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.

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.

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.

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?!

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.

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.

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.

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...