Medusa Video

Attached to Medusa's tentacles are various devises designed to create a mobile system that expands. In addition to this, these devices have graphite attached to them to map out the movement. During reviews one of the criticism in regards to my devices was that there is a need to feedback information from the device back to the processing unit. With this being said my new direction is to start using ardweno as a means of interpreting responses.

Bicycle

Initially when i was designing the bicycle I was thinking of a system that used lots of gears that required multiple gears. In the end I decided to simply the design. The bicycle design runs on 4.5 volts, anything more would cause the bicycle to turn over on its back side.

Suspended Manifold

The new manifold was designed to use parts of the previous one. With the new manifold I would be able to have Medusa expand in space when lowered and contract when elevated. Unfortunately my time was consumed with developing the motor attachments to figure out a way of doing this electronically.

Other requirements for the new manifold was to contain all of the circuitry, as a way of protecting them from the high traffic area. This being said I also decided to move my circuits from the prototyping board and onto a solider bread board to prevent the lose connection problem that I encountered in Montreal.

Propeller Device

The design of the propeller took a few attempts because there was issues of weight, power and drag. Some of the bugs have been sorted out but the device isn't as mobile as I would like. When incorporating this devise in the circuit I had to isolate this motor along with a few others onto a 12V power source rather then 7V.

phenomena

organizing photos, more to come

video demonstration

montreal trip

the studio arrived in montreal on sunday afternoon and began setup the next day. the first day consisted of a number of show and tells along. after the inital setup the TML gave surgestions on how we can present our work through video projects, lighting arangments as we various types of microphones.

near the end of the day the studio group planned the layout of our installations as well as organized the placement of polls for suspending.

in montreal

manifold laser cut

here are a few images of the manifold that i cut out with the laser cutter. i decided to use slot joints in the design of the manifold inorder to make it more transportable. unfourtunatley the structure could be more stable and may require some glue.

blogger is being difficult, more pictures to come

medusa schematic

structural form prototype

this is phase one of the structural form for medusa. basically this structure holds the manifold for all the photo sensors that are held above the idogs LEDs. I also incorporated a moveable joint for the manifold so that i can direct the photo sensors to other light emitting objects. as this project develop i intend on redoing the structure in hardboard or acrylic.

medusa

well my beast is starting to take form now, I spent the weekend working out all the bugs and fixing the wires, in total there are seven circuits. as the project progresses i intend to move these circuits off the solderless breadboard and onto a circuit board.

photo sensor structure

in continuation from yesterday i expanded on the number of circuits and came up with a structure to house the photo sensors.

photosensor motor

as seen in the video, the circuit activates the motor based on the intensity of the light. to do this i connected the photo sensor to the transistor which is connected to the relay. by connecting the photo sensor to the transistor i was able to control the flow of voltage going into the relay. once the relay is activated, the motor turns on.

with this circuit, the plan is to use the LEDs of spi-dog as a way of activating the motors.

Abstract

Initially when the studio began, the first project was to perform a vivisection on various electronic objects. By going through this process, the intention was that we would gain an understanding of how these pieces of technology work. The objects that I chose for the vivisection was the idog and a guitar tuner. The idog is basically a mini speaker that plugs into an ipod. In addition to this, the idog also shakes its head and flashes different coloured LEDs in accordance to the rhythm of the music being played.

Some of the tests that I conducted on the idog were to create a soundtrack composed of a number of sounds and various instruments. By doing this, I hoped to understand the triggers that activate the idog. Through my experiments, I found that low bass sounds do not trigger the idog. In addition to this, the flashing of the LEDs are in sync with the beat of the music. Unfortunately, I also found that the LEDs and the pattern it flashed in were random in most cases.

In regards to my research, I started looking into a medical condition called synesthesia. Synesthesia is Greek in origin; syn meaning union and esthesia meaning sensation. Through my research, I found articles conducted by various artists who experienced this condition. Through their experimentation, they listened to music while they painted and through this process, it was believed that they were obtaining a high understanding of the arts. These experiments would later become more technologically complex which would lead to the development of the colour organ by professor Rimington. The colour colour was a musical device that did not only play music notes, but also co-ordinates coloured lights according to the notes played.

In regards to my technical research I’ve been focusing most of my time with photo sensors and relays. Initially, I attempted to use photo resistors in order to control the output of the speaker. By doing so, I wanted to create a relationship between sound and motion. Unfortunately my attempts did not work and as a result of this I used an LED to observe if power was running through the circuit. This would lead to a discovery of how the speaker system works. As I placed the LED in series with the speaker, I found that the LED started flashing in accordance to the certain frequencies. Knowing this, I decided to use this LED as a switch for a relay. From here, I found the acoustical properties of the relay interesting and from this I decided to use a solenoid to create sound.

Currently, the direction that I am pursuing is to expand the limitations of my idog and create a number of circuits that create sound that is triggered by the LEDs produced by idog. By doing this, my intentions is to create a loop that would no longer require the user to use an ipod as input, but rather the sounds that it produces.

playing with a solenoid

in continuation of my last circuit, patrick suggested i use a solenoid to produce audio quality within the circuit. a solenoid is basically a coil that surrounds a metal rod. when the coil is hooked up to a power source, the coil becomes magnetic and will attract the metal rod. when this occurs there is the clicking sound of the metal rod falling into place. further more the attraction between the rod and coil is quit significant.

as seen in the first photo, i have the solenoid wrapped up in an elastic band that is suspended by a spring. when the power is turned off the solenoid will drop, for my purposes i don't want the solenoid to drop off the rod completely. going further with this experiment i fished the solenoid through a bottle because i wanted to amplify the sound of the solenoid clicking on and off.

when testing the solenoid circuit, i found that the turning off and on of the solenoid not only projected sound, but also caused the spring to oscillates up and down which may also present dynamic opportunities.

accidental discovery

yesterday i attempted to play around with the audio qualities behind my spi-dog. in doing so, I figured a photo sensor would allow me to alter the voltage going into the speaker which would alter the volume. with little success i decided to see if there was power still going into the speaker, to do this i used a LED. to my surprise, i found that the LED closed the circuit and caused the speaker to produce a fuzzy sound. what so more interesting was the fact that the LED was responsive to the voltage and flickered on and off depending how much power was being feed thought the speaker. previous to this, i was always under the impression that it was a constant flow of power.

as the project developed i attached a relay to the audio circut, previously i've been having difficulty finding an appropriate switch for the relay but with this LED flicker on and off depending on the sound and beat of the music this offered and interesting opportunity. for me, i found the audio quality of the relay turning on and off very pleasing and because of this patrick advised me to look at the automates ki which is a sound installation involving machine that produced sound by hitting various objects.

light dependant resistor

Lately I've been having a hard time getting the my light dependant resistor to work but chris recently showed me a site that might give me some success. basically the way the circuit works versus what i've been doing is that the resistor doesn't let the current go through rather then resists it. The circuit can be found on this site
http://www.technologystudent.com/elec1/ldr1.htm

to date, i've been able to make my circuit work, as a result i took two wires that were in place of the LED an attached them to the nose contact on spi-dog. doing so i hope to turn him on and off when I cover the LDR as a result... still the same problem occur. spi-dog turns on when i attach the circuit rather then when i cover the sensor. Taking a different approach on the situation i attempted to attach the circuit to the tail sensor and yet again came up with the same result.

small victory

this post is a little late so sorry guys. anyways after talking to carl, he suggested i use a relay to activate spi-dog. the relay acts as a switch, that is activated when electricity is running through it. as seen in the image above the black box object on the circuit board is the relay. when i detach the red wire going into it the relay, the relay has no power and the gate is closed. when i place the red wire on the relay a magnetic coil closes the switch and completes the circuit causing the red LED lights up.

in going into further with this discovery I think that I need to learn more about photo sensors. from my understanding a photo sensor is a resistor, but I need to use the photo sensor as a trigger.

in other new i’m focusing my research on synaesthesia in relation to hearing. one interesting article i found was call “the fire of Prometheus”: music-kinetic art experiments in the USSR. i’m still reading up on this so i’ll let you guys know on my findings later.

more research and experiment

so because i had difficulties trying to make my photo sensor work i decided to look up some stuff and the net. what i came up with was a basic curcuit for a photo detecor. basically how this works is when the photo sensor is turned on it lights and LED. at the moment i can't post it on delicious but the site is


http://home.cogeco.ca/~rpaisley4/PhotoDetectors.html

it made sense in my head

today i attempted to use a photo sensor as a trigger to start spi-dog. to do so i was thought that the sensor placed on the copper contact. from my understanding, the resistance of the photo sensor will increase as intensity of light increases. to my dismay the photo sensor triggered spi-dog upon contact. as i continued with my monster making i decided to add some resistance to the circuit so that the photo sensor wouldn't trigger upon contact unfortunately this still didn't work.

game plan for my monsters

after getting a tutorial from carl i have an idea of how to put my two projects together. the direction that i think i'll be going is to use a photo sensor to trigger spi-dog, doing so i'm hoping to get the guitar tunner to also turn on somehoe ... this stuff is still a mystery to me.


in terms of research i'm now researching a medical condition synaeothesia. synaeothesia is a when an individual's senses triggers another. the example given in a book by baron-cohen and harrison is soud triggering the perception of vivid colour. synaesthesia can also be triggered under hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD or mescaline.

colour organs and things out of control

Colour Organ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wcu4JtLj4jA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfOkd3spb4A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS9m17LBUoc


well i'm not to sure on where i'm going this my research but I was encouraged to look at colour organs because both objects dealt with light and sound. I was also encouraged to check out machines that were out of control because controlling spi-dog seemed to be imposable. one book that i'm looking into is by kevin kelly "out of control: the new biology of the machine.


Alexander Rimington Colour Organ


Through my research on colour organs I ran across professor Alexander Wallace Rimington. Rimington studied at the Royal Academy and Royal Society of British Arts. Through Rimintons studies he became interested in photography and music, these interests would later lead him to believe that sound and colour were similar in respects to vibrations and that by bringing both mediums together an individual would be able to comprehend the composers true intentions.

Through his understanding of colour and music, Rimington would develop the Colour Organ. The Colour Organ was a piece of equipment that projected hues onto a screen as well as sound. To do this Rimington developed a lens and filter system that connected to the keyboard keys, in addition to this the swell pedal was used to vary the intensity of the hues projected on the screen. The colour organ varied in size in some cases it consisted of five different keyboards and was ten feet high.

Due to the capabilities of the colour organ Sarah Tooley wrote that the Colour Organ would “flood the most prosaically dull room in London’s murky atmosphere with vibrating rainbow hues whish will bring music to the soul of those cultivated to receive these impressions”.


Unfortunately the development of the Colour Organ would later be halted as World War One began.

Professor Alexander Rimington











“Colour Music Lights.” Strand Electric. Jan 1991.