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December 24, 2005
My thoughts of the Winter Show 2005
The show in the whole was a big success. The projects were sparsely placed so as to give enough walk-through space.
My personal favorites were Jeff Gray’s, Michael Horan’s and Tristan’s. Tristan’s and Jeff’s were more of kinetic objects, without the user’s interaction, yet it was beautifully presented and the parts moved elegantly.
Tristan’s reaction to his Pixel by Pixel class was that everything was programmed in rows (power) and columns (ground) as a matrix system. His reaction to it was to create a matrix of buttons that would click up and down according to his code. The movement seemed random but the sound effects and the visual was ever so elegantly presented. The movement was also very fast that added to the overall effect.
Jeff Gray’s "Death of Sound" played on the idea of sounds/ tone that would be generated, having a life of its own and slowly dying as time passed. He had built separate modules and these would individually have a life of its own. The tones were generated by taut guitar cables. There was a motor at the bottom of each module that would rotate and generate the tones and power the life into these modules.
Horan had built a kiosk with bungee cords inside. As one slung on these tight bungee cords, they would generate sounds. He used piezo sensors in the bottom of this kiosk as inputs. Horan’s piece was very interactive. I loved seeing children interact with his piece. They would lie on the bungee cords and play with them endlessly. This just shows that his piece was very successful. It played on a very simple idea, but the concept was very strong and people enjoyed the direct, fast feedback that they were able to get.
So far, I’ve heard that Jeff’s "Death of Sound" and the "Spoiled Gumball Machine" will go on permanent display on the floor. This happens every semester. I should definitely try to shoot for next semester.
Posted by min at December 24, 2005 08:42 PM