Author: Nire

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There-Liminal Network Final Blog

 

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The final test was a success!

Everything went smoothly but I made 2 changes in the final play test.

I made the light source for the photosensors candles instead of lamps which have a more focused light emanation and add to the overall sensory experience.

I tested 4 waterproof speakers and none of them sounded good enough so I’m using speakers outside the box. Visually I couldn’t make it look good with the speaker submerged this time around.

Schematic & Diagram:

Configuration & Construction:

I made a light theremin with arduino, 2 photosensors and a switch. The analog readings of the sensors were serially communicated to P5.JS via p5 serial port app. I loaded whale sounds and video into p5 along with pitch & delay effects and red, green, blue color channels to overlay on the video. All of these components are controlled by the photosensors. Pitch on one side, delay on the other, red on the right, green on the left and blue on both.

The video was run through an overhead projector and I used Maptastic in p5 that allowed me to change the shape of the video so it fit squarely into the water basen.

The circuitry is all underneath in the white box. The 2 sensors are on the first bubbles on the right and left of the box.

The audio is running out to a blue tooth speaker.

I bought an acrylic box at Canal Plastics and lined the seams with a clear waterproof sealant to make sure it could hold water.

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Whale Theremin Update (still drafting post) 12.10.17

My original idea has been transformed a few times over the past few weeks but has retained the original concept as far as working with organic material, sound and triggers that don’t involve direct touch to be activated.

I worked on the circuitry and code for the Whale Theremin to get the sound and effects triggering with 2 photosensors and a button.  Once the basic code and circuitry were working, I shifted my focus to trying to get the Adafruit Capacitive Touch Shield working to trigger organic materials that are conductive such as a fruit or plant.

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For some reason this proved to be very buggy and I spent too much time trying to make it work, it would sporadically read the sensors, I caught it when it momentarily worked below.

I then decided to try to get this to work longer wouldn’t be a wise use of my time and I decided to order the Adafruit Capacitive Touch break out instead, which was relatively smooth to set up and start a reading from.

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I decided however that I really wanted to work with plants and midi, so it was more of a reading of the state of the plant’s microelectrical currents than just on and off.

I tried to model the galvonometer from MIDISprout’s circuitry. They have a more complex system that includes a potentiometer that effects specific parameters within MIDI and corresponding LED lights that I wasn’t interested in at this moment, my main objective was to show how plants electrically/energetically have reactions to touch / the environments around them and to have that translated into MIDI and then sound. http://support.midisprout.com/index.php?topic=8.0

At Tom Igoe’s advise, I attempted to replicate just the galvonometer aspect of the circuit and to make a more straightforward MIDI communication. I spent several days on this and was unable to get the galvonometer to work properly.  This is something I definitely want to revisit in the future and get to work.

I then chose to re-focus my attention onto the whale theremin coding and fabrication further and table both of the touch sensors until the theremin felt complete. There were a couple places that I had problems with my code and Jim, Chino and Mathura (*insert last names*) were very helpful in explaining certain hiccups in my code and/or offering help on how to execute certain functions successfully.  I expanded on the visuals in p5 including mapping the 3 color channels to the 2 light sensors. red is mapped to photosensor 1, green to photosensor 2 and blue to both of them. Leon (*insert last name*) helped me execute this properly.

FABRICATION & EXECUTION

There has been some challenges with the construction of the piece mainly since I chose to project on top of the water. Water is very heavy and obviously damaging around electronics. I envision this project to be at a larger scale projecting onto a larger body of water, but currently I’m using a 12 x 12 x 12 acrylic box for now. I’ve lined the seams with DAP Flexible Clear Sealant and have ordered a project box that will sit underneath the box where the arduino will be housed. The photosensors will be on either side of the box.

I found the best remedy for using photosensors and a light projection that requires a darker room is using 2 flashlights, also making the photosensor readings more accurate.

I might switch to distance sensors, as recommended by Tom, but my priorities now are getting the fabrication and execution running as smoothly as possible. I haven’t had that much difficulty with the photosensors because of the constraint function in the P5 code and the relative ease of calibrating according to the light level in a particular room as well.

AUDIO OUTs

I’ve done a lot of research with various waterproof speakers and have ordered 3 now, the smaller one works best so far but is not powerful enough for this amount of water. The most powerful one cuts out when it’s underwater for too long, so I have a 4th one on its way that is supposed to be very powerful and is aesthetically in line with the overall piece.

I figured out how to do a multi speaker out from a macbook and think I’d like to have an audio output inside the water and also outside the water for increased sonic immersion.

USER TESTING FEEDBACK & SPEAKER LOGISTICS

I had the plant present during user testing to see the feedback with it included and everyone suggested using the plant for another project. I’m still interested in triggering the plant through underwater sounds and vibrations but probably will not use whale sounds or imagery.

I was attempting to use my own projector for the playtesting but was unable to and the internet kept going out. For my ICM class in the afternoon I was able to successfully project the water onto the surface of a fish tank and have the theremin trigger the sounds and colors, unfortunately I don’t have documentation because i was making sure everything was running smoothly.

The main feedback I got was how to make the speaker could look good and not interfere with the whale projection, Fanchi suggested netting so it would look more aquatic and it wouldn’t muffle the sound. I purchased a white speaker, since I’ll be making the bottom of my box white for optimal projection, so it can blend in as much as possible. That speaker should be arriving tonight. Another Idea I have is to put a layer of white cotton material on top so the sound can go through but the projection still has a smooth white surface.  The speaker also needs to be weighted down so it stays at the bottom of the tank. I think I will be using rocks to do so.

THINGS LEFT TO DO:

  • wait for final fab materials to come in and make final construction: arduino box, lights for the photosensors, alternate waterproof speaker, netting for speaker,
  • include schematics
  • update blog further with work process
  • test out new speaker and multi speaker configuration
  • test water in box, make sure nothing is leaking
  • apply Maptastic to my p5 sketch so that it projects to the exact dimensions of water surface
  • test projection in new container with Maptastic applied

Alternate water holder if acrylic box doesn’t work:

This would need to be set up near the sink in the kitchen.

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Temporalia


<p><a href=”https://vimeo.com/245654112″>ORCHID LAVA 2a</a> from <a href=”https://vimeo.com/user2116950″>Nire</a&gt; on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a&gt;.</p>

 

I chose to work with some of the orchids that mimic animals, insects and people for this After Effects animation.  I’m fascinated and have a great amount of respect for plant medicine and wisdom and feel as though these orchids provide a cosmic joke and secret if we look closely enough. All people worldwide originally had a strong relationship with nature and knowledge of what plants can do for people, that we’re now greatly severed from.  One idea / theme I’m interested in exploring more is the relationship of death and the dead in the US.  It’s very taboo and I think causes a certain type of neurosis in the culture.  This animation is a baby creation story and a small narrative of how living beings are temporal and constantly surrounded by their mortality and frequently a few degrees from death more than we care to think about, yet the orchids (beings) are able to have fun despite this.

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Fabrication – enclosure

I chose to make a speaker enclosure that I will be using for PComp out of PVC. I cut small pieces of PVC tube on the miter saw to use as connectors between the curved pieces.

i will be attaching a mirrored acrylic base to it today.

The pipes at Home Depot were called 2″ but the opening is larger than that, so the Bluetooth speakers I bought fall right through, I’m going to purchase larger ones that can click in and out. For now I’m using bubble wrap and have the top pieces tilted up, which looks better aesthetically as well. I’m considering using mod podge and doing some sort of collage on it or try covering it in cement, i do also like it white, so thinking of somehow making it a glossy finish.

Im going to incorporate this into my pcomp final, where there will be two audio outputs, one will be inside a bowl of water – whose output is triggered by a theremin, that controls whale sounds, pitch and delay through p5js. A plant will be suspended in the middle of the water that has a biofeedback system that gets translated to MIDI and will be run through ableton. This pipe enclosure will be the output for the plant. There’s a place in the middle on top of the speakers, for an air plant.

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PComp ICM Final Update – Plant-Water/You Duet

For my final project I’m building off of the midterm project light theremin, having it now trigger whale sounds in p5, with the theremin affecting the pitch.

The theremin will trigger sound in p5 whose audio output is routed to a waterproof speaker that will be in a clear plastic bowl. There will be a plant suspended in the middle of the bowl with the roots inside the water – the plant will be connected to MIDISprout which uses electrodes to read micro-electrical shifts in the plant and then translates it to MIDI data. This will be connected ultimately to Ableton Live.
Touching the plant is usually the trigger for Midisprout’s change in notes but I’m going to have the audio from the theremin trigger the shifts,  because the water in the bowl will make various vibrations according to the pitch played.
For my midterm the audio traveling through the water created cymatic patterns that corresponded to the frequency – the hope is that the patterns will still form around the plant as well, but is not essential for this concept at this point.
This will enable the user to trigger a range of sound from p5 that could be used to duet with the plant since the plant will be generating sound from the vibrations of the MIDIsprout.
MiDISprout connected to Ableton:

Whale sounds and pitch:

Sketch:

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Whale Sound Example:

http://alpha.editor.p5js.org/Nire/sketches/ByCr4XKxz

The 2 light theremins would control the pitch and delay – currently corresponding to the bubble images.

The background of the sketch will be whale video footage whose speed will correspond with the pitch, that I’d like to project overhead onto the water.

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Week #3 – Laser Cutting – Nazca Light Mobile

I made an acrylic light mobile based off the ancient geoglyph land etchings in Peru called “Nazca”.

I did a test on the cardboard for one shape on the 75w printer, but regret not doing the whole actual size because I confused the sizing when I switched it over to the bedding size file. This cut off the ends of the 2 birds’ tails.

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I had the settings at 18″ acrylic but for some reason it took 4 passes to finally cut through.

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I did the base on the 50w machine and didn’t have any problems.

I tied the nazca line shapes to the top with clear fishing wire.

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ICM Final Proposal – Whale Song Sensory Integration

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For my ICM final, I’m collaborating with Jaqi Garcia, a teacher who works with children on the Autism spectrum and incorporates social emotional learning in her curriculum. We’re building on the “Whale Song” piece for children with sensory integration challenges, referred to by some as “Sensory Processing Disorder”.  SPD is a condition where multi-sensory integration is not adequately processed in order to provide appropriate responses to the demands of an environment. This effects some people on the autism spectrum, but also includes neurologically “typical” children/adults that have mild multi-sensory integration challenges.

Processing systems work differently for every individual, we all have 1 or 2 senses that are more acute than others.

Occupational therapists find ways to anchor children with SPD using sensory stimulation that is right for the individual, working with tools such as weighted blankets, LED blankets or trampolines.

Various sensory systems include tactile, auditory, visual and proprioception, which is the sense of your gravitational center.

We would like to sync the Whale sounds and visuals with a gel pad with a magnetic that children can push around, triggering the effects on the sound.

 

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This might seem that it would overwhelm a child with sensory sensitivities but it actually  syncs the multi-sensory input (sonic, tactile and visual) in a way that is cohesive and the child has control over.  This increases the communication between the processing systems, helping with integration and regulation of their nervous system.

Constructive cause and effect activities anchor all children.  The tactile, auditory, visual interactivity of the “Whale Song” can also help children with attention challenges as well.

I’m going to expand on the current Whale Song:

http://alpha.editor.p5js.org/Nire/sketches/H1MHZFD0Z

and animate the whale and bubbles so they look more apart of the environment. I’ll map the bubbles to the marbles within the gel pad with sensors.

Uses: in home, therapeutic environments, classrooms, any place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Final Project Proposal

I’d like to continue to work with sound and organic or “organic-like” material such as magnetic putty that moves in animated way. I’ve been exploring ways to expand on the Cymatics midterm. I’m interested in possibly incorporating wearables in some way and plant sensors to triggers sounds.

 

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Ferrofluid and magnets

 

Magnetic Putty

Plant Triggers

Cymatics