This is what the actual sheets will look like. I wanted to make a nice drawing of what it all looked like, but I just couldn't wrap my mind around it. I think I'll just wait until I actually get them cut and together.
12.09.2007
Laser Cutting
Once I finally decided what I was building, it was time to get in gear and make some pieces to be cut on the laser cutter. I basically stayed up all night on Sunday to make sure that I got it all done, but we ended up not being able to do it that day, which sucked, but at least I have it done now, and I can just wait until it's time to get it all cut.
This is what the actual sheets will look like. I wanted to make a nice drawing of what it all looked like, but I just couldn't wrap my mind around it. I think I'll just wait until I actually get them cut and together.
This is what the actual sheets will look like. I wanted to make a nice drawing of what it all looked like, but I just couldn't wrap my mind around it. I think I'll just wait until I actually get them cut and together.
Level 2 Ether Machine
Man, it's been a long time since I posted. I am sorry about it, but I've been so busy with other classes, that I couldn't get this done properly, and I didn't want to just throw up some garbage on here simply for the sake of having a post.
After the my crit on Friday I was completely lost. I've been working on this project and thinking about it so much that I just didn't know where I was going anymore. I had a thousand and one ideas, but none of them seemed to be what I was really supposed to do.
The idea that I pitched to Patrick was a small control box that someone could play with near my machine. Using FM transmitters, a person could create a tone using a 555 timer and then the rotary switch, a few meters away or across the room, would react to the noise being carried over the radio. Patrick said that this was a bit limiting, and I think he is right about that. It is limiting because why would you want FM radios taking the place of a short length of wire? It doesn't really make sense, but that was all I really had.
We started talking about other options, and what we kind of came up with was a way to expand the idea of the control box to something that's placed all around the building. This way, when someone, say, opens a door in one room, it registers on my machine which is in another room completely. It was an interesting idea, and I liked it, but I needed some more thinking to figure out whether or not this was okay.
The other thing we talked about was something called an orrery. An orrery is a nineteenth century device that has small gears in it that, when cranked, spin a small scale solar system around a central axis. These machines are incredibly intricate and beautiful, and since my previous machines had a nineteenth century feel to them, this kind of machine resonated with my ideas.
This is an orrery that I found particularly interesting. It's extremely intricate, and beautiful as well.
I was still confused, though, and I had no idea where all of this was leading. I had a big talk with Gregory about the whole thing, and he had a few ideas, but the main thing that came out of the conversation was,
What is the ether to you? How do you want to show it?
This was one of those questions that I had just completely lost sight of. I had gone so far down the road that I couldn't see where I had come from. I had to think about it for a while and go back to my research to answer it, but I did come up with an answer.
The ether is energy. I want to show where energy is in a building at a given time.
I had to really think about what my machine should be doing, and so I did. I realized that there are three different stages, or levels, of ether throughout the history of the world. The first stage is from ancient Greece all the way up until the nineteenth century, where people believed that the ether was some kind of pervasive liquid that we all existed in. In this liquid were ideas and energy, and the only way you came up with anything, be it ideas or actions, was to tune your body to the idea that was floating around in this ethereal liquid. This meant that there were no original ideas, just things floating into your perception.
When this first level of the ether was disproven by Einstein and Hertz, the second level was quick to follow. The second level of the ether is the radio, and this is where my machine exists. The second level is where there are ideas and information floating around in the air and you can receive them easily, with a radio, of course, but it's very hard to have any effect on the ether. You can build your own transmitter or create electromagnetic waves, but the things you send out are fleeting and momentary, meaning that your ideas are lost as soon as they're broadcast. This is where my machine is, and that's why I was having such a huge problem with this project. My machine is NOT a level 3 ether machine, and I was trying to force it into the third level. This is what wasn't working.
So what is the third level? The third level of the ether is the manifestation of the first, and we call it the internet. Think about it. Every idea that anyone has can be put on the internet, and that idea can then be accessed whenever you want. Not only can you focus on a certain idea, or certain information, but that information stays there. The fact that the information is intangible, but still semi-permanent is the first reason for the distinction between level 2 and level 3, but the second distinction is the ease that you can have an effect on that ether. If you go online, you can post on a blog, you can talk with other people across the world, you can write a web page. You have an amount of control that is unheard of. The internet is the manifestation of the old idea of the ether, and I think if you went back in time and told someone about it, they would recognize what you were talking about right away.
It was with this in mind that I decided to make a machine that was like an orrery, but was firmly grounded in the second level of the ether. The orrery is important because it shows the person who sees it their own relationship to the universe. My machine will show the spectator their relationship to the building instead. My machine will be less representational than an orrery, but it will do a similar job. The machine will have many different machines on it, and they will all be hooked up to radio receivers. I'll put small FM transmitters all over the building and then when someone is in a room making some kind of noise, one of the machines will react to it. This will broaden the spectator's perception of the building as a whole, and show their relationship to it.
This kind of machine stresses something that I've been working towards all term. The idea of connectedness is a big one to tackle, and this machine will aspire to do it. If you believe in ether, or chi, or mana, then you believe that everyone is connected all the time. Our energies and our thoughts, so my machine will show you that connection. Where your own perception stops in the room, the machine will project it out into the rest of the building.
I'm kind of excited, I won't lie.
After the my crit on Friday I was completely lost. I've been working on this project and thinking about it so much that I just didn't know where I was going anymore. I had a thousand and one ideas, but none of them seemed to be what I was really supposed to do.
The idea that I pitched to Patrick was a small control box that someone could play with near my machine. Using FM transmitters, a person could create a tone using a 555 timer and then the rotary switch, a few meters away or across the room, would react to the noise being carried over the radio. Patrick said that this was a bit limiting, and I think he is right about that. It is limiting because why would you want FM radios taking the place of a short length of wire? It doesn't really make sense, but that was all I really had.
We started talking about other options, and what we kind of came up with was a way to expand the idea of the control box to something that's placed all around the building. This way, when someone, say, opens a door in one room, it registers on my machine which is in another room completely. It was an interesting idea, and I liked it, but I needed some more thinking to figure out whether or not this was okay.
The other thing we talked about was something called an orrery. An orrery is a nineteenth century device that has small gears in it that, when cranked, spin a small scale solar system around a central axis. These machines are incredibly intricate and beautiful, and since my previous machines had a nineteenth century feel to them, this kind of machine resonated with my ideas.
This is an orrery that I found particularly interesting. It's extremely intricate, and beautiful as well.
I was still confused, though, and I had no idea where all of this was leading. I had a big talk with Gregory about the whole thing, and he had a few ideas, but the main thing that came out of the conversation was,
What is the ether to you? How do you want to show it?
This was one of those questions that I had just completely lost sight of. I had gone so far down the road that I couldn't see where I had come from. I had to think about it for a while and go back to my research to answer it, but I did come up with an answer.
The ether is energy. I want to show where energy is in a building at a given time.
I had to really think about what my machine should be doing, and so I did. I realized that there are three different stages, or levels, of ether throughout the history of the world. The first stage is from ancient Greece all the way up until the nineteenth century, where people believed that the ether was some kind of pervasive liquid that we all existed in. In this liquid were ideas and energy, and the only way you came up with anything, be it ideas or actions, was to tune your body to the idea that was floating around in this ethereal liquid. This meant that there were no original ideas, just things floating into your perception.
When this first level of the ether was disproven by Einstein and Hertz, the second level was quick to follow. The second level of the ether is the radio, and this is where my machine exists. The second level is where there are ideas and information floating around in the air and you can receive them easily, with a radio, of course, but it's very hard to have any effect on the ether. You can build your own transmitter or create electromagnetic waves, but the things you send out are fleeting and momentary, meaning that your ideas are lost as soon as they're broadcast. This is where my machine is, and that's why I was having such a huge problem with this project. My machine is NOT a level 3 ether machine, and I was trying to force it into the third level. This is what wasn't working.
So what is the third level? The third level of the ether is the manifestation of the first, and we call it the internet. Think about it. Every idea that anyone has can be put on the internet, and that idea can then be accessed whenever you want. Not only can you focus on a certain idea, or certain information, but that information stays there. The fact that the information is intangible, but still semi-permanent is the first reason for the distinction between level 2 and level 3, but the second distinction is the ease that you can have an effect on that ether. If you go online, you can post on a blog, you can talk with other people across the world, you can write a web page. You have an amount of control that is unheard of. The internet is the manifestation of the old idea of the ether, and I think if you went back in time and told someone about it, they would recognize what you were talking about right away.
It was with this in mind that I decided to make a machine that was like an orrery, but was firmly grounded in the second level of the ether. The orrery is important because it shows the person who sees it their own relationship to the universe. My machine will show the spectator their relationship to the building instead. My machine will be less representational than an orrery, but it will do a similar job. The machine will have many different machines on it, and they will all be hooked up to radio receivers. I'll put small FM transmitters all over the building and then when someone is in a room making some kind of noise, one of the machines will react to it. This will broaden the spectator's perception of the building as a whole, and show their relationship to it.
This kind of machine stresses something that I've been working towards all term. The idea of connectedness is a big one to tackle, and this machine will aspire to do it. If you believe in ether, or chi, or mana, then you believe that everyone is connected all the time. Our energies and our thoughts, so my machine will show you that connection. Where your own perception stops in the room, the machine will project it out into the rest of the building.
I'm kind of excited, I won't lie.
11.27.2007
Phenomenological Drawings
The drawings of my machine's phenomena took an incredibly long time, but I have to say that I'm pretty happy with them. The drawing at the top of the first picture shows the light intensity of the above my machine changing with the sound coming out of the radio. After I finished the drawing, I realized that it also reminded me of something else. In high school, when we learned about the physics of sound waves, they were represented in that fashion, with changes in air pressure moving back and forth to create vibrations in your ear drum. The drawing is of light intensity over time, but it also shows the data that the light was receiving at the time.
The drawing on the bottom of this page is my favourite one. I call it the "Crazy 88", because I drew eight switches is in eight states for a total of sixty-four switches, then I traced over three switches in each column, for twenty four more iterations, making 88. Plus, Kill Bill was a kickass movie.
The drawing is interesting because it shows the sequencing of the machine, but it also shows that there's some inherent matrix at work in the machine. Each column has one switch that's currently on, one switch that just was on, and one switch that is about to be on. These are the switches that have a bolder outline on the drawing, with the switch that's on having the thickest outline.
The drawing is a temporal one, though, showing a progression in every column and every row. At any one time while the machine is operation, one of those states (column/row) is true, and you can easily predict what the next state is, and easily see what the last state was.
I will say this, though, that scan is completely terrible. I really like that drawing, and it didn't turn out well at all in the CadLab's scanner. I'm going to try and scan it again using some other method, though, because this one is atrocious.
My final drawing actually came out really nicely, and it shows the movement of the crankshafts as the machine is operating. I actually have a photo that looks just like this, which I posted before, but this image shows a better geometry, I think. There are two very pronounced star shapes present in this drawing, and I think that's pretty interesting, because when I started making this machine, I was only thinking in terms of circles, and it never really occurred to me that I might get that kind of shape.
The drawing on the bottom of this page is my favourite one. I call it the "Crazy 88", because I drew eight switches is in eight states for a total of sixty-four switches, then I traced over three switches in each column, for twenty four more iterations, making 88. Plus, Kill Bill was a kickass movie.
The drawing is interesting because it shows the sequencing of the machine, but it also shows that there's some inherent matrix at work in the machine. Each column has one switch that's currently on, one switch that just was on, and one switch that is about to be on. These are the switches that have a bolder outline on the drawing, with the switch that's on having the thickest outline.
The drawing is a temporal one, though, showing a progression in every column and every row. At any one time while the machine is operation, one of those states (column/row) is true, and you can easily predict what the next state is, and easily see what the last state was.
I will say this, though, that scan is completely terrible. I really like that drawing, and it didn't turn out well at all in the CadLab's scanner. I'm going to try and scan it again using some other method, though, because this one is atrocious.
My final drawing actually came out really nicely, and it shows the movement of the crankshafts as the machine is operating. I actually have a photo that looks just like this, which I posted before, but this image shows a better geometry, I think. There are two very pronounced star shapes present in this drawing, and I think that's pretty interesting, because when I started making this machine, I was only thinking in terms of circles, and it never really occurred to me that I might get that kind of shape.
More Drawings
Once I had finished my drawings of the organic radio tuner, I decided that I wanted to explore the rotation and sequencing of my machine, and so I made a few test drawings to try and decide how to approach the phenomena.
Unfortunately for me, I had apparently missed the point. Patrick had a talk with me after I had finished making my new drawings and told me that I was being too representational. I had thought the idea was to find new ways of representing the phenomena without drawing the machine itself, but what I was actually supposed to do was draw the machine in a time-lapse fashion, showing the phenomena as they happened.
Damn...
I know how I want to do the rest of the drawings, but they'll take some serious time to finish.
Organic Radio
When we were told to draw the phenomena that our machines exhibited in Montreal, one of my first instincts was to somehow draw the way in which a radio actually filters out radio waves and amplifies the one that it needs to.Another thing that exhibits a similar behaviour bacteria and other single-celled organisms. They have a permeable membrane that allows certain chemicals into the cells at certain times in order to function. I decided that a radio was a similar mechanism, but rather than filtering chemicals, it filters electromagnetic waves. Hence the organic/biomechanical look of the above drawing.
The final drawing has splatters or paint to show the different channels coming into the "receiver". On the outside of the frame, there are four different colours, and as the waves pass through the rings, one colour is blocked out, until only the blue radio waves remain.I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, anyway. More drawings to come.
11.19.2007
Ciphers,Sounds, and General Confusion
During our crit session on Friday, Patrick asked us a few questions about our machines, and I intend to answer them. The only problem being that I have pretty much no idea how to answer the questions, because I am ridiculously confused about this whole thing.
Question the first: What does your monster/machine do?
Who the hell knows? I know that my machine spins to the sounds of a radio station that it receives, and then taps switches around its periphery. The switches, however, are where my mystery begins. What are the switches connected to? Why? These are the questions that plague my design, and these are the reasons that I feel like I’m in such a bad place right now.
I do have a few ideas, but I just don’t know how valid they are. The first idea came during our discussion about sounds and the audible qualities of our machines. If I could find some way to connect my switches to a microcontroller, which is in turn connected to my computer, I might be able to send impulses from the switches to my computer. If these impulses could be interpreted by a sound-mixing program like Fruity Loops or something like that, then I could have my machine play the sounds. It would be an interesting aural experience because of the machine’s sequential nature, and I think it could be interesting to start feeding the output of the machine to the control mechanism (radio transmitter, audio output, etc). It could be an interesting idea, but I feel like it goes too far away from my original focus on the radio.
The other idea I had is probably the most feasible of the two, but it’s rather complex. Earlier on when I was researching the radio, I did a little bit of research on cryptology. Caesar ciphers, permutations, and other encryption techniques are interesting, but I suppose my interest in it lies in the fact that my machine could be splitting up a message through the ether.
It might not make a whole lot of sense, but messages and information that are flying through the ether are always considered part of a whole. By taking one message and simultaneously splitting it over different frequencies and timings, I’m effectively breaking up the continuity of something that has had that continuity for millennia.
The way I plan on achieving my goal is by playing to my machine’s strengths. It would basically work on a Caesar cipher principle. There would be two machines; one for sending and one for receiving. The machine that is sending would be hooked up to eight radio transmitters, each transmitting on a slightly different frequency. This machine would be driven by my previous circuit, where a radio station is driving the movement between each of the eight switches. As one switch is tapped, the overall message moves to a different frequency, so if you tuned to just one station, you’d only ever get one eighth the overall message at any one time. The second machine would have eight radio receivers, each tuned to the same channels as the first machine’s transmitters. The “key” for both machines is the radio station that drives the motor. If both are moving in sync, then the entire message is transmitted to the receiver, and anyone else who’s trying to decode the message is left with only one eighth of the entire message. Will it work? Who the hell knows, but I think it’s an interesting idea.
Question the Second: What is it about?
The ether, man. Come on.
Really, I also don’t know what it’s about. The whole thing is somewhat patched together from different sources. My brain tells me that the whole thing is about the radio and telecommunication, but my previous efforts seem to have focused on sound and energy. My gut is telling me that I have strayed from my original goals, and that’s not so good.
I think the idea for the sound machine is solid, but I also think it’s a reaction to the fact that I’ve been missing my mark with this project. The cipher machine would be less of a departure, and I think it could even get me back on track a bit, so that’s the idea that I’m currently going with. Maybe it’s too complicated for the amount of time I have, or maybe it doesn’t do what I think it does, but I want to talk it over with my crit and see how it all goes.
Question the Third: What is its purpose?
Being sneaky, I suppose. Really, the idea of using my machine to be an encryption/decryption device is a way for me to bring this back to my original intent. The idea that I can split up a signal and cut the ether into chunks is an interesting possibility, since as far as I know, it hasn’t been done before. I’m more interested, however, in the idea that it can be cut up, making the ether something that can be separated. In all of my readings regarding the ether, its always said that the ether is a single entity, and one that cannot be subdivided or broken. This machine could do both, as well as being a new way to send encrypted data. The idea that the signal is split eight ways only needs to be he first layer of encryption, as you could easily send a digital signal through it, or even a number station if you wished.
Question the Fourth: What is the Site?
The site, as far as I can tell, hasn’t really started to materialize. If I go through with the cipher machine, then I think the site would end up being something hidden, or at least something very clandestine. If I’m going to be sending hidden messages over the radio, then I would imagine my site and my building might start to take on some kind of militaristic bent. Maybe it would facilitate a steampunk aesthetic. Steam has nothing to do with it, but I just love steampunk, and the utilitarian, rusted, Victorian look is something I’d love to try out on my own.
I would say that this type of machine definitely has implications on the planning of my site as well. Perhaps the plan could take on a radial formwork and then branch out into a more labyrinthine layout from the center. Then my building could respond to both the machine’s tectonics, as well as the idea of code cracking and intentional wayfinding disruptions. It would certainly be eccentric, but so far that seems par for the course.
So what have we found out?
Basically, I’m very confused, but I think I might be on to something. God, let’s hope so.
Question the first: What does your monster/machine do?
Who the hell knows? I know that my machine spins to the sounds of a radio station that it receives, and then taps switches around its periphery. The switches, however, are where my mystery begins. What are the switches connected to? Why? These are the questions that plague my design, and these are the reasons that I feel like I’m in such a bad place right now.
I do have a few ideas, but I just don’t know how valid they are. The first idea came during our discussion about sounds and the audible qualities of our machines. If I could find some way to connect my switches to a microcontroller, which is in turn connected to my computer, I might be able to send impulses from the switches to my computer. If these impulses could be interpreted by a sound-mixing program like Fruity Loops or something like that, then I could have my machine play the sounds. It would be an interesting aural experience because of the machine’s sequential nature, and I think it could be interesting to start feeding the output of the machine to the control mechanism (radio transmitter, audio output, etc). It could be an interesting idea, but I feel like it goes too far away from my original focus on the radio.
The other idea I had is probably the most feasible of the two, but it’s rather complex. Earlier on when I was researching the radio, I did a little bit of research on cryptology. Caesar ciphers, permutations, and other encryption techniques are interesting, but I suppose my interest in it lies in the fact that my machine could be splitting up a message through the ether.
It might not make a whole lot of sense, but messages and information that are flying through the ether are always considered part of a whole. By taking one message and simultaneously splitting it over different frequencies and timings, I’m effectively breaking up the continuity of something that has had that continuity for millennia.
The way I plan on achieving my goal is by playing to my machine’s strengths. It would basically work on a Caesar cipher principle. There would be two machines; one for sending and one for receiving. The machine that is sending would be hooked up to eight radio transmitters, each transmitting on a slightly different frequency. This machine would be driven by my previous circuit, where a radio station is driving the movement between each of the eight switches. As one switch is tapped, the overall message moves to a different frequency, so if you tuned to just one station, you’d only ever get one eighth the overall message at any one time. The second machine would have eight radio receivers, each tuned to the same channels as the first machine’s transmitters. The “key” for both machines is the radio station that drives the motor. If both are moving in sync, then the entire message is transmitted to the receiver, and anyone else who’s trying to decode the message is left with only one eighth of the entire message. Will it work? Who the hell knows, but I think it’s an interesting idea.
Question the Second: What is it about?
The ether, man. Come on.
Really, I also don’t know what it’s about. The whole thing is somewhat patched together from different sources. My brain tells me that the whole thing is about the radio and telecommunication, but my previous efforts seem to have focused on sound and energy. My gut is telling me that I have strayed from my original goals, and that’s not so good.
I think the idea for the sound machine is solid, but I also think it’s a reaction to the fact that I’ve been missing my mark with this project. The cipher machine would be less of a departure, and I think it could even get me back on track a bit, so that’s the idea that I’m currently going with. Maybe it’s too complicated for the amount of time I have, or maybe it doesn’t do what I think it does, but I want to talk it over with my crit and see how it all goes.
Question the Third: What is its purpose?
Being sneaky, I suppose. Really, the idea of using my machine to be an encryption/decryption device is a way for me to bring this back to my original intent. The idea that I can split up a signal and cut the ether into chunks is an interesting possibility, since as far as I know, it hasn’t been done before. I’m more interested, however, in the idea that it can be cut up, making the ether something that can be separated. In all of my readings regarding the ether, its always said that the ether is a single entity, and one that cannot be subdivided or broken. This machine could do both, as well as being a new way to send encrypted data. The idea that the signal is split eight ways only needs to be he first layer of encryption, as you could easily send a digital signal through it, or even a number station if you wished.
Question the Fourth: What is the Site?
The site, as far as I can tell, hasn’t really started to materialize. If I go through with the cipher machine, then I think the site would end up being something hidden, or at least something very clandestine. If I’m going to be sending hidden messages over the radio, then I would imagine my site and my building might start to take on some kind of militaristic bent. Maybe it would facilitate a steampunk aesthetic. Steam has nothing to do with it, but I just love steampunk, and the utilitarian, rusted, Victorian look is something I’d love to try out on my own.
I would say that this type of machine definitely has implications on the planning of my site as well. Perhaps the plan could take on a radial formwork and then branch out into a more labyrinthine layout from the center. Then my building could respond to both the machine’s tectonics, as well as the idea of code cracking and intentional wayfinding disruptions. It would certainly be eccentric, but so far that seems par for the course.
So what have we found out?
Basically, I’m very confused, but I think I might be on to something. God, let’s hope so.
11.18.2007
The Exhibition
Here it is...
The atmosphere of the show was absolutely amazing, and I got some really positive feedback on my piece from a few different people. It was nice to see that people were interested in it at least, even though it didn't technically do what I wanted it to. I was a little bit disappointed in the project to be completely honest, but everyone who saw it seemed to like it, so they can't all be wrong, can they?
CAN THEY?!
The atmosphere of the show was absolutely amazing, and I got some really positive feedback on my piece from a few different people. It was nice to see that people were interested in it at least, even though it didn't technically do what I wanted it to. I was a little bit disappointed in the project to be completely honest, but everyone who saw it seemed to like it, so they can't all be wrong, can they?CAN THEY?!
T Minus One Day
Thursday was mostly a frantic working day. I was still getting my floor panel all set up, but today there was a bit of a twist. At the end of the night (and a little bit this morning) Gregory had a bright idea and he was very excited about it. He thought that I should move my piece away from the center of the exhibition and put it near the entrance instead. Through his enthusiasm and sound reasoning, he convinced me, and so I did move it.
Here it is all set up in its new home. It took a long time to move it here, but I think it was the right decision.
Once I got everything ready in its new spot, I had to get the infrastructure ready so that the tile could be lighted properly. To do this, I had to put a dimmer box in the floor a few panels away, then put four lights (RGBB) into my own floor panel. I got the lights in and the dimmer as well, but Harry advised me to build a light box out of foamcore in order to stop the light from leaking out underneath the floor.
Once all of this was set up, I had to run the cables from this box all the way across the room to where Harry had his computers set up. This was no easy task, and I had to attach the cable to a series of poles and try to feed it under the tiles. I couldn't do it all on my own, but luckily Dan was feeling spry and decided to help me out by crawling underneath the floor.
Whoa.
Once everything was set up, the testing began, and the whole thing started to come together visually. Unfortunately, I still didn't have my FM transmitters working, and I was still feeling pretty crappy about the whole thing. I had the switch and my tile set up, but no way to communicate and interface with any other projects yet.
Here it is all set up in its new home. It took a long time to move it here, but I think it was the right decision.Once I got everything ready in its new spot, I had to get the infrastructure ready so that the tile could be lighted properly. To do this, I had to put a dimmer box in the floor a few panels away, then put four lights (RGBB) into my own floor panel. I got the lights in and the dimmer as well, but Harry advised me to build a light box out of foamcore in order to stop the light from leaking out underneath the floor.
Once all of this was set up, I had to run the cables from this box all the way across the room to where Harry had his computers set up. This was no easy task, and I had to attach the cable to a series of poles and try to feed it under the tiles. I couldn't do it all on my own, but luckily Dan was feeling spry and decided to help me out by crawling underneath the floor.
Whoa.
Once everything was set up, the testing began, and the whole thing started to come together visually. Unfortunately, I still didn't have my FM transmitters working, and I was still feeling pretty crappy about the whole thing. I had the switch and my tile set up, but no way to communicate and interface with any other projects yet.
Black Box Recap
I suppose I should finish what I started and tell you how the rest of the week in Montreal went. It was pretty exhausting, hence the extended (ill-advised?) break from not only blogging, but most things studio related.
After being the blogmaster on Tuesday with Shannon, I took a short jaunt to Addison's with JS, Shannon, Nigel, and Candace.
Addison was really cool, and had a ridiculous amount of crazy gadgetry. I could have spent a whole lot more time there, but I think everyone else had just about enough.
Case in point.
When we got back, it was working time again, and work we did. At the end of the previous day, I had my rotary switch suspended in the floor tile with a small light underneath it. This had a lot of problems, including the fact that the light I was using could most likely melt the whole thing in about an hour.
After a talk with Patrick and Xin Wei, we decided that it would be more beneficial to have my switch exposed, rather than hidden away.
Here it is before it was lifted from the depths of the Black Box's concrete tile floor. You can see the light underneath, but the light was just not a feasible idea in the end.
Since I was no longer suspending the switch in the ground with strings, I had to come up with a way to hold it up over my tile. I managed to do this by borrowing some wire from Nigel and using shrink wrap on the connections. The thing held up nicely, which was cool, but that was the end of my day.
Of course, the whole thing was starting to come together a bit, and the whole environment was alive with motion and sound, and it was only Wednesday.
After being the blogmaster on Tuesday with Shannon, I took a short jaunt to Addison's with JS, Shannon, Nigel, and Candace.
Addison was really cool, and had a ridiculous amount of crazy gadgetry. I could have spent a whole lot more time there, but I think everyone else had just about enough.
Case in point.When we got back, it was working time again, and work we did. At the end of the previous day, I had my rotary switch suspended in the floor tile with a small light underneath it. This had a lot of problems, including the fact that the light I was using could most likely melt the whole thing in about an hour.
After a talk with Patrick and Xin Wei, we decided that it would be more beneficial to have my switch exposed, rather than hidden away.
Here it is before it was lifted from the depths of the Black Box's concrete tile floor. You can see the light underneath, but the light was just not a feasible idea in the end.
Since I was no longer suspending the switch in the ground with strings, I had to come up with a way to hold it up over my tile. I managed to do this by borrowing some wire from Nigel and using shrink wrap on the connections. The thing held up nicely, which was cool, but that was the end of my day. Of course, the whole thing was starting to come together a bit, and the whole environment was alive with motion and sound, and it was only Wednesday.
11.13.2007
Hexagram Ahoy!
Today.... well, more precisely, last Tuesday, Shannon and I were supposed to be the "blogmasters " for the day. Now, technically, I think Daniel MacGibbon should be considered the blogmaster proper, as he did blog every day while we were there, but I did get a few pretty nice shots during our tour of Hexagram's facilities. It wasn't the only thing of note we did that day, but it's where the majority of the action happened for me. I was just in production mode for the rest of the day, drilling holes for enamel wire around the circumference of my rotary switch and adding enamel wire to the momentary switches. But enough of that, let's see some pictures!
Ricardo was excited about the tour from the word Go.... Strange fellow...
Before the tour started we waited around a little bit in the lounge on the 11th floor. The view was pretty spectacular, but more on that later.
Mmmm... Gigantic Displays.... This is one of the TML's many media labs. This one I believe was for digital video, and like the rest of the labs we went to, it was served by a huge network (40tB) that ensured that anything you do on one computer can be instantly accessed by any other computer in the TML. Futuristic.
I'm not entirely sure of this room's name, but I do know that all of the small pieces you can see in the picture were manufactured by various rapid prototyping machines the TML has at its disposal. The room was filled with all kinds of crazy little projects, and some of them looked very fragile, but it was all pretty high tech stuff.
This is a little picture from the TML's Metal shop, which was also pretty impressive. This is just a small piece that was done on the metal lathe. One of these days, man, one of these days we'll have our metal lathe!
A shot from inside the sound mixing room, which was also pretty mindblowing. The room was only set up with your average 5.1 Dolby surround at the time, but the sound it was generating was in full 3d, and the effect was truly amazing. It was one of the coolest parts of the tour, for me anyway.
Just a small detail of the sound diffusion boards in the sound mixing room. Apparently they're specifically designed to diffuse bass, but I think they were also designed to look cool.
Next up on the tour was the first of two fabric laboratories. This one had a giant fabric printer, which managed to print out the image below.
Cool, no?
Behind door number two was the Jacquard Loom. This one was particularly interesting to me because the Jacquard loom is considered by many to be the first ever binary computer. It used punchcards back in the day, but at the TML, you can upload a picture (8 bit black and white) and the loom here will print out your picture. I enjoyed it, but I thought Candace might have wet herself.
Of course, there were a few nice vistas, but any place that's eleven floors up usually has them. Especially if they're in Montreal.
After our tour of Hexagram's facilities, Mark Sussman came in to talk to us about puppetry, poetry, and the arts in general. It was a pretty stimulating lecture, and luckily I managed to snap a few shots.
He talked with his hands just as much as he talked with his mouth. At least that's what my pictures say.
After that it was production time, and I was on my way. I used my enamel wire to create some quickswitches, which ended up working quite well.
Ricardo was excited about the tour from the word Go.... Strange fellow...Before the tour started we waited around a little bit in the lounge on the 11th floor. The view was pretty spectacular, but more on that later.
Mmmm... Gigantic Displays.... This is one of the TML's many media labs. This one I believe was for digital video, and like the rest of the labs we went to, it was served by a huge network (40tB) that ensured that anything you do on one computer can be instantly accessed by any other computer in the TML. Futuristic.
I'm not entirely sure of this room's name, but I do know that all of the small pieces you can see in the picture were manufactured by various rapid prototyping machines the TML has at its disposal. The room was filled with all kinds of crazy little projects, and some of them looked very fragile, but it was all pretty high tech stuff.
This is a little picture from the TML's Metal shop, which was also pretty impressive. This is just a small piece that was done on the metal lathe. One of these days, man, one of these days we'll have our metal lathe!
A shot from inside the sound mixing room, which was also pretty mindblowing. The room was only set up with your average 5.1 Dolby surround at the time, but the sound it was generating was in full 3d, and the effect was truly amazing. It was one of the coolest parts of the tour, for me anyway.
Just a small detail of the sound diffusion boards in the sound mixing room. Apparently they're specifically designed to diffuse bass, but I think they were also designed to look cool.
Next up on the tour was the first of two fabric laboratories. This one had a giant fabric printer, which managed to print out the image below.
Cool, no?
Behind door number two was the Jacquard Loom. This one was particularly interesting to me because the Jacquard loom is considered by many to be the first ever binary computer. It used punchcards back in the day, but at the TML, you can upload a picture (8 bit black and white) and the loom here will print out your picture. I enjoyed it, but I thought Candace might have wet herself.
Of course, there were a few nice vistas, but any place that's eleven floors up usually has them. Especially if they're in Montreal.
After our tour of Hexagram's facilities, Mark Sussman came in to talk to us about puppetry, poetry, and the arts in general. It was a pretty stimulating lecture, and luckily I managed to snap a few shots.
He talked with his hands just as much as he talked with his mouth. At least that's what my pictures say.
After that it was production time, and I was on my way. I used my enamel wire to create some quickswitches, which ended up working quite well.
11.05.2007
I'm Trapped in a Black Box! Send Help!
We arrived in Montreal yesterday around 1:00 in the afternoon after a nice, peaceful plane ride. After wandering around the airport and trying to get a cabbie who would actually attempt to take our gigantic load of stuff, we were flying again (120 in a 70, anyone?) to our hotel. From there. we ended up wandering around Chinatown and doing a little shopping and sampling some fine Asian eateries. It was a lovely day, capped by a lovely night.
We got to Hexagram this morning to set up our stuff and show off a bit, and I finally had something new to show. This bad boy is the next iteration of my rotary switch, and it's looking pretty good.
As you can see, I changed things around just a bit. The whole thing is clear so that it can be uplit and projected onto a screen in the black box. So far, I've been able to decide how I want the pistons to activate the switches, and where I want my creation to in the space, but I still have some questions, like what the hell is this thing going to do exactly? I had a talk with Xin Wei and Patrick, along with a few others in the Black Box, and one thing we came to agree on was that I should use not only digital outputs, but analog outputs as well, since the whole input system is analog to analog.
I plan on putting the machine underneath the floor, which might sound a little odd, but it does make sense in regards to my research material. The idea is that the silhouette will be projected from the floor to a screen on the ceiling, and the machine itself will be obstructed. In the history of Ether, and the radio, too, there has never been a natural way to intercept the signals floating through the air. You can't see it, smell it, taste touch, or feel it, you can only ever decode it through an external medium like a radio or television. My project works the same way. You can see the effects of the radio by listening to the sound, or watching the silhouette projected on the wall, but you never see the machine itself, unless its through an artificial medium.
Tomorrow should be interesting, as I'll be mounting my monster under the floor and setting up the screens. I imagine the logistics will be very interesting indeed...
We got to Hexagram this morning to set up our stuff and show off a bit, and I finally had something new to show. This bad boy is the next iteration of my rotary switch, and it's looking pretty good.
As you can see, I changed things around just a bit. The whole thing is clear so that it can be uplit and projected onto a screen in the black box. So far, I've been able to decide how I want the pistons to activate the switches, and where I want my creation to in the space, but I still have some questions, like what the hell is this thing going to do exactly? I had a talk with Xin Wei and Patrick, along with a few others in the Black Box, and one thing we came to agree on was that I should use not only digital outputs, but analog outputs as well, since the whole input system is analog to analog. I plan on putting the machine underneath the floor, which might sound a little odd, but it does make sense in regards to my research material. The idea is that the silhouette will be projected from the floor to a screen on the ceiling, and the machine itself will be obstructed. In the history of Ether, and the radio, too, there has never been a natural way to intercept the signals floating through the air. You can't see it, smell it, taste touch, or feel it, you can only ever decode it through an external medium like a radio or television. My project works the same way. You can see the effects of the radio by listening to the sound, or watching the silhouette projected on the wall, but you never see the machine itself, unless its through an artificial medium.
Tomorrow should be interesting, as I'll be mounting my monster under the floor and setting up the screens. I imagine the logistics will be very interesting indeed...
10.31.2007
Nocturnal Transmissions
After a fairly promising day working on my rotary switching mechanism, I ran into a few major stumbling blocks. One: My amplifier which was supposed to make my motor go along with the music stopped working, and Two: my radio transmitters didn't work yet. Both of these things were hugely critical for my project to keep on advancing, so I spent the last few days just banging away at my circuits.
Unfortunately, so far I've only been able to crack the amplifier circuit, and it was a bit of a stupid problem. What happened was that I tried to insert a darlington transistor into my circuit, in order to alleviate the heat runaway I was experiencing with my normal transistor, but when I did it, I ended up feeding a nice nine volt shock straight into my iPod's headphone jack. Initially, they only damage was a burn to the left hand side of the screen, but alas, my problems didn't end there. As I figured out today, after two days of buggering around with this circuit and getting extremely frustrated, was that my iPod was now constantly putting out 1.3 volts, even when it was paused. This meant that my circuits were always on, and led me to believe that I was using PNP transistors or something else was wrong, and so I've been working this circuit over for the last two days unnecessarily.
The happy news is that this thing will work, and I even have proof!
As you can see, the switch is rotating along with the beat, which is exactly what I want it to do. Now the only thing that needs to be provided is the music, which will be transmitted through the ether to my machine.
This calls for an FM radio transmitter, of course! I found a great website with a few different FM transmitter circuits on it, and so I decided to try them out, with sometimes humourous results.
This eventually turned into this:
When I actually tried this out, I had to take it outside to due crazy interference inside our studio space. When I took it out, though, I got a very interesting result. With my radio tuned to 88.1 MhZ, I started picking up a Kanye West Song, which was odd, since I was playing AC/DC. I didn't think it was my transmitter, but as I was adjusting the trimmer, I got the channel to come in clear as a bell, and when I listened for a bit, I found something incredibly interesting. I was broadcasting a perfect signal from 107.9 MhZ over my transmitter... Weird, no? Somewhat disheartened that my circuit didn't work, but encouraged by the fact it actually did something, I went back to studio and made a new radio transmitter.
This turned into this:
The second one is a lot more complex, but I think the result was a bit better. I didn't get a clear signal, or anything discernible at all, but I did manage to detect a strong distortion that I could control with my trimmer while I was using it. It doesn't necessarily work just yet, but I plan on doing a lot more work on it tomorrow, and playing with the inductor coils to play with my frequencies a bit. I imagine I will be able to get a signal tomorrow, so here's hoping.
Wish me luck, I'm going to need it, that's for sure.
Unfortunately, so far I've only been able to crack the amplifier circuit, and it was a bit of a stupid problem. What happened was that I tried to insert a darlington transistor into my circuit, in order to alleviate the heat runaway I was experiencing with my normal transistor, but when I did it, I ended up feeding a nice nine volt shock straight into my iPod's headphone jack. Initially, they only damage was a burn to the left hand side of the screen, but alas, my problems didn't end there. As I figured out today, after two days of buggering around with this circuit and getting extremely frustrated, was that my iPod was now constantly putting out 1.3 volts, even when it was paused. This meant that my circuits were always on, and led me to believe that I was using PNP transistors or something else was wrong, and so I've been working this circuit over for the last two days unnecessarily.
The happy news is that this thing will work, and I even have proof!
As you can see, the switch is rotating along with the beat, which is exactly what I want it to do. Now the only thing that needs to be provided is the music, which will be transmitted through the ether to my machine.
This calls for an FM radio transmitter, of course! I found a great website with a few different FM transmitter circuits on it, and so I decided to try them out, with sometimes humourous results.
This eventually turned into this:
When I actually tried this out, I had to take it outside to due crazy interference inside our studio space. When I took it out, though, I got a very interesting result. With my radio tuned to 88.1 MhZ, I started picking up a Kanye West Song, which was odd, since I was playing AC/DC. I didn't think it was my transmitter, but as I was adjusting the trimmer, I got the channel to come in clear as a bell, and when I listened for a bit, I found something incredibly interesting. I was broadcasting a perfect signal from 107.9 MhZ over my transmitter... Weird, no? Somewhat disheartened that my circuit didn't work, but encouraged by the fact it actually did something, I went back to studio and made a new radio transmitter.
This turned into this:
The second one is a lot more complex, but I think the result was a bit better. I didn't get a clear signal, or anything discernible at all, but I did manage to detect a strong distortion that I could control with my trimmer while I was using it. It doesn't necessarily work just yet, but I plan on doing a lot more work on it tomorrow, and playing with the inductor coils to play with my frequencies a bit. I imagine I will be able to get a signal tomorrow, so here's hoping.Wish me luck, I'm going to need it, that's for sure.
10.26.2007
Rotary Switching Mechanism
So, after a talk with Patrick yesterday, we decided that maybe locomotion of the actual monster wasn't the way to go for my project. I had been working on making my machine move for quite some time, so I was a little bit dejected after our talk, but I found solace in my favourite online forums. During my visit on these particular forums, I came across a poster who had an avatar with a rotary engine animation in it. It didn't click at the time for me, so I can't remember his username, or which thread I saw his avatar in, but I did remember the rotary engine.
This is a picture of a rotary engine, and basically it just worked by using a ring of pistons surrounding a crankshaft. As the off-balanced crankshaft spins, it pushes and pulls the pistons in and out. My switch mechanism isn't quite like the rotary engine, though, because it will be powered by radio waves or audio input of some kind, so the power will come from an external electrical source, not a series of explosions.
First thing's first, I had to create some pistons for the crankshafts to fit into.
I used brass tubing for the piston, and millboard to hold the whole thing up. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the crankshaft being constructed, but its height determined the height of my millboard braces. Once these were created, I had to make connections from my crankshaft to my pistons, and thankfully, I found a great material for this type of thing.
This copper wiring that I borrowed from Candice worked perfectly, because it's malleable enough that it can be shaped easily, but strong enough that it can easily hold its shape. I made eight of these and eight pistons, and then connected them to my mount that has the crankshaft on it.
This it the mechanism with just four pistons mounted to it, but it looks much cooler with eight.
So no what I have is eight switches that will be controlled by the speed of the motor, which will be controlled by the volume and strength of the radio waves coming into my monster. I'm going to mount a small motor on this board to power the crankshaft in the center. Both pulleys are from my previous locomotion experiment, so I guess that wasn't a total loss. I plan to turn this into the nerve center of my monster, and I also plan on using my arduino board to start taking inputs from this switch and counting the number of rotations so that I can control my monster with more precision.
This is a picture of a rotary engine, and basically it just worked by using a ring of pistons surrounding a crankshaft. As the off-balanced crankshaft spins, it pushes and pulls the pistons in and out. My switch mechanism isn't quite like the rotary engine, though, because it will be powered by radio waves or audio input of some kind, so the power will come from an external electrical source, not a series of explosions.First thing's first, I had to create some pistons for the crankshafts to fit into.
I used brass tubing for the piston, and millboard to hold the whole thing up. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the crankshaft being constructed, but its height determined the height of my millboard braces. Once these were created, I had to make connections from my crankshaft to my pistons, and thankfully, I found a great material for this type of thing.
This copper wiring that I borrowed from Candice worked perfectly, because it's malleable enough that it can be shaped easily, but strong enough that it can easily hold its shape. I made eight of these and eight pistons, and then connected them to my mount that has the crankshaft on it.
This it the mechanism with just four pistons mounted to it, but it looks much cooler with eight.
So no what I have is eight switches that will be controlled by the speed of the motor, which will be controlled by the volume and strength of the radio waves coming into my monster. I'm going to mount a small motor on this board to power the crankshaft in the center. Both pulleys are from my previous locomotion experiment, so I guess that wasn't a total loss. I plan to turn this into the nerve center of my monster, and I also plan on using my arduino board to start taking inputs from this switch and counting the number of rotations so that I can control my monster with more precision.
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