IxD and Assistive Technology
This will be the last uni-related post of the year (for my undergraduate degree anyway), but not the last update for this project. The interactive table will be exhibited as part of the COFA exhibition, The Annual, at CarriageWorks next month and needs a few …
Can’t talk: busy making final project work properly. Take a look at some pictures after the jump instead – I promise I’ll pay more attention to you in the weeks ahead.
Unsurprisingly, things are pretty crazy at the moment: trying to get a major work ready for exhibition and a portfolio of 3 years’ work printed, whilst wrapping up other final assignments, writing a research proposal for postgraduate study and working on a rather large freelance …
And so what has been inside my computer for the past 9 months, finally begins its translation into reality. It may not be as painful as birth, but it might be almost as messy. This week, a friend who works as a signwriter was good …
The past couple of weeks have been a bit of a blur of trial and error. Testing lights, interactive materials, table designs and of course a heap of Max/MSP/Jitter code. Although I’ve just had a 2 week break from classes, there certainly hasn’t been a …
It’s been painfully clear over the past couple of weeks that I need to start testing the physical side of my project. Although I’ve been spending quite a lot of time banging my head against the wall with Max/MSP/Jitter coding, it will all be for …
Just a quick catchup on this subject, as it leads into posts I’m about to put up about my major project… I grabbed an infrared LED electronics kit a couple of weeks back from Jaycar. The assembly was surprisingly easy – considering my soldering experience …
Unlike Professional Portfolio, I won’t be keep a weekly journal for this subject – only occasional updates where necessary. Electronic Technologies is a class I’ve taken to support my major work in Professional Portfolio: somewhere I can learn not to electrocute myself as I build …
I began work on motion tracking in Max/MSP/Jitter this week, by way of blob detection. Using the PS3 Eye that I replaced the light filter on last semester, the plan is to use it to track how much light is passing through a translucent table …
After presenting last week‘s work in class, I received some valuable criticism on the direction of my work. Not levelled at the function or technology of my project, but the content I’m choosing to present. It was suggested that rather than focus on the exhibition …
It happens to everyone at some point: your computer will die. Depending on which way you look at it, I have been through this experience before and fortunately now keep a thorough backup of all my work on an external hard drive (I’ve even been …
After all the work that Lukasz, Eli and I put into Dusk, I thought a quick video about the work was in order. In the artist talks at Underbelly Arts, I often found it difficult to explain to people concisely just how the project works …
%CODE1% Underbelly Arts kicked off last night with an opening party and a successful launch of Dusk. We were all happy (and relived) to see the project come together, and it was especially nice to watch people playing with the work. Today marks the final …
It took 10 full days, but the project is (all but) finished. The last coat of paint hit the floor this afternoon and lights went into the tree. We also did a very quick test of video mixing from 2 laptops, and whilst it isn’t …
%CODE1% Just a quick video tonight: a test of the faux lighting I created in Quartz Composer and Max/MSP for Dusk. It’s far from perfect, but great to finally see projected onto physical objects for the first time. Thankfully, the perspective issues I had worried …
We’re now at the stage of trying to bring all the elements of the Dusk project together. Physical objects and software systems need to start playing nicely with each other to make this project work well, and so a lot of testing is needed. The …
%CODE1% For the first time, we saw what will become the basis for our fireflies projected onto the warehouse floor. These little fellas are called ‘boids’ and at this stage look like a certain male reproductive cell. They’ll take a more complete form soon. As …
Saturday was the first opportunity we’ve had to spend a full day working on Dusk, in the warehouse. We took the opportunity to start construction on the physical objects that will occupy the projection space: a thatch tree and papier mâché rocks have begun to …
Whilst not true ‘surround sound’, the audio for Dusk will be presented through 4 speakers, placed around the installation. One of the goals of Dusk is to create a level of immersion for the viewer, to try and surround them with sound and vision. To build …
With the direction of our project – and therefore the coding development – on hold until we lock down the arrangement with projectors, I decided to start working on a scale model of Dusk today. This will make changing and communicating ideas much faster, as …