The opening on YouTube!
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The opening on YouTube!
]]>Also there is information and a link to an exhibit I have some work in which opens next week.
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Evaporation prototype stage II - a link to some images and (really poor) videos of 'Evaporation' piece.
Terraformer will be an additive 3D printer. Crude and rusted, with all it's mechanisms exposed. It is an "H" form type x/y plotter which will deposit material in layers to progressively build up 3D forms. I am still testing a range of materials and pump designs to determine how viscous a material I will reliably be able to use. I've made three versions of a peristaltic pump so far, with mixed results. The main problem now is with the tube size and material: I need a larger diameter tubing with thinner walls and greater shape "memory."
When Terraformer is installed it will slowly build up a terrain over time, adding algorithmically generated landscape features, mountains, valleys, land bridges.
Video
Click on the image above to view video
Images
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Click on the images above for larger views
Click the images for larger views
This is a prototype for a sound installation I am currently developing, one of several sound projects inspired by a visit to North Carolina a couple of years ago. I was sitting outside early one morning listening to the bird conversations and tracking their locations by sound. I liked observing the way my attention shifted involuntarily, directed to the sound source as each unseen bird called out. The sequence of calls and the shifting locations brought a sense of anticipation and pattern awareness along with an awareness of spatial shifting. This current project focuses on the pattern sequence of random sound/visual events. A second project will explore the aspects of spatial positioning and will be sound only.
Videos
Click the thumbnails above to view videos
The prototype is a 4 x 4 array of 16 "drinking bird" evaporation toys. The final piece will be an 8 x 8 array of 64 birds. Each bird has a tilt sensor attached and when it tilts to a horizontal position an audio clip assigned to that bird will start and will play until the bird is upright. There will also be a light under each glass that will be on while the audio plays (the plastic glasses are placeholders).
I am still developing the audio pieces for this project and this prototype is mainly to working out the design, fabrication, and programming. Initially each bird will be independent but I intend to develop sets of rules for what sounds each bird can played based on it's history and the history and states of the other birds in the array.
Construction
Electronic Surplus and Findings
Mechanical
Bead Chain Sprokets - Raymor Tool Company
Materials
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Bead chain sprockets? Why is this exciting? Because I have been searching for them for weeks!
Bead chain is the sort of chain used for pull chains on old style lamps, window shade systems, key chains, and so forth. If you add a special pulley with indentations for the beads, then you have the beginnings of a very light, positive force drive system that can cover a large distance and is relatively inexpensive. The other options (at least that I am aware of) are either roller chain (heavy and expensive) or timing belts (expensive and limited in length).
There are lots of sources for bead chain but this is the only source I have found for sprockets. They are also very nice to deal with.
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Click on the images above to view larger versions
So I was in my local dry cleaners a few days ago and had a minor mechanical engineering epiphany (if epiphanies can be minor) when seeing how their garment transport rack was constructed. Is this stupidly cool or what? It rides on a pipe rail, with the pipe supports welded to the top of the pipe. Each carriage is comprised of a rigid plate connected to the pipe at each end by a bearing bracket, with the bearings offset so they clear the pipe supports. The carriages are connected through flexible joints so they can follow the track radius as it curves through the shop. The drive mechanism is a large horizontal wheel which contacts the uprights in each bearing bracket, and is completely friction driven.
Pretty hilarious - like an amusement park ride. This neighborhood being what it is (a haven for artists, hipsters and affiliated others) the saleswoman wasn't even curious as to why I was photographing this old, clanking machine.
I'm certainly going to borrow this mechanical design.
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It works! After some more tinkering and yet more revelations I was able to print out a simple test pattern, and later mouse-tracking gestures. Now the fun begins! Or at least a different kind of fun: being able to see some output and move to the programming/calibrating stage is a huge relief. There are still lots of mechanical refinements but at least I can use it now and start playing with some programming ideas and work on the display capabilities.
The set up
The print area in the test rig I have set up is fairly small: maybe 30" X 30". With a print area this small, dripping from 5' produces a huge dot. I can refine this in a variety of ways: changing the height, the size of the droplet, the viscosity of the ink.
Good, old Director running the show
But it works! Lots of programming to do. Right now there are no limit switches on the rig so the machine doesn't know how large a print area it has. I have the switches but need to figure out a method of attaching them and then write an auto-calibrating routine. For mouse gesture input right now it is simply tracking mouse location, with a drip placed at each discreet mouse point. A bezier or CatMull Rom spline routine will be easy to implement, as will bitmap translation. Lots of variables to play with both in software and in paint materials.
Click the image above to see a (Flash) video of the test pattern in action!
(There is a short delay while the video loads)
So after a few days of serial port hell with the Wiring board: trying to connect it to talk to this stepper motor board I am using and having data getting lost, I was at a dead end. I resorted to ordering a Keyspan 4 port serial adapter but then today at the studio while I was casting dirty looks at these microprocessors, I realized I had the solution in front of me (doh!).
The stepper board I am using requires a serial connection. BUT the Wiring board has an on-board USB connection. So instead of connecting to the boards in series, I can connect to them in "parallel" and manage the messaging from within Director. All it needed was a USB hub, which I already had. A quick test proved that it will work fine. Hopefully I will be able to cancel the Keyspan ($150) adapter...
So what have I learned here...