Nut-cracking @ ITP

Android Arduino Robot

For one of my final projects for a class at ITP called Mobile Media, I collaborated with Jason Aston and built a Robot which uses a G1 Android mobile phone, an arduino, and servo motors. We used the G1 phone to communicate and send commands to the Arduino. We first installed Cyanogen on the G1 to be able to run Terminal and ASE (Android Scripting Environment). Terminal was essential to unlock some universal functions on the phone. ASE needed to be used to run Python on the mobile phone. After we got this set up, we installed open source Python scripts, developed by a collective called Cellbots. We telneted to the phone using terminal through a computer or a phone and sent commands to the Arduino via the python script. The commands were sent using a hacked headset cable, since that is what we needed to send serial data from the phone to the Arduino. Therefore, when we sent the command “forward” we activated servo motors connected to the robot and made the wheels of the car move.

Android Arduino Robot from Lucas Werthein on Vimeo.

Interactive Waterfall Installation

This installation was developed at the Interactive Telecommunications Programe at NYU. The installation consists of a cascade water system that recycles its own water. The image, which consists of luminescent jellyfish swimming in their habitat, is projected on the water that falls between a thin sheet of plastic. The project was developed using MAX MSP/ Jitter software, along with Arduino. When a person interacts with the water, infrared sensors detect the person’s presence and alter the image that is being projected on the water.

Waterfall Installation from Lucas Werthein on Vimeo.

Killing Bugs in After Effects

For our latest assignment for “Methods of Motion”, we had to develop a piece using after effects. I decided to work with video and produced a short story that involves, bugs, smashing, blood, and clones.

Killing Bugs with my Clone from Lucas Werthein on Vimeo.

Video Installation – Water Waste

How many times per day do you flush your toilet? Do you flush unnecessarily?
We throw away about 6 litres of water every time we flush a toilet.
This is the premiss of the installation i have built with MaxMSP/Jitter.
The installation will be screen based. Every time a person walks by the screen, there will be a toilet, as viewed from the top. A proximity sensor will detect the person’s presence and send an internal message, which will flush the toilet on the screen. Therefore, every time a person walks by the screen, the toilet will be flushed. Many people may not notice that the toilet is being flushed, but this is the exact point that the installation wants to make: We need to flush more consciously to avoid water waste around the planet.

Amazing Light Installation by Kit Webster

ENIGMATICA from Kit Webster on Vimeo.

Soccer Flash Animation

FutebolOriginal

Manipulating Video in Pure Data

For my pure data midterm, i hooked up and arduino to a Pure Data patch and got the patch to read serial numbers from the arduino. I had a potentiometer hooked up to the arduino. Basically, when i turned the potentiometer, I controlled the motion blur that could be added onto the video. This was an interesting assignment because i learned how to hook up an arduino to PD and get serial value from it. The next objective is to actually work on an interactive piece using PD an Arduino.

Video manipulation with MIC in MAX/Jitter

For our first assingment in Max/Jitter, i made a patch that manipulates grayscale and RGB when your laptop microphone detects sound. Basically, when you talk into the microphone, the video color will change. This was an interesting assignment because it makes us think about numerous ways we could manipulate video through sensors.

Pulse

A short one minute clip that portraits the speed, rythme, and flow of New York City. This assignment was done for Video for New Media.

Pulse from Lucas Werthein on Vimeo.

Mobile Foto

For my mobile media midterm project, i created a collaborative image gallery that can be used for numerous purposes. Basically, the user can take a photograph with his mobile phone, send it to a specific e-mail address, and the image will automatically be posted in a specific website

This project was conceptualized based on a multimedia festival i used to work for called Multiplicidade. Multiplicidade is an ongoing multimedia festival, which invites artists to perform, innovate, and experiment.

At multiplicidade, artists are invited to perform once a month. The spectacle usually begins with a large projection displaying information, videos, animations, and other media.

To exemplify, let’s pretend that Lenine will be the next performer at Multiplicidade:

The idea behind this project is that at the beginning of each spectacle the producers would display the following message.

“Please take as many photographs as you would like and e-mail them to lenine@multiplicidade.com”

Spectators and contributors of Multiplicidade would take numerous photos on their mobile pgones and send them to the address above, which i would create with the producers of multiplicidade beforehand. The photographs would hit the e-mail server and would automatically be posted to “http://multiplicidade.com/lenine”, which i would also create. This automatic process would be set up by myself with the code i have developed in my Mobile Media class.

Each time a new performer plays, we would change the e-mail addres, the web address, and i would run a new script. So if the next performer was Diplo, i would create an e-mail “diplo@multiplicidade.com” and a hotsite “multiplicidade.com/diplo” and the same process would occur.

By the end, multiplicidade would have built numerous collaborative image galeries that could be used for great purposes. The main concept is that Multiplicidade would be involving it’s community of participants and followers to create media, participate, innovate and engage them in the exact same concept that Multiplicidade has been pursuing since it was created.

See the prototype:

Nut-cracking @ ITP

Technology, art, and design in New York