Heather Rasley @ ITP

A more official and comprehensive description of our project, as described in the ITP Spring Show database (crossing fingers we’ll make it — steep competition this semester)…

Description
Cabinet 486 is an exploration of a make-believe alternate reality in which man has pushed the boundaries of nature to the extreme, overpowering the very fabric of time and space through science and research. But its aim isn’t purely political. In large part, this is a curatorial exercise in conveying another time and place in a way that appeals to all five sense. Included in this project are interactive “sound jars” that contain audio documentation of fictional otherworld experiments, sculptural representations of these experiments.

Keywords
art, performance, audio, sound, physical computing

Background
This project was inspired by “Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder” (a book about the Museum of Jurassic Technology), a presentation made by a member of the Institute of Applied Autonomy regarding his upcoming work exploring genetic engineering, the photography of Robert Parkeharrison, and the work of Mack B Gallery co-director Tobey Albright.

Audience
Anyone fascinated by mythology, genetics, alternate realities, and the stranger-than-fiction reality of our current world. Anyone at all, really. Young and old.

User Scenario
The user approaches the cabinet, marvels and ponders the objects therein, plays with and listens to the interactive sound objects, and, if interested, puts on headphones to listen to the audio for the video projected nearby.

Implementation
A large cabinet filled with objects that all cohere to the aesthetic of an alternate reality. These objects will describe and document experiments that genetically alter creatures and plants to create weapons for government use. Taxidermy, vintage photographs and jars that contain interactive sound elements are included in this collection of oddities.

The Cabinet 486 video is now in post-prod and should be done later today. In the meantime, here’s the first iteration of our logo, which was inspired by the emblem of the Bohemian Club. Click for a special treat.

I am collaborating with Mike Rosenthal on a project dubbed Cabinet 486. It is for both Designing for Constraints and Interactivity for All, as well as Mike’s fabrication class.

This project has a number of elements. One is a recorded performance, filmed by Mike and scripted and performed by me. This performance will play in a loop alongside our installation, with earphones for discrete, optional listening. Another element is a cabinet that Mike will fabricate using 2d-to-3d stacked laser cutting techniques. This will house a collection of objects that I am curating, with Mike’s assistance. The final element is a series of interactive audio units, which Mike and I will work together to create. These will contain MP3s of original compositions, which we also be a joint venture.

My ambiguity in describing this project is purposeful, as I’d like to keep much of the content a bit of a “surprise” — at least to the blogosphere.

The overall goal from the perspective of my classes is to constrain this work aesthetically to a specific vision of an alternate reality, as well as to create objects that are a pleasure to behold and interact with. If both confusion and curiosity are evoked by the final project, I will be satisfied.

Here is our current timeline:

• Week 10: Continue to gather objects [done!], order circuit-building materials from Sparkfun [done!], film video [this Fri]
• Week 11: Screen video and present first audio unit prototype to class(es). Order materials as needed for more units.
• Week 12: Continue prototyping and user testing on audio units. Assemble cabinet and organize objects within.
• Week 13: Finishing touches.

PIXEL MARATHON GAME CONTROLLER

1) What are the three big problems that you expect to have during the production? How will they affect your timeline schedule? How do you intend on solving them up-front? Communication difficulties / time zone issues. Already held back a week or so. Solution at this point may be to pursue it outside of class…

2) Which hardware does your project require? Do you have it all at hand? If not, complete an order of the equipment by next class.
On hold. Can’t get a feel for the parts I need until I have the game in hand.

3) Provide a timeline of milestones to be acomplish each week, on these dates:

April 1: :-/
April 15: Game working and installed on my comp
April 29: Parts ordered

CABINET 486

1) What are the three big problems that you expect to have during the production? How will they affect your timeline schedule? How do you intend on solving them up-front? I think right now our only problem is solidifying our vision and forming a narrative framework for it. We also have a lot of materials to order that can only be purchased through Ebay, which is always sort of a challenge. Only solution is to keep on trucking. Think we’re doing well so far.

2) Which hardware does your project require? Do you have it all at hand? If not, complete an order of the equipment by next class.
Mike is largely in charge of ordering the circuit stuff. Aside from that, the other parts are rare items like skulls and eggs and old photos and books. A lot of that is on its way.

3) Provide a timeline of milestones to be acomplish each week, on these dates:

April 1 : Materials purchased. Narrative close to solidified. Display sketch drawn up.
April 15: Start crafting taxidermy, future “product” objects and sound jars + solidify narrative framework
April 29: Prototype 1

What is your biggest weakness in the design process?

Because I’m not completely comfortable with any software / programming environments or with any hardware, I tend to stay in the realm of the conceptual for as long as I can. I am much more comfortable thinking and writing than I am actually building. I justify this to myself by saying that when I do finally build, my concept will be solid. But often I get to the building part far too late, and end up with an incomplete or subpar project.

What kind of project/process could help you solve these problems? Describe in detail what you hope to achieve through this project, and the steps that you think are necessary for you to take in order to succeed.

Sticking to one project and creating a set of small deadlines for it will help immensely. Also, collaborating with someone will help give me the support I need to push through to the building part. I think the way Flo and I have set up the game controller project (see here for description) has the potential to get rid of the issues I’ve been hindered by so far this semester.

Through this project, I hope to achieve a better understanding of the time it takes to craft something by hand. Good design has to be a part of the building process for me. Not just in this class, but in anything tangible that I create. That’s not always seen as part of the process at ITP. I don’t yet have a good idea of how long it takes to pick out materials (that are both practical and beautiful), create a prototype, test, rebuild, etc… As a former editor who’s used to thinking in deadlines, it’s really frustrating for me not to have that knowledge. This knowledge can really only be gained by creating several prototypes, which I plan to do for this project.

I also want to have a clear understanding of how to create an object/function with very logical user interaction. This is particularly key for a video game, where latency and poor logic become painstakingly clear and frustrating for the user. My hope is that the end product of this project will have a fun and intuitive user interaction that will make people want to play it more. I’m sure this will take many iterations where that’s not the case, and I’m up for the challenge.

I’m collaborating with developer/game designer/ nice guy Florian Hufsky via telecomm from Vienna for my Designing for Constraints final.

Initially, the goal of the project was to design a controller to work with his pre-existing Puit Wars game. It has since become a mutually collaborative project to develop a new version of Puit Wars that centers around a marathon, and a controller to accompany it.

Here’s the graphic mockup:

More to come…

I’ve combined my Dynamic Web Development midterm with my final for Marisa Olson’s Sousveillance Culture class.

This project, titled Tell Me All About Me, is an exploration of online identity.

How does the information I self-publish combine to create a kind of biography? How does that information relate to the person I consider to be “me”? Am I successful in my own attempts to manipulate my personality online? What is over-represented? What is missing?

It’s my hope that by inviting anonymous users to submit info about me, and then sifting through these submissions, I can come close to answering some of these questions.

I’ve launched a very-alpha version of the interface and would appreciate your help testing it @ Tell Me All About Me.

There’s no tracking built into this, so feel free to be honest.

Here are some places to start digging up dirt:
Google results
Heather-Rasley.com
Vimeo
Flickr
Soup
Medicine Films
Facebook

Puit Wars controller

(work in progress)

Controlling friend Florian Hufsky’s Puit Wars game through a modular switch system (also used for M/W ON/OFF).

Tentative model: Walk your fingers left for left, walk right for right, jump back to shoot.

M/W ON/OFF

(work in progress)

Hidden switches trigger Flash animations of adjectives beginning with the letter M or W, depending on which way the letter is flipped.

I’ve published the first step of the interaction process for my Cardboard Canon: menu on.

A simulation of this interaction can be viewed here.

To come: sliders scrolling through menu, select button action, top view of switch and knob actions.