think it would be fun to try and animate these sculptures based on your physical relationship to the object. Personally I think some of the Halloween inflatables are kind of creepy so I would like for them to deflate if I got too close to one (or if they got too close to me..) This project would be sited in a public space maybe with a sign that just says “do not touch.” There would be no other context so I could see how close people get to this thing and then watch them wonder if they accidentally caused it to deflate. Then once they back up it would be happy again. Or if I go the route of having the sculpture already inflated, maybe it starts moving really sporadic and rapidly when they get too close and slows down when they move away.

Materials:

• Plastic (ideate – Olivia Robinson?)
• Heat sealer (ideate)
• Air pump (ideate or order a smaller one online)
• Arduino uno (ideate)
• ultrasonic ranger (ideate)
• wires (ideate)

1. Geiger Counter for emitted electromagnetic signals
2. I SEE YOU ALL THE TIME – A reminder that cameras and sensors in all devices can be on all the time without you knowing
3. Electronic Jungle – Call & Response from a distributed set of everyday devices

EMI Geiger Counter

In the 1800s when people began seriously exploring electricity, they did all kinds of fun experiments for people to try out this brand new phenomena. People were found to exhibit extended trembling in response to a single shock, or feel extreme sickness while holding a voltage of 1V across their body. Many people would hold hands in a big circle and get shocked together by one of these demonstrations. Lovers would split off for 10 minutes, with the girl sitting in a big, floating electrical cage. When the boy kissed her, a spark would fly across as their lips touched. Electricity was IN!

However, many scientists at the time did studies that had *shocking* results. A bin of blood was found to clot slower in response to a slight voltage. Galvani, inventor of the galvanic pile, found his ears ringing, tongue tasting metal, and hearing sounds that weren’t there after shocking himself with up to 300V from large stacks of copper, zinc, and salt water-soaked paper. Certain people were found to have responses to just being near electricity. Much of the effects are mentioned (and cited!) in the book “The Invisible Rainbow: A History of Electricity and Life” by Arthur Firstenberg.

Our buildings today are swamped with electromagnetic radiation, which comes from any electronic device: WiFi, Bluetooth, power adaptors, wall power plugs, laptops, earbuds, toasters, smart home devices. We are sitting in a thick soup of photons carrying information, and we can’t get enough of it. Experts create standards today for maximum exposure levels to electrical and magnetic fields; you may have heard things like “conforms to IEEE standards … Research have found no deleterious effects from long-term exposure to magnetic and electric fields.” But do you know that? How is it possible that high-energy particles and the electromagnetic fields produced by them cannot influence our brain and other organ function, when those organs are controlled by tiny, delicate electrical nerves?

EMI Geiger Counter explores the possibility of electricity exposure being dangerous by using a classically dangerous phenomena and its corresponding detector: radiation and the Geiger counter. The Geiger counter is a tube which responds to radiation by emitting a pulse. Usually this pulse is fed into a speaker, which makes a characteristic clicking noise that increases in rate as radiation levels increase.

Emitted electromagnetic noise is called electromagnetic interference (EMI). This project will create a handheld, remote-shaped box which holds an EMI detector, “exposure meter”, and safety LEDs for quick checking. A speaker in the device will click at a rate that responds to the total electronic noise level. The device will be placed in on a table with a multitude of everyday electronics like toasters, smarthomes, microwaves, and phones, and the user will feel free to explore the invisible energy that each emits.

This project is interesting because it illustrates the invisible energy that is fundamental to most modern technology, and makes people think about the possibility of its danger in an exploratory environment. In all truth, electricity could be subtly bad for us but just not addressed because of the value it provides for the people who profit from the technology it enables. Remember those cigarette manufacturers?

I love to think about topics that mainstream science considers “settled.” Since this is just a handheld piece, I’d want to put in a lot more effect in the physical construction than the electronic, which is a good change of direction for me.

The devices in question actually do emit plenty of electromagnetic interference, so I don’t need to instrument any of the props. Materials would include:

• borrowed list of appliances
• a voltmeter (for the dial)
• speaker for the clicking
• Arduino for controlling everything
• battery
• switch for turning off the clicking
• A few LEDs.

The Arduino can do all the math.

I SEE YOU ALL THE TIME

Did you know that Facebook recently got caught turning on its users’ device camera and microphones while people were just scrolling through their Instagram feeds? The frequency at which this happens has gotten to the point where it is not reported or notable anymore. This project aims to remind users that their devices can be hacked into by malicious actors and the camera/microphones can be turned on, but also that their devices can be harnessed maliciously by neutral actors like software companies.

The setup is again a set of appliances and daily electronic devices. There will be a monitoring screen which shows the live heartrate, location, schedule, window open on computer, song listening to on Spotify, and photo of the device webcam of the user. The effect of being watched but more than just seen is what I want to go for.

The user will wear a set of glasses which knows when they look at a specific device. That device will then respond to their “input” of attention, like the laptop will show a face, a lamp will turn on and face you, and a smart home could light up. These responses to user attention are things we might even buy for our own homes if it makes our lives more convenient, but I want to show people how weird it is by defamiliarizing our usual input devices and configuring them to show a different output. Attentional input is invisible, which makes it such a good control interface, but it is also always-on and invasive to our houses.

Materials:

• Set of appliances
• Sunglasses
• IR receiver and emitter
• Tiny Bluetooth emitters

Electric Jungle

Maya Lin once did this piece where animal noises were played over speakers in a room. These were “jungles”, which had a cacophony of noises from birds, from trees, from animals large and small, from geckos and ants and everything else. But as you stayed longer and longer in the room, the noises would begin to die off. No longer would you hear the cockatoo, or the birds-of-paradise, or the grunting animals. And this was meant to show extinction, a gradual loss of variety of life due to our ignorant and destructive behavior.

We live in a dense jungle ecosystem today, which exhibits similar characteristics. As IoT spreads, each device can access the internet and therefore talk to one another. We don’t see this happening because the flow is invisible, but they share a common link. Further, users do not consider that their devices can talk to each other about the user. Not in a gossipy way, but rather to do information consolidation. The way they do this resembles being in an invisible jungle, where the animals/devices are constantly in contact through sound and proximity.

Electric Jungle will expose the communications of all our devices talking to each other,  and even allow users to input into the environment. Each device will have a specific “call” they respond to, when the power level of a certain set of frequencies goes above a threshold. When the device gets its own call, it will emit its “response,” a sound + light + etc. output, which has the potential to trigger another device’s “call”. And so the chorus will continue, with device talking to device with us in the middle of it.

These devices will be scattered across different regions of the room, and will create an atmosphere of the jungle. But more than that, the users will be able to input to the devices as well. By whistling or yelling, users can trigger the device’s calls using their own voices and sounds, and enter into the jungle which we spend so many of our hours in.

I thought of this while trying to illustrate the delay caused by the speed of sound, but I thought it’d be much cooler to create an environment with all these listeners and responders. Like a real jungle, but one that we’ve made ourselves. I am looking forward to the many types of experiences people can have with this, in the different noises they can make and calls they can respond to. It will be pretty fun to use.

Materials:

• Speaker with tone control
• Microphones
• LEDs
• Arduinos
• Some appliances

The idea behind this project is that music will play and depending on the pitch different images of celestial bodies will be projected against the wall. Lower pitches correlate to closer astronomical objects, such as Venus or Saturn, and the higher the pitch the farther the celestial body, like the Orion Nebula. The intended experience is that the combination of music and imagery will transport the audience and give them the fantastical experience of exploring the galaxy. My inspiration for this came from a scene in the television series “Russian Doll” where the lead is sitting at a party awash with colored lights, staring into space, reflecting on her recent experience with death. I want to give people a similar experience without the somberness of death part. Just by sitting there, they could be transported to another location and another experience. As I imagine it, the audience will enter the room where the images will be projected against a white wall of some sort with the lights off. The audience will play some song on their phone, and as the song progresses the images will constantly change based on the pitch. Theoretically, the images would change in beat to the song, which would be an interesting effect. Alternatively, I might not even need a wall and could just project the imagery onto the entire room. Thus, the device itself is small, but it takes up a lot of space since I would need an entire room / wall. Also, as an officer in the Astronomy Club, I could theoretically take the pictures myself. If I were to create this device, afterwards, I would want to give this to the Astronomy Club as a tool to get more non-physics majors interested in astronomy as a grand example of astrophotography. By the way, I’ve never used a projector before, so there may be different steps I have to take depending on how that works.

Sketch

Block Diagram

Supplies

1. Microphone / sound detector? – some device to detect pitch, lab may have something
2. Projector – lending
3. Arduino – lab
4. Pictures – I’ll take them myself

Ice Caps

Climate Change is a serious problem that if not addressed can cause irreversible damage to our planet. This project would be a simulation of these effects of climate change. I would include some thermometer / heat sensor. As the temperature rises through various means, such as using a heat gun, it will trigger a water pump to send water from various boxes that represent different ice formations – the Artic, Greenland, etc. – to other boxes that are representative of various locations / affected industries and communities. For example, rising water levels seriously affect coastal communities, so it would pump water from Greenland to the correlating box. Alternatively, place like California are getting drier, so it would pump water from that box to another. Ultimately, the hotter is gets, the faster the rate of water transfer. To better communicate the point of this piece, I would 3D print various models to put in the boxes, so as you pump water from one box to another you would be able to witness a little model house being submerged. It is a cute and humorous piece of imagery, but I believe it effectively communicates the point: climate change will cause irreversible damage. The downside of this piece is that it is one time use as I am currently imaging it. In order to redo the experience, I would have to dump all the water and refill certain boxes. While this does make a point about climate change in of itself, it does limit how many people can experience it. Regardless, the audience of the piece would interact with the piece by either heating up or cooling down through various means / tools to witness how quickly this model world is destroyed. As I’m imagining it, it feels like something that would be placed in the children’s section of a museum to demonstrate the impact of climate change on the world. In the end, it would be fairly large, occupying a good portion of a table.

Sketch

Block Diagram

Supplies

1. Thermistor – I’m assuming this is at the lab
2. Arduino – lab
3. Lots of acrylic and 3D Printing – lending
4. Water pumps – lab

Jackpot

The idea behind this project is that your life and experiences are largely influenced by the circumstances of your birth, and a very small minority of Americans are born extremely lucky and in the lap of luxury. This is a cute little machine where for the first time ever, you can “rig” it in your favor through a slot machine. Part of the machine includes a magnet and the user can basically wave it in front of a magnetometer to try and get the result they want. The magnetic values observed correlate to some angle of a servo motor, which is your result. Only, a very very small range of magnetic values correlate to “Jackpot.” Thus, it would require a lot of fiddling and desperately moving the magnet around to get what you want. An added factor is that from using a magnetometer in the past, I know they are very funky and sensitive pieces of equipment, so it would require a lot of work just to get what you want. Alternatively, the magnetic values could correlate to the speed in which the servo motor rotates, which would be a very different experience of trying to hit it right on the slot you want. I haven’t yet definitively decided on which it would be. Either way, the user would have a similar way of interacting with the piece: desperately moving the magnet back and forth in front of the magnetometers to rig it in their favor. I hope that I would be able to implement an LCD that says humorous and sarcastic remarks based off of whatever it landed on. I’m also planning to make the machine fairly small. It would be a box about the size of Olivia’s fortune teller box. Aesthetically, I really want to pull from traditional slot machines with LEDs and lots of lights and a bold design.

Sketches

Block Diagram

Supplies

1. Magnetometers – lab
2. Arduino – lab
3. Magnet – lab
4. LCD – lab
5. Servo Motors – lab
6. LEDs – lab
7. Acrylic – lending