Category: Uncategorized
NEW AGE CANDLE
Assignment: Create an artificial candle using a NeoPixel jewel. Your candle should include a base and a shade or diffuser. Try to capture the colors and behavior of a real candle in programming your candle.
I partnered with Lillian for this project.
After the candle observation session in class I wanted to try the extreme and recreate the natural colors and behavior of a candle in something completely unnatural – to see if the colors and behavior can be stripped down to just the quality of light itself. As a result, I decided to use live edge acrylic.
Idea sketches: *insert photos*
Lillian and I tried etching different patterns on the acrylic to see which one worked best with the light:
After testing these, we went with the lines because the quality of light was most visible and deliberate on those. We turned them into candle shapes of different sizes in order to stack them and make them into a 3D piece.
Learnings on live edge acrylic
- Light on edges are very bright – must find something to cover them because they distract the patterns on the piece itself
- The clearest live edge acrylic is ‘green’ – only able to focus on brightness (might be better for other projects)
- Too little space between each layer make the patterns indistinguishable – must create space in between, each layer should have their own very well positioned lights
- Etching patterns look better when there is higher contrast – lower contrast make the patterns look flat rather than ‘POP’ out as lights
Due to our struggle with the colors on acrylic, we ended up focusing on the brightness of each pixel rather than the colors. I didn’t get around to trying the Color Converter library for this project. However, I will try it as a side project on my own.
For this specific project, I wonder what would happen if I had stripped it down even further and tried to recreate the candle colors and behavior on a plain sheet of matte acrylic (or plain white paper). Also, how would I have programmed it differently if I had focused on its surroundings as well – instead of just the light itself.
Project video:
(The bottom of the acrylic actually looks like a flame)
Code: https://github.com/hellonun/candle/tree/master/candle_acrylic
Computer Generated Courses at ITP
Assignment: Create your own poetry generator using these techniques. Use one of the generators implemented in this notebook as a starting point for your creation.
One of the most intriguing things for me at ITP is the course offering. Each class is eclectic in its own way. When reading the class descriptions, I always feel like I can only understand so much as they are so new to me. At the same time, having participated in different classes this semester, I find that the classes are intertwined and the knowledge can be applied with each other.
These thoughts lead me to create this ITP Course Mashup based on all the classes I’m taking here at ITP this semester.
I took the following elements from the original notebook and changed them to mimic the course description given to us at the beginning of the semester.
- Split – split passage into separate words
- Random – select random words from list
- Random range – random number (for amount of credits)
- Text wrap – putting texts together as a passage
- Capitalize – turn texts into sentence case
It was difficult to get the course description to go beyond ‘Dadaism’ with the random function. Therefore, for future development I’d like to work on the following.
- Categorize words into nouns / verbs / adjectives
- Eliminate repeated words
I had a lot more fun than I thought. Shuffling texts with preconceived notion is very entertaining.
Code: https://github.com/hellonun/rwet/blob/master/itp_course_mashup.ipynb
Example results:
LIGHTING MOMENT #2
E-UNCONSCIOUS
Assignment: Collect your digital footprint.
I’ve always wanted to look at the bigger picture of my life – but I never imagined the effects it would have on me.
Because I was never active on my email or social media, I decided to download my Google Location History Data to explore and experiment with. This dataset dates back to this time last year (Feb 18 – Feb 19) – I spent exactly half of that time in New York and half of that time in Bangkok. (https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout)
Before writing my own code, I went on Location History Visualizer to get a sense of the data (https://locationhistoryvisualizer.com/heatmap/). In less than two minutes, I found myself tearing up about my past in Bangkok. It brought back memories I wanted to let go. — This experience of visually zooming in and out of my location history created a very dramatic change of emotion, from being very excited to somewhat traumatised.
After a while I calmed down and focused on my life in New York instead. I changed my mindset to think “Where are the places I’ve been and where else can I explore?”. This allowed me to think of my good memories when my family visited, look for places I enjoyed previously and look forward to other adventures.
My code: https://github.com/hellonun/rest-of-you/tree/master/e-unconscious-locationhistory
ABOUT DATA: I’m surprised by how accurate and detailed the tracking is. The data shows my friend’s apartment that I went to only once and stayed for just 10 minutes. If looking into detail, I can also see my bike trails vs. my walks. Google knows exactly where I am! This shouldn’t be a surprise, but it still is.
ABOUT ME: I’m surprised by the emotional influence this dataset has on me, and how it really depends on what lens I put on when looking at it.
For future development for this project, I will add a timeline and a clock. Timeline: to scroll and see if my life in New York changes by season / by the amount of time I’ve spent here (becoming more local). Clock: to see how my map changes by the time of day . The assumption is that after 12-1 AM I’m mostly at Bobst or ITP. Hopefully this will trigger some positive change.
The questions I have after having done this assignment are “How do we consciously explore data?” and “How can we let the insights reveal themselves in a suitable manner?” (not take us by surprise in a negative way). Another thought I have is that these data let us live the past over and over again whereas our minds have a different way in managing these memories – how do we balance the two – accepting the truth and being present.
A quote I’m pondering: “The fact that we change all the time is what makes us human”
Huge thank you to Morgan Mueller for coding help.
https://www.morganmueller.com/
https://github.com/morganbm123/ICM-Final-Project
Interruptible LED
Assignment: Create a fading LED attached to a microcontroller. Your LED should be interruptible by either a pushbutton, analog input, or serial input. Your fade speed and fade curve are yours to determine.
Tom went through this exercise with us in class. I was surprised by how much the sine wave makes a difference to the fade. It felt a lot more smooth and natural. I left the class wanting to experiment on what different feelings I can create with the light.
Example code: https://github.com/tigoe/LightProjects/tree/master/SineFade
I listed out some emotions and based on practicality and my state of mind recently (self-portrait), I went with: (1) heavy breathing (2) panic (3) emergency. The interaction is then to put off the fire and let the LED die.
I chose to make the enclosure as minimal as I can to highlight the light effects. I covered the LED in a tissue to diffuse the light and put it in a pingpong ball as it provides a perfectly round shape – evenly distributing the light. In addition, I made it into a character using white wires as the body of the pingpong man.
(1) Heavy breathing
code: https://github.com/hellonun/lightandinteractivity/blob/master/led_heavy_breathing.ino
(2) Panic
code: https://github.com/hellonun/lightandinteractivity/blob/master/led_panic.ino
(3) Emergency
code: https://github.com/hellonun/lightandinteractivity/blob/master/led_emergency.ino
The biggest thing I learned along the way was that light and its movements look different in every condition e.g. an LED vs. an LED in a pingpong ball vs. an LED covered in tissue in a pingpong ball – the effects in these are also very different. Therefore, next time I should make as close to the real setting as I can and take time to test to fine-tune the code.
A bonus – an interesting graph I made while trying to create a breathing effect.