P7 LED

The design for the new This Belongs To object is still a little way off – since the beginning of the residency I have discovered that it will not be possible to construct it as simply as I had initially imagined and I am currently in the process of trialling the use of a P7 ‘super bright’ LED which should allow for a much stronger projection but will require a larger physical housing than anticipated to accommodate a heatsink. Tests with LEDs and the existing incarnation of the project, lasercut cards, established that proximity to the light source was also potentially problematic in achieving appropriate focus; as a consequence, one or more lenses may also need to be included in the design. I am currently waiting to gain access to the engineering labs at MMU (where I am studying an MA in 3D Design) and when it is possible to run some trials in that facility I will be able to establish the correct resistance and battery needed to run the circuit as well as the configuration of any lenses.

The development of interactive projections has been successful and I am excited to be participating in Blacked Out, a group show in London, with the outcomes of these in August. Using Arduino hardware and Processing code I have been able to generate a projected image which changes with respect to varying light levels as input to the program from an analogue light sensor through the serial monitor. I have currently got this functioning with three thresholds and static images, however I am hoping to include video and sound soon. Blacked Out runs from the 21^st – 28^th August at Arch 897, Holyrood Street, London.

The opportunity to share these developments through the TINT Arts Lab has been an interesting experience. With a large degree of risk taking in this project it has not always been easy to make public what have felt like slow and inconsequential steps, however the pressure to do just this has lent discipline to the work and been beneficial to personal motivation which can be difficult to maintain when one is not entirely sure of the next step. It has also been useful to have the opportunity to test out ideas within a wider circle of practitioners who do not have any previous knowledge of my work; I have encountered alternative contextual references that I would not otherwise necessarily have been aware of and I have received several suggestions which may yet directly influence future developments. These are recorded in a mind map which combines suggestions made during the residency with a few ideas generated as a result of background research. Though I have found the experience to be a positive and supporting one, I would note that more consistent discussion would have been appreciated as the density of comments from the critics tailed off toward the end and it was surprising that there was not more interaction between participants (something I am of course equally implicated in!). I wonder if future seasons might include the use of live chat sessions to better facilitate more exchanges or at least a more structured requirement for timing of posts and comments. Despite these observations I am sorry to be at the end of the season and would certainly consider participating in future Lab sessions and shall continue to post developments on my own site at www.glittermouse.co.uk. I very much look forward to seeing all the outcomes at what promises to be a high quality exhibition in October and should like to take this opportunity to extend my gratitude to all those who have facilitated the Lab and posted comments for their interest and support.

As the methods of making (electronics/programming languages)  all pretty much entirely unknown territory for me these developments are unfolding slowly. Thankfully as I am studying an MA in 3D Design at MMU I have access to a lot of expertise, workshops and support, however it’s taking some time to consolidate all these inputs from various places. I’ll summarise the latest news for each of these strands separately:

–This Belongs To (Object)

Since speaking with members of the engineering department at  MMU I have manged at least to work out an appropriate LED to run tests with. I made some initial tests with the existing Belongs To cards and a couple of different basic LED circuits after having found a really simple LED keyring/torch which led me to believe it would be super-simple to make. Unfortunately, what I didn’t take into account was the difference between emitting light, which in and of itself is quite straight forward, and projecting an image (text in this case but must still be focused enough to be legible). I found that the distance between the light source and the card needed to be much further than I had previously anticipated which has completely changed the likely physical realisation of the object. I’ve since ordered a ’super’ LED, a P7, often used in camping torches or emergency signs – it can get to 700 lumens (and yes, this is all totally new to me but apparently that’s pretty bright) which means I should need only one instead of a series of standard dimmer ones. This should arrive next week and I can then work with the technicians to work out appropriate resistance and a battery for the circuit. When that has been established, I will work in the optics lab to determine the distances needed to have a focused image and whether or not it will be necessary to use any lenses (something I hadn’t thought about at all!). When that is decided it will be possible to design the housing for the unit which I plan to model digitally and produce using rapid prototyping techniques, but that’s a little way off yet I think. As it’s summer at the Uni, these developmental stages are not going to happen very fast unfortunately but I’m confident that they will happen, which is probably the important thing. Much as I’m starting to feel that I entered this project with a very naive expectation of what was required, I’m certainly on a huge and exciting learning curve!

– Installations (Environment)

I had previously worked on an interactive projection which used a light sensor to display different images based on an analogue input reading which assumed whether or not a shadow was being cast on the sensor by someone standing in front of it. This was fairly basic and I am now working on developing this further to include events at difference thresholds. I have managed to adjust the code now to include three images. You can see a video of that and view the code here. There is a potential exhibition opportunity in London in September for this work so I’m keen to continue moving this forward. Eventually I would hope that the Belongs To object could be used not only in the streets but also to interact with these installed environments, which could perhaps in time also move out into city spaces more directly.

Still from film demonstrating light sensor development

In terms of concept, I’ve now finished reading Ground Control by Anna Minton which looks at political trends in urban planning and other legislation to discuss the impacts of our changing uses of public space. A lot of her case studies are based in or around Manchester so I’ve got a few more ideas of where I might expand on some primary source research – hard to know how deep to get into some of that though. I’ve picked up a copy of Real England by Paul Kingsnorth now – similar issues but approached from a more local perspective it seems.

Dissected LED keyring

The physical development seems to be slotting itself into two distinct strands at the moment, interactive installation and This Belongs To object development. However, with no real experience in either of these kinds of projects, the technical research is taking longer than might be expected. I’ve picked up a cheap LED keyring/torch which I’m now essentially trying to reverse engineer; it’ll be easy enough but I need to work out how to produce the components. Rapid Prototyping is a possibility; I need to get into the university engineering department to find out more and fear I shall have to learn yet another new programme. I can use AutoDesk Maya but I’m pretty sure the prototyping kit will use something else.

Processing Code Drawing

On the plus side, I’ve got my head round Processing a bit more this week, following a workshop at Madlab (Manchester) where I managed to draw… a house.This feels painfully basic but I guess you have to start somewhere and I need to learn the basics if I’m going to work out how to bring audio/video into the installation with the light sensor. Again, I’ve no experience of coding so it really is starting from scratch. The plan for next week is to run some tests with LEDs and the existing Belongs To cards to get an idea of how many LEDs I might need to cast an effective shadow and then attempt drawing up a more specific diagram for the design. When I have that in place I can hopefully start looking in to the making. I’m working with a lot of unknown quantities at the moment so any suggestions (especially practical ones) are highly welcomed!

Here’s the code used to make the image above:

/* House

First attempt at Processing sketch made during workshop run by Evan Raskob of Openlab Workshops

Probably full of really bad practice, but hey I’m learning…

*/

void setup()
{// Make window size 600 px by 500px.
size(600,500);
// Change window background colour.
background(17,234,203);
//change fill colour and stroke of rectangle = grass.
fill(10,88,9);
stroke(10,88,9);
rect(0,300, 600,300);
}

void draw()

{
ellipseMode(CENTER);
//——–house and clouds————
//change outline colour of rectangle – house
stroke(77,2,2);
//make outline thicker
strokeWeight(5);
//change fill colour of rectangle
fill(77,2,2);
//draw a recangle 10 px from the top, 10 px from left, 30 by 20 px in dimension.
rect(150,150, 300,200);

//roof
fill(23,227,21);
stroke(139,7,11);
//make outline thicker
strokeWeight(5);
//change fill colour of triangle
fill(139,7,11);
triangle(150,150, 450,150, 300,60);

//windows
fill(24,108,92);
stroke(160,160,160);
rect(175,175, 90,70);
rect(345,175, 90,70);
fill(7,57,47);
rect(345,265, 90,70);
rect(175,265, 90,70);
line(220,175, 220,245);
line(387,175, 387,245);
line(220,265, 220,335);
line(387,265, 387,335);
line(175,215, 265,215);
line(345,215, 436,215);
line(175,300, 265,300);
line(345,300, 436,300);
//door
fill(44,1,1);
rect(290,275, 30,70);

//sun and clouds
fill(255,196,0);
noStroke();
ellipse(56, 46, 55, 55);
fill(204,249,252);
noStroke();
ellipse(150, 50, 200, 65);
ellipse(150, 85, 100, 35);
ellipse(250, 50, 50, 20);
ellipse(75, 75, 50, 20);
ellipse(175, 20, 100, 35);
//attempt to copy and resize clouds to a different part of the image.
int cloudMoveX = 400;
int cloudMoveY = 100;
int cloudShrinkX = -50;
int cloudShinkY = -15;

fill(204,249,252);
noStroke();
ellipse(150+cloudMoveX, 50+cloudMoveY, 200+cloudShrinkX, 65+cloudShinkY);
ellipse(150+cloudMoveX, 85+cloudMoveY, 100+cloudShrinkX, 35+cloudShinkY);
ellipse(250+cloudMoveX, 50+cloudMoveY, 50+cloudShrinkX, 20+cloudShinkY);
ellipse(75+cloudMoveX, 75+cloudMoveY, 50+cloudShrinkX, 20+cloudShinkY);
ellipse(175+cloudMoveX, 20+cloudMoveY, 100+cloudShrinkX, 35+cloudShinkY);

//step and path.
fill(70,27,7);
quad(290,345, 320,345, 400,600, 200,600);
fill(44,17,5);
rect(280,345, 50,10);

// draw flowers.
drawFlower(190,400);
drawFlower(380,390);
drawFlower(50,450);
drawFlowersmall(45, 350);
drawFlowersmall(500, 430);

//saves a png in documents.
saveFrame(“House.png”);
}

//———flower

void drawFlower(int flowerX, int flowerY)
{
ellipseMode(CORNER);
fill(255,255,255);
stroke(172,160,193);
strokeWeight(1);
ellipse(flowerX+15,flowerY, 15,15);
ellipse(flowerX+12,flowerY+5, 15,15);
ellipse(flowerX+5,flowerY+5, 15,15);
ellipse(flowerX,flowerY-5, 15,15);
ellipse(flowerX+10,flowerY-10, 15,15);
ellipse(flowerX+10,flowerY-5, 15,15);
ellipse(flowerX+15,flowerY-5, 15,15);
ellipse(flowerX,flowerY-5, 15,15);
fill(250,238,10);
ellipse(flowerX+10,flowerY, 10,10);

}

// attempt to resize and re draw flowers in different places
void drawFlowersmall(int flowerX, int flowerY)
{
ellipseMode(CORNER);
fill(255,255,255);
stroke(172,160,193);
strokeWeight(1);
ellipse(flowerX+15,flowerY, 10,10);
ellipse(flowerX+12,flowerY+5, 10,10);
ellipse(flowerX+5,flowerY+5, 10,10);
ellipse(flowerX,flowerY-5, 10,10);
ellipse(flowerX+10,flowerY-10, 10,10);
ellipse(flowerX+10,flowerY-5, 10,10);
ellipse(flowerX+15,flowerY-5, 10,10);
ellipse(flowerX,flowerY-5, 10,10);
fill(250,238,10);
ellipse(flowerX+10,flowerY, 7.5,7.5);

}

Arduino Test Videos

I’m not entirely sure yet exactly what the next stages will be but I’m quite keen to get the projection set up in a more considered environment. This is a bit of a tangent from the initial proposal but I’m really just exploring possibilities at the moment…

Alternative Party 2009; 2D Drawing Installation

Marking the Territory 2010; 3D Drawing Installation

Working as Glittermouse, I have recently developed a series of installations using multimedia to explore issues relating to the urban environment, especially those of public ownership. This has included live installations at club nights, a large scale contribution to Alternative Party; Art and Technology Exhibition in Helsinki in October 2009 and most recently a fully spatial solo installation titled Marking the Territory at The Link Gallery in Manchester during April 2010. This used multiple digital and analogue projections in creating an environmental response to issues of ownership in urban spaces and used traditional drawing techniques to interact with these projections on the surfaces of laser-etched objects. Sound also played an important role and real world samples came together with circuit bent homemade instruments by Ne7 (Andrew Lemon; Lemon Multimedia – featured in May Future Music Magazine) in an audio collaboration which further discussed city spaces.

Frequently taking a live format, the moment of interaction is an important focus in this work and using a range of research strategies it has been identified that environmental interactivity is an important element that allows us to feel ‘at home’ in our cities. For this reason, I am now looking at ways to include audiences directly in the work and have recently launched the public participation project This Belongs To in which contributors use light and shadows to temporarily claim spaces.

This Belongs To; Public Participation Project

Development

In order to develop these concepts I am now looking into including responsive technologies to produce environments or objects that move the work out of the gallery space and into the streets, allowing it to inhabit the same spaces it discusses. It is planned that these objects will allow users to interact with public spaces in a playful way while encouraging engagement with the issue of public ownership. The Project aim for the first season of the TINT Arts Lab is to research interactive technologies and produce physical test pieces to generate designs and trial objects towards a development outcome for This Belongs To that would be used to interact with and temporarily claim urban spaces.

Initial concept sketches for This Belongs To development

Initial Plan/Requirements:

• Concept development phase (mind maps/sketchbook work/responses to initial feedback)
• Production of a series of laser etching trials on acrylic
• Research into interactive electronics such as movement/light/pressure sensors
• Production of test objects
• Development of design for interactive object including possible prototype

Outcome:

Evidence of achieving the aim will be presented in the format of visual documentation of ideas generation (eg scans of mind map/sketchbook pages) and photo/video documentation of trials and test pieces followed by sketches, plans and possible prototypes for an interactive object. Ongoing written reflection/blogging will be maintained in addition to this and will focus on responding to feedback received through the lab process. I’m excited to have this opportunity of developing this work within a wider community of practitioners and look forward to responding to your thoughts!