Posted: August 27th, 2010 | Author: Scott | Filed under: Professional Portfolio, Uni Journal | 2 Comments »
This is what 200 x 1g packets of silica gel looks like.
It’s been painfully clear over the past couple of weeks that I need to start testing the physical side of my project. Although I’ve been spending quite a lot of time banging my head against the wall with Max/MSP/Jitter coding, it will all be for nothing if I’m not prepared for whatever the physical input may be.
The sprawling nature of my work has also led me to take stock of exactly how much time I have left this semester, and just what I’m capable of outputting over the remaining weeks. In short, I had my biannual freak out and have changed tack for this project. The biggest change comes in the form of moving away from architectural projection and using the surface of the interface as a projection area.
Read the rest of this entry »
| 
2 Comments »
Posted: August 27th, 2010 | Author: Scott | Filed under: Electronic Technologies, Uni Journal | 1 Comment »
A completed infrared LED kit.
Just a quick catchup on this subject, as it leads into posts I’m about to put up about my major project… I grabbed an infrared LED electronics kit a couple of weeks back from Jaycar. The assembly was surprisingly easy – considering my soldering experience amounts to about 30 whole minutes – but my lack of knowledge fell down when I realised that I couldn’t get power into the circuit board.
Fortunately, there’s a unit (I’m not even going to pretend I know what it’s called) at uni, which can send varying volts and amps into pretty much anything. This trusty box told me that I needed to get around 12V or so at 300mA pumping through those invisible diodes, to get it going. Back to Jaycar.
Read the rest of this entry »
| 1 Comment »
Posted: August 12th, 2010 | Author: Scott | Filed under: Electronic Technologies, Uni Journal | 1 Comment »
Unlike Professional Portfolio, I won’t be keep a weekly journal for this subject – only occasional updates where necessary. Electronic Technologies is a class I’ve taken to support my major work in Professional Portfolio: somewhere I can learn not to electrocute myself as I build the hardware component to my work.
As the diagram above shows, I’ll be mostly working with sensors in Arduino, to pass information to the patches I’ve been building in Max/MSP/Jitter. I’ll also create an infrared floodlight to work in combination with my PS3 Eye camera, giving me the ability to track in low-light conditions.
Read the rest of this entry »
| 1 Comment »
Posted: August 8th, 2010 | Author: Scott | Filed under: Professional Portfolio, Uni Journal | No Comments »
Blob-tracking in my Max/MSP/Jitter patch.
I began work on motion tracking in Max/MSP/Jitter this week, by way of blob detection. Using the PS3 Eye that I replaced the light filter on last semester, the plan is to use it to track how much light is passing through a translucent table top, giving an impression of how much interaction is taking place.
Blob detection is common practice for camera-based-interaction and there are quite a few methods out there, depending on what your software of choice may be. For this project, I’m using some of the OpenCV objects for Max/MSP/Jitter created by Jean-Marc Pelletier. These provide much of the functionality of OpenCV, without needing to get your hands too dirty with code.
Read the rest of this entry »
| No Comments »
Posted: August 3rd, 2010 | Author: Scott | Filed under: Professional Portfolio, Uni Journal | 1 Comment »
A new mockup design for my major project. That’s dirt on the table, not
Mr. Hankey.
After presenting last week‘s work in class, I received some valuable criticism on the direction of my work. Not levelled at the function or technology of my project, but the content I’m choosing to present. It was suggested that rather than focus on the exhibition inside of CarriageWorks, I look at the history of the building and area around CarriageWorks, from a long-term perspective.
This idea of ‘long-term’ was suggested through the lens of archaeology, or chronology, which started me thinking about how the audience might interact with my work. Removal of the interface is something I was initially very keen on, but the thought of someone ‘digging’ through the history of an area definitely has it’s own appeal.
Read the rest of this entry »
| 1 Comment »
Posted: July 27th, 2010 | Author: Scott | Filed under: Professional Portfolio, Uni Journal | 1 Comment »
Thankfully, my MacBook stopped short of this. Image:
9to5MacIt happens to everyone at some point: your computer will die. Depending on which way you look at it, I have been through this experience before and fortunately now keep a thorough backup of all my work on an external hard drive (I’ve even been considering off-site backup of late).
Unlike my last exploding computer, via God smiting me with a lighting strike (seriously), my MacBook took a more subdued approach and quietly refused to turn on one morning. I knew right away that it wasn’t one of those problems that would sort itself out after a few well directed whacks to the unit, so I booked it in at the Apple store and took it in that same day. It took all of 20 seconds for the tech at the store to inform me that the logic board had failed and they will replace it.
Read the rest of this entry »
| 1 Comment »
Posted: June 4th, 2010 | Author: Scott | Filed under: Digital Theory & Aesthetics, Uni Journal | No Comments »
End of an era. Last Digital Theory & Aesthetics assessment, last assessment for the semester and the last essay I’ll do as an undergraduate. It’s a shame the word limit was so small, I could’ve ranted for pages. Maybe not worthy rant, but extensive nonetheless.
Taking the interactive works of Osmose (1995) and You Were In My Dream (2010), I compared them to each other and attempted to express how they provided the viewer with immersion and ultimately freedom – something of a Holy Grail for interactive art. Of course, both fall short of absolute freedom. No computer program has ever come close. However, both use wildly different approaches to allow the viewer to interact with them, and it’s interesting to look at them in the context of what the user has been allowed to do.
Without any further ado, here’s my essay and a small wave goodbye to my second last semester.
| No Comments »
Posted: May 31st, 2010 | Author: Scott | Filed under: Digital Studio, Uni Journal | No Comments »
A portfolio page. Should look familiar to anyone who reads this blog.
This is the wrap up. Well, normally it would be, but Digital Studio is just the first half of what is essentially a year-long subject. So instead of presenting something complete, this is where I’ll consolidate my work from this semester (it’s being presented in portfolio-form for class, but there’s nothing there that I haven’t already posted on this blog).
The interactive, projection work – which I have given the working title of All Is Domain – is on track to be completed for the November COFA exhibition. Currently at the stage of small-scale model testing, both the software and hardware technologies I have been exploring (Max/MSP, Quartz Composer, Ableton Live, infrared camera tracking and DMX lighting) are showing promise of working well for this piece.
Read the rest of this entry »
| No Comments »
