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Lost and Found Bots

Ashley Lewis

Like all of us at times, these bots are lost without one another, until you connect their hands and help them feel found

https://ashleyjanelewis.com/2018/10/05/lost-found-bots/

Description

This project was created in Fabrication at the beginning of the semester, just after I had moved from Canada to the US to attend ITP. Perhaps it was a manifestation of feeling out a new space, but these bots felt very therapeutic to design and make. Two comical 5″ bots, sit side by side, both similar but not congruent. Their tiny screens read as “lost” and their light are off. Connecting their hands, brings them closer together, as though they are hugging or kissing. Once connected, their screens read as “found” and their lights turn on.

The best part about this project was its ability to make others assess their feeling of lost or found. I posted it to Instagram and was able to instigate many conversations around empathy, in some cases, for my situation but, in most cases, around a situation of a stranger. A woman from Toronto whom I haven’t met showed the bots to her son immediately requested to build a pair of his own – a first for him in his exploration in electronic making. This little piece about lonely bots turned into a vessel for emotive conversations.

Classes

Intro to Fabrication, Introduction to Physical Computing

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Vo-5ynth

Tushar Goyal

Generative music instrument that makes music algorithmically from the users voice

https://wp.nyu.edu/tushargoyal/2018/12/05/vo-5ynth/

Description

Vo-5ynth, pronounced “vo-synth” (short for “voice-synthesizer in p5”) is a music instrument, but, its not a an ordinary one. First it doesn't have a sound of its own. Instead, it uses the users voice to make music. Second, its a generative music instrument so it doesn't give the user complete control over the music making process, instead, it encourages the user to (in a way) collaborate with the instrument (“the machine”) to make music. The user can define the pool of notes from which music can be generated but the actual output (notes for the bass, melody, harmony) is generated algorithmically by the instrument. The user can change the selected notes in real time to change how the music sounds and can thus, play this as an instrument that can be performed live or be used as an ideation tool, or just for fun really!

Classes

Intro to Fabrication, Introduction to Computational Media, Introduction to Physical Computing, The Code of Music

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Fabricated: A Series on Light and Energy

James Hosken

Handmade devices exploring the aesthetics and tangibility of light and electricity.

https://generallyplayful.com/category/itp/fab/

Description

Each of these objects incorporates light, or electricity, or both, in a tangible, aesthetic way. The modular hand-cranked power supply can be used to power each of the pieces, bringing an element of interactivity; demonstrating the work required to power something as mundane as LEDs. Alternatively, the hand-made power supply can be used as a more stable energy source, turning the objects into display pieces.

Classes

Basic Analog Circuits, Intro to Fabrication

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Reflected Landscapes

Dana Elkis, Matthew Ross

An interactive sound and light sculpture that is driven by the principles of echo, feedback and collision.

https://pinkeey9.wixsite.com/danaelkisblog/blog/pcompfinal-process-documentation

Description

Our inspiration and goal for this project is to create an effective metaphor and medium for the term echo as it relates to music. In music, echo can be defined as a “repetition or mimicking of a certain passage, usually with less force and volume than the original statement”(https://musicterms.artopium.com/e/Echo.htm) . Our goal is to give people who aren't necessarily musicians the ability to understand and engage with the principles of echo.

We have implemented this concept by building a 3 x 2ft box with a diffused window overlooking a large(700pixel) LED matrix, with 5-7 sliders that are positioned on the x and y axis of the box. As users move the sliders, they are able to “create echos” that begin spreading through the LED matrix and emit sound as they move and grow. If users move the sliders in such a way that the echos “collide” they will be absorbed into each others feedback loops, thus creating a new larger sound in the network, and introducing more complexity in the visual/audio feedback. Multiple people can be interacting with our project at once, and our goal is to create a novel experience as opposed to an instrument that one can “master”.

Echo is a powerful and compelling effect, one used universally in music and easily understood by a wide audience. As opposed to using echo as purely an effect we want to apply it as our driving artistic statement and in doing so give people the opportunity to easily participate in an engaging and playful musical experience. We are purposefully foregoing detailed instructions on how to use our creation, as our goal is to get people to explore all the possibilities within our system.

Classes

Intro to Fabrication, Intro to Fabrication, Introduction to Physical Computing

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36 out of 100

Veronica Alfaro

Interactive data representation of 36 stories from women who have experienced physical and / or sexual violence from an intimate partner at some time in their life.

https://www.veronica-alfaro.com/blog/2018/11/28/36-out-of-100-women-enclosure

Description

36% of women in the US have experienced physical and/or sexual violence from an intimate partner at some time in their life and 13% of women in the US agree that a husband/partner is justified in beating his wife/partner under certain circumstances.

Feelings of guilt and shame (among other reasons) encourage them to remain silent and as survivors it is difficult to open up and share the experiences lived. There are many untold stories and my intention is to provide a voice in order to share some of them in an anonymous and intimate way.

The installation consist on a switchboard that contains a visualization of 100 women represented with circles, 36 of them will have jacks that will play a story when the user connects a phone (1 story per each jack).

Initially the audio of the instructions and the narration of the data will come out of speakers connected to the computer and when the user pick up the phone, the audio will pause so that the user can plug the phone into one jack of their choice, the audio then will come out of the telephone as a way to tell the story in a more personal and individualized way. The user will be able to change the connection to another jack at any time and when they put the telephone back to its “holder”, the instructions audio will start playing again from the speakers.

The content shared in each story might be a trigger to some users therefore I will create a content warning. The data that is being represented comes from a study made by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on 2014 about women in the US however the intention of the project is not to exclude women identifying, transgender, and gender-nonconforming individuals.

Classes

Intro to Fabrication, Introduction to Computational Media, Introduction to Physical Computing