Still the same idea, but more simplified. A large interactive paper fan.
You know, it's easy to let an idea fester in your mind when there is no tangible concept being created. I've been hunting the eBay pages for good servos. I found one that I wanted to try that looks promising. I did some light math on the torque and found it could lift about 3-4 iphones at about my arms length. I was just using my work test devices at the time. So, I could work with that ballpark range and scale down the size if I need to or choose a lighter material. If only this guy wasn't so snobby about the price. I tried to offer a reasonable $30 because it is pretty used and the wire is a little exposed. Yet, he only dropped it down to $45. Granted the servo retails for $100 new. Half the battle is getting a good price. It's in my blood (thanks mom). Anyway, while I go back and forth with this guy on eBay, back to my final project idea/design.
When I originally came up with this idea it was quite complex. Multiple fans, lights, arrangements and even fiber optic cables. You know, I don't even need the fiber optic cables anymore but now I have a spool hidden in the dark corners of my cramped locker. Along with my prototype and paints.
After discussing my idea with plenty of students and staff I decided I wanted to do simple well. One fan, my "biggest fan" I like to call it. And I want the movements to be precise and articulate (hence hunting for a discounted higher-end servo). Servo city still hasn't gotten back to me on my educational discount request but after seeing some servo mishap during the midterm I think a frame to take the load off the actual servo would be a worth while investment.
As for the size, of course I'd like it to be big and elegant to make an impact. However, I'll only be able to test the real world capabilities once I get the servo driving it. I might cave in the next week and buy one of the used ones for $45 dollars. It's kind of essential to the mechanics of the whole thing. Having the servo as my limiter will give me a design constraint which I think will help tame my appetite for a huge installation.
I want the final to be a truly finalized form of my concept. While yes I would love to make a 50 foot fan do the same thing, if I can have a spot on representation of it in a scaled down form perform extremely well, I'd be happy. I decided to toss out the idea of having too many things going on and the potential for it to look more like a prototype than a conceptual build.
I already have a little interface shell built on p5. Now I have to also focus on that. I've been using my ICM assignments to help me formulate an idea for that portion.
The last bit is the actual human interaction. Which I've still to decide on. But the way I look at it is. If I can build both the digital side and the hardware side. While I test it out in a real world scenario, I'll find the right input idea to really bring out what I feel. I've already used various input devices for other projects, so all I gotta do is pick one that I like.
All in all, I'm confident, just a little tired and worn. As we all are.
10.31.2018
10.30.2018
A reintroduction into music
There is always a sense of time travel when I go back into my old music logs. It reminds me of a time and place that is no longer present to me, just a fading memory. Like how light dims as the power drains, so do the images in my brain.
Speaking of old times here is a song I recorded in my old apartment while I had a couple beers. It was by far the most creative my lyrics have been to date. And I'm proud to say they weren't all sad stories about how I was staring at the ceiling one day thinking about heartbreak or something equally upsetting:
Anyway, looking for sound inspiration. I think I fried my brain a little last weekend with thoughts of a normal quiet life by a pond of koi fish. Maybe it was the image of temperatures hitting the lower 70s, sun on my face and the breeze blowing over my shaven head. Tantalizing.
This Monday proved difficult as I started my animation class and felt the burden of my workload just exponentially increase. Ha yea, let's do paper cut-outs. Which, I hope I don't end up doing the bulk of. I'll keep that part out of my animation post.
So back to p5 and finding inspiration. I thought I could build off the fan concept that I first started when I had this confident Epiphany of this beautifully elegant fan that would open like like a flower blossoming on adrenaline. I still dream about it but I feel tired everyday thinking about it and just want to dive in. Am I putting too much thought on trying to make these assignments relevant to me? Maybe I should just learn a small function and, you know, if I run into a project where I have to use some of these skills I'll be like, "I kinda know that shit..." and then go to "maybe I should research it more". I think that's how I'll truly learn the material, when there is a bit more passion behind it.
So here I am trying to find passionate portals of my past life in recordings of old music that I made in either my bedroom in Jersey with my parents outside probably thinking "he should be practicing computer science and become a wealthy programmer so we don't have to worry about bailing him out of debt when we are too old. Least that's what my self-confidence told me.
I feel like typing these keys is like dancing on those colored arrows on Dance Dance Revolution. I was never good at that arcade game. Well, I was good at the finger one using the keyboard arrows, because let's be real, pressing four keys on a keyboard is far easier than moving your feet in this weird pattern that only robots walk like. Am I some kind of robot? No, I am a sleep deprived grad student with a job he doesn't quite want to be in but he has to because life is expensive and I like to eat food.
But enough with my sad blabber into the wind. I want to make a visualizer to my music. But there is already so much code available to make a visualizer. I could copy it and change a few variable names and it would be mine. Isn't that what we are suppose to do? Or do we have to make things unreasonably difficult to come up with a lackluster result. I tried making my nice little fan arc interface react to the music. Which, I got it to work but it somehow changed how the arc reacted. I'm not complaining, it looks pretty cool for being so simple. However, I couldn't progress any farther than that. What if I wanted to add another layer? Like...mids? Highs? All the other elements to sound that would add more tantalizing visual effects like a digital LSD trip.
I'm going to digress again for a moment and say that a lot of the younger IMA students like to say the word "trippy". I found this was common with one of my friends younger sisters who is slightly older than these new undergrads. Is trippy a juvenile way of saying something they cannot comprehend? I don't use that word anymore...I mean I did, when I was 18. I think? But I wouldn't remember when I dropped that phrase. I dated a woman then who liked to use the word groovy. So I tried to bring "far out" back. But I digress. I went to Ithaca. That should explain a lot to whoever is familiar with that area.
After taking Visual Language I have a lot of gripes with this blogger format. It makes me feel dated, but I like to keep the Intergalactic Shoe Store alive with my late night rants and the potential for some great project ideas in this one weird slightly damp area of the internet.
View my Sketch
Speaking of old times here is a song I recorded in my old apartment while I had a couple beers. It was by far the most creative my lyrics have been to date. And I'm proud to say they weren't all sad stories about how I was staring at the ceiling one day thinking about heartbreak or something equally upsetting:
Anyway, looking for sound inspiration. I think I fried my brain a little last weekend with thoughts of a normal quiet life by a pond of koi fish. Maybe it was the image of temperatures hitting the lower 70s, sun on my face and the breeze blowing over my shaven head. Tantalizing.
This Monday proved difficult as I started my animation class and felt the burden of my workload just exponentially increase. Ha yea, let's do paper cut-outs. Which, I hope I don't end up doing the bulk of. I'll keep that part out of my animation post.
So back to p5 and finding inspiration. I thought I could build off the fan concept that I first started when I had this confident Epiphany of this beautifully elegant fan that would open like like a flower blossoming on adrenaline. I still dream about it but I feel tired everyday thinking about it and just want to dive in. Am I putting too much thought on trying to make these assignments relevant to me? Maybe I should just learn a small function and, you know, if I run into a project where I have to use some of these skills I'll be like, "I kinda know that shit..." and then go to "maybe I should research it more". I think that's how I'll truly learn the material, when there is a bit more passion behind it.
So here I am trying to find passionate portals of my past life in recordings of old music that I made in either my bedroom in Jersey with my parents outside probably thinking "he should be practicing computer science and become a wealthy programmer so we don't have to worry about bailing him out of debt when we are too old. Least that's what my self-confidence told me.
I feel like typing these keys is like dancing on those colored arrows on Dance Dance Revolution. I was never good at that arcade game. Well, I was good at the finger one using the keyboard arrows, because let's be real, pressing four keys on a keyboard is far easier than moving your feet in this weird pattern that only robots walk like. Am I some kind of robot? No, I am a sleep deprived grad student with a job he doesn't quite want to be in but he has to because life is expensive and I like to eat food.
But enough with my sad blabber into the wind. I want to make a visualizer to my music. But there is already so much code available to make a visualizer. I could copy it and change a few variable names and it would be mine. Isn't that what we are suppose to do? Or do we have to make things unreasonably difficult to come up with a lackluster result. I tried making my nice little fan arc interface react to the music. Which, I got it to work but it somehow changed how the arc reacted. I'm not complaining, it looks pretty cool for being so simple. However, I couldn't progress any farther than that. What if I wanted to add another layer? Like...mids? Highs? All the other elements to sound that would add more tantalizing visual effects like a digital LSD trip.
I'm going to digress again for a moment and say that a lot of the younger IMA students like to say the word "trippy". I found this was common with one of my friends younger sisters who is slightly older than these new undergrads. Is trippy a juvenile way of saying something they cannot comprehend? I don't use that word anymore...I mean I did, when I was 18. I think? But I wouldn't remember when I dropped that phrase. I dated a woman then who liked to use the word groovy. So I tried to bring "far out" back. But I digress. I went to Ithaca. That should explain a lot to whoever is familiar with that area.
After taking Visual Language I have a lot of gripes with this blogger format. It makes me feel dated, but I like to keep the Intergalactic Shoe Store alive with my late night rants and the potential for some great project ideas in this one weird slightly damp area of the internet.
View my Sketch
10.17.2018
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