Well, our workshop was super successful if you don’t count the lack of students. We only had one signup and he didn’t show for the actual event. We ended up playing with the nitinol a bit and talking to Paola about how to adapt it for kids. Here are some images from what we made:
Here are the videos:
The purpose of my Soft Circuits final was to create an artificial Neural Network. The circuit method I planed to use one wired in parallel. The Neural Network was to send an electrical pulse to the next neuron; or rather the chain of LED’s will light when connected to the next Neuron. The basis of this idea comes from the fact that our brain only knows the patterns sent to us via our five senses. All of our perceptions and knowledge about the world is built from these patterns.
At the start I really wanted to wire tri color LEDs to the top, mid, and bottom of the Neurons; and based on the way one closes the circuit the color and pattern of flashing lights would change. But alas, while trying to solder a connection to the Red, Blue and Green (3 positive leads and 1 ground) I melted more LEDs, then I care to mention, and if that wasn’t bad enough I could always get all 3 colors working on each LED. So eventually I changed my strategy to soldering a connection to the Red only thus forwarding my ability to have a creation. Also not being very familiar with Arduino I wasn’t able to code for multiple light pattern interactions, but just had various blinking across the whole neural connection.
From this experience I have learned far more about circuits, connectivity and physical computing then I did ever know before. Although I am a real newbie and all of these learning experiences were strange and unfamiliar I am very glad to have participated in them. I am now aware of possibilities never before revealed to me.
GUANG (Light) is an interactive wall installation that seeks to communicate different spaces, more specifically, the outside with the inside. Its goal is to help bring nature indoors, into our homes. With the use of pure white lights, the back panel lights up constantly luring the user into the space. Once standing on a pressure sensor placed under feet silhouette, a “rain of lights” surrounds the individual with beautiful organic shapes from nature.
After a few snags in materials and construction, Paola offered us a fantastic solution. She suggested placing fabric around the boxed structure and focus on using the materials that we know work (i.e. the elastic), instead of forcing the materials we considered more aesthetically in line with our concept. As mentioned in a previous post, the elastic works much better in getting a dynamic range from the painted on liquid graphite; the other materials, such as spandex and jersey, ended up breaking the connection too much after a few uses.
Below are the videos documenting our first working prototype for the final piece and a bit of user testing:
I made the back end more robust, using packing tape to secure all of my connections.
On the User end, I added a small green button that the use will press to light up the present!
Collab: Soft Circuits 
