James Strother BCT

Contextual Statement

‘Bloom’ is a project about telling time using a three-dimensional (3D) form, the concept of telling time has been around since 1500 BC (Foer, 2008) and finding different ways to tell the time has always been an interesting idea to me. This project is about the idea of nature and how it exists everywhere and combining it with a man-made concept about telling time. Using a 3D flower to observe the change over a certain period of time could be an interesting way of observing the subtle passing of time around you. The flower is supposed to represent a rather vague sense of passing time because the audience will view this exhibition differently than how they track time use clocks and other devices.

People use clocks and other devices to tell time everyday and it has become a major need for humanity in general, but in certain situations observing time can get stressful (Belsky, 2016). This project is designed to help observe time in a different way so people aren’t counting each second the hand moves on a clock, but rather waiting for a flower to fully bloom and show it’s beauty.

There are many projects similar to this one in the way that people observe time without using clocks. The first example is the ‘Aluna Project’, “...an illuminated forty-meter-wide glass-and-steel lunar clock powered by the tides of the Thames.” (Foer, 2008) which was built in London before the summer Olympics. Another example is the seasonal clock called ‘The Present’, which is an annual clock based on the seasons (Campbell-Dollaghan, 2017). One more example is a giant hourglass called the ‘Time Wheel’ which was built in Budapest, and is also an annual clock which is reset every year (News, Fegyó, Kovács, Lajtai-Szabó & Béni, 2014). The ‘Time Wheel’ is a great example similar to my project where the artefact is observed over time, which provides a different perspective when observed.

This exhibition is not designed to be viewed once or twice, it’s designed for it to be present in everyone’s day to day life to be observed and acknowledged by the audience. The reason I chose a flower to represent time is because flowers always had the natural sense of time ever since they existed (Godley, 1979). This flower is based off the Lotus flower because of multiple reasons, the main one being that it’s considered one of the most beautiful, and not just because it’s a flower but since it grows in shallow ponds (Ravenscroft, 2011). According to Ravenscroft “...has special significance in Hinduism, where its meaning is strongly associated with Laxmi and Brahma.” (2011).

This project is considered a Creative Technologies project because of it’s association with technology and using it to create a physical form from digital form for a significant purpose, which is to be in the real world and observed as part of our reality. As far as space is concerned it currently doesn’t take up much space but certainly creates an atmosphere in the space, due to it’s slow movements it creates a calming experience for the viewers.

The methodology for this project involved a quantitative approach in the second half of the semester once there were some physical parts to work with. Simulations and research was conducted over the first half of the semester to ensure it would be able to work with Arduino once it was 3D printed. After the mid-semester break an experimental approach was taken which is not ordinary with 3D printing because you would have to reprint it if anything was wrong. Having something 3D printed early on in the year helped with making the second print.

In the future, this project can be used in many different possible ways to fit particular users, or it can be a large exhibition somewhere where people can observe it throughout the day, like in Aotea Square for example. Either way this project has potential to become something more than just a 3D printed moving object, whether it be a new type of alarm clock or a sculpture somewhere. An example of another use could be to set reminders for when the flower fully bloomed, according to Tresca (2013) stress can be related to poor time management.

The base of this project could be used in other Creative Technologies projects by making an interactive part to the flower, like using sound to open it or light. Having sensors and other activators could provide some interesting ideas for this project using a quantitative methodology.

Conceptual Statement

What really strived me to create this exhibition was that everyone is so concerned with the current time it can actually cause stress (Lang, 1992). There is always a need to just relax and forget about time specifically, like when you have the day off and stay at home to relax or when you’re ill and need to rest. With this flower people can set reminders for when the flower fully bloomed, according to Tresca (2013) stress can be related to poor time management. I believe that the telling of time shouldn’t be feared or stressful and the aim for this project wasn’t to change that but give the option to rely on something beautiful to observe and forget about the minutes and seconds that tick away.

In terms of a learning experience I had to take the experimental approach because I didn’t really know how the flower would be able to move in terms of weight, friction and space. After I made the prototype it was quite difficult to assemble all the parts because there were so many things I didn’t think about when working on it digitally, like how the connectors needed to be in a fixed position and not actually be able to move at all while the petals actually needed more space to fit once I found out that I needed some plastic to reduce the friction because the material is quite rough.

After doing some research I decided to try and re-model everything on Fusion 360, which was quite risky because of time constraints but after learning I can 3D print everything together I thought that was the best course of action. There were plenty of risks involved with doing it this way, such as the tolerance between the joints being quite small causing it to not move. However, the risk to benefit ratio made me realise that doing it this way could mean I’d have a working flower and focus more on the overall aesthetic.

The most challenging part of this project was putting everything together physically because once it was printed it was basically glued stuck and wouldn’t move at all. After actually getting it free which was much more difficult than I thought and did involve actually breaking off some bits of the object to free it up. Heaps of constraints and roadblocks popped up as time passed and it only got more challenging but using the quantitative methodology I was able to finally find a way to get the flower to actually open and close by itself. Getting the servo motor to work wasn’t very hard because i had some help and there were heaps of examples on the internet that helped as well.

What went well was the time it took to actually model and print the parts, as well as that I’m more experiences working on the computer to make the parts. The parts developed very nicely and I’m glad I was able to learn the basics of Fusion 360 in time to print the final prototype.

Next time I want to make sure I have explored every possibility when it comes to printing parts because I didn’t actually know that I could print everything at once until around week 11. I also would model the flower to look like and actual flower rather than just basing the petal design only on a flower, because I needed to make the base of the petals around a ring rather that connected from a stem. This project currently has quite a few design flaws such as the lever extending past the base so I had to glue some blocks underneath to give the lever some room to move. Another flaw is the print itself, all the joints were glued and there was no way to remove them other than cutting the limbs themselves. Next time I would make these improvements so it can just be printed and require much little clean-up by making the joints be clipped on and off.

One major problem I haven’t really been able to fix is the starting position of the lever seems to change which causes the lever to either not lift high enough or lift the flower too high and get stuck, the only work around I can think of is to update the code and then once it’s on it must stay on, which could be a problem after a long period of time.

Overall I really enjoyed making this flower and I believe pretty much everyone can get some use out of it and even learn something. Personally I have learned heaps, I have never 3D printed something that I had personally made and then actually got it to move mechanically. I would definitely do this project again.

References:

Scott, D. 1960: Seasonal behaviour in some montane plant species. N.Z. Journal of Science 3: 694-9.

E. J. Godley (1979) Flower biology in New Zealand, New Zealand Journal of Botany, 17:4, 441-466, DOI: 10.1080/0028825X.1979.10432564

Foer, J. (2008). A Minor History Of / Time without Clocks. Retrieved October 2, 2017, from http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/29/foer.php

Tresca, A. (2013). Understanding Stress Related to Time Management. Retrieved October 3, 2017, from http://stress.lovetoknow.com/Stress_Related_to_Time_Management

Ravenscroft, D. (2011). Lotus Flower Meaning and Symbolisms. Retrieved October 1, 2017, from https://www.lotusflowermeaning.net/

Belsky, G. (2016, February 29). Staying Calm and Getting Back to Sleep. Retrieved October 5, 2017, from http://www.health.com/health/condition-article/0,,20188536,00.html

Campbell-Dollaghan, K. (2017, May 02). The Present, A Clock That Tells Time By Season, Is Finally For Sale. Retrieved August 03, 2017, from https://www.fastcodesign.com/1671516/the-present-a-clock-that-tells-time-by-season-is-finally-for-sale

News, D., Fegyó, K., Kovács, Z., Lajtai-Szabó, G., & Béni, A. (2014, March 31). The Biggest Hourglass Of The World in Budapest. Retrieved August 02, 2017, from https://dailynewshungary.com/the-biggest-hourglass-of-the-world-in-budapest/

Here is the final prototype! It’s been glued and left overnight and I had to replace the pipe in the middle with a metal bolt that’s been smoothed down with strong sand paper and drilled through the bottom of the flower.

The bolt does kind of look out of place but never the less it actually works!

By using a servo motor, a lever and some rubber bands I’m able to open and close the flower!

The wooden blocks are stuck there because the motor’s limb extends further down than 3 am James actually thought it would.

I’ve been trying to free up the joints but unfortunately I have had absolutely no luck trying to get this thing to move!

I’ve had to resort to something that I would never had done if I wasn’t so desperate to get this thing moving!

I had to cut the arms.

Alleylight Interactive is a project based on improving the atmosphere of a dark late night alleyway, my role in this project is to design visual assets that help the aesthetic of the project as a whole.

The theme is based on the stream that ran underneath Aotea Square (Orsman, 2011) and the objects that float through the stream represents the man-made impact on the stream. Aotea Square has a long history and having players interact with the stream helps bring more aspects of Aotea Square to life, such as the swampy area that is now Aotea Square that used to have traps to catch food (Lewis, 2008). Another aspect of our theme is a tropical type setting, which helps people relax more because the tropics are commonly associated with holiday and time-off, “We were delighted; We were enthralled. Hawaii was fresh, magical.” (Adler, 2004, p. 22).

Our project had a slight evolution over that past twelve weeks. At first, all we wanted was for people to be able to feel more comfortable walking around Aotea Square at night. The idea of having something in the square that was interactive is a great start, but this project has evolved into an experimental game/plaything (Crawford, 2007). This project is designed to let players either stay or move along, but there’s nothing that holds the audience; like a challenge, for example.

Figure 1. Chris Crawford on Game Design, (Crawford, 2006, p. 6)

One main aspect of this project is the art style, which has been the most questionable aspect of this project throughout the semester. After some research we decided to go with a simplistic style with bright colours, inspired by the game, Kingdom Rush (Wong, 2014). We are aiming to make the audience feel comfortable as part of the aesthetic as a whole. According to Pastore (2011) cartoon themes can create a comforting experience for the audience and help defuse tension. Another reason for the style choice is because it’s much easier to replicate with multiple designers with much less experience than actual artists, which we experimented with. According to Duszczak (n.d) a simplistic art style can help make it easier for the audience to focus on what’s more important about the exhibition rather than trying to understand what the art style has to do with the rest of the exhibition.

Using crates and other objects as part of the assets to this project represent objects that would clog the stream in the experience. When I was designing the crates and barrels I did some research on the history of Aotea Square and tried to relate the crates and barrels to the history of Aotea Square. According to Orsman (2011) there was a stream that ran down under where Queen Street is and also ran into a swamp that is now Aotea Square, people used to use traps and other contraptions all around that area. The crates and barrels and other objects represent those objects that clutter the stream and swampy area in the past.

Developing the assets for this project was very interesting for me since I’ve never created anything with this particular art style. The methodology I used was a quantitative approach (Creswell, 2014) which involved making the artifacts quite early and getting feedback and observations from my peers. This methodology helped me develop the aesthetic along with the other designers in my group and it allowed everyone to observe from my perspective what part of the aesthetic could become.

Starting with a very basic look:

Development continues with this:

Thanks to Quinn Trethewey, I was able to create these assets using his concept drawings:

Using Adobe Illustrator, I could easily change anything about them when I was asked to. Using vectors was a great way to be able to adjust according to what was needed for the project. I would differently use Adobe Illustrator in the future especially when working with simplistic designs and bright colours. Heavy line-weights and shadows make these assets a lot more vivid, according to an article by Technical Drawing and Alphabet of Line (n.d). Using heavy line weights create the effect that they’re more important that other lines such as the thinner wood-grain lines. I used a wood-grain look to give the assets some texture while keeping the simple style.

What went well about this project was the communication with the team and how easily we were able to share files between each other. The project was managed well and we got most things done by our deadlines using Facebook messenger and Google Drive.

This is one of the plans we kept up to date with everyone in the group, this made sure we knew what was to be expected by each week’s meet-up.

What didn’t go so well was figuring out what type of art style to use and there was a lot of speculation on not using the cartoon-like art style and instead going with some Maori symbols and other patterns. In the end, due to time constraints, we ended up sticking with the more reliable art style that would mean letting us play test.

An idea for use in the future would be to place multiple versions of this exhibition over multiple locations around Auckland. There are a few constraints for this idea and that is security, cost and space. Aotea Square is a brilliant place to get started and I hope it goes well and according to what we’ve planned so far.

References:

Wong, L. (2014, September 10). Making Kingdom Rush: An Uruguayan tale. Retrieved August 12, 2017, from https://www.polygon.com/features/2014/9/10/6045757/kingdom-rush-uruguay

Duszczak, R. (n.d.). Why Cartoons Are Such Effective Communicators…. Retrieved October 10, 2017, from http://www.cartoonmotivators.com/blog/why-cartoons-are-such-effective-communicators/

Pastore, J. (2011, November 16). Why a Cartoon? You Might be Surprised by the Answer! Retrieved October 10, 2017, from https://www.rootinc.com/uncategorized/why-a-cartoon-you-might-be-surprised-by-the-answer/

Schulenkorf, N. (2011, July 22). Sustainable community development through sport and events: A conceptual framework for Sport-for-Development projects. Retrieved October 18, 2017, from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1441352311000465

Orsman, B. (2011, May 9). Artist paints downtown garden vision. Retrieved October 3, 2017, from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/super-city/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501110&objectid=10724371

Lewis, M. (2008). Stream daylighting: identifying opportunities for Central Auckland: concept design. , N.Z.: Auckland Regional Council

Beach Visualization Relaxation: Free Relaxation Script. (2008). Retrieved October 5, 2017, from http://www.innerhealthstudio.com/visualization-relaxation.html

Adler, P. A., & Adler, P. (2004). Paradise laborers: hotel work in the global economy. Ithaca (N.Y): Cornell.

Crawford, C. (2007). Chris Crawford on game design. Indianapolis, IN: New Riders.

Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

The hand is just to see how big the flower is.

As you can see the flower turned out really good ‘looking’. However there is powder stuck in the joints and mechanisms which has actually glued the whole thing and it won’t actually move.

So far my prototype didn’t really lead me anywhere but it did help me design the model in Fusion. I had to re-design the whole thing because it wouldn’t let me convert from Maya to Fusion 360′s solid format.

At least I could re-design the petals and now they look even better!

As you can see the difference between the petals are quite amazing, from the side you can tell the original design (right) is less smooth than the new design.

The next set of images is the process I went through to create the flower again, I had help from an expert of Fusion 360 who showed me how to put together the joints and things.

As you can see this is a significant improvement to the previous model i had and I am extremely proud of myself to have managed to put together this flower model with some help.

So I’ve finally managed to get everything I need 3D printed, it did take a week and I was a bit worried about the sizing of the flower as a whole but it seems fine.

There’s quite a lot of space in the middle which I’m ok with because I’d like to try multiple ways of getting the petals to move.

I also got some plastic rings to put in between the petals and the ring so there isn’t any friction. The material is quite rough as well so I might think about painting the parts or putting some kind of finish on them so they don’t wear out.

I managed to get some flower heads for free at a Florist shop so I could see and feel the textures/patterns on a typical flower.

So I’ve put together my 3D printed parts to see if they would move like the do in Autodesk Maya, it seems like it would but now I need to find a way to attach arms to each petal to be able to move them. Some videos show some existing projects that involve arms attached to each petal.

Being able to picture many different ways that this flower could come together really helps me. Some use cogs and gears while some use motors.

References:

(2017, February 13). Retrieved October 2, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P54SBwcx3Qs

Lloyd, M. (2009, May 09). Retrieved October 2, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzGUcJqGyK4

L. (2012, July 16). Retrieved October 2, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nofViHo8yrw

So with the concept I have I needed to start interrogate it to find a number of ways to try and out the whole thing together.

The question was how I was going to make the petals open and close so I looked up some examples of other projects a while ago and found heaps on YouTube.

I was quite inspired and decided to start fabricating my ideas on making this work.

Those bracket shapes will be the parts that hold the petals and pull them in/push them out as the ball rises.

Now I needed to decide how I was going to allow the petals to move in the first place.

My idea so far is to use the piping I have in the current model and have a wire fed through around the pipe then I’ll have a small tube-segment attached the the bottom of each petal which will have to be straight so the petal can move which the wire can hold, then I’ll need a plastic ring in between the bit that moves and the bit that doesn’t so there’s not much friction.

Today we had a meeting with a producer for Auckland Live to help put things in perspective in terms of ideas and the space we’re working with. Some great points were brought up today and I want to share my opinion for our project and these new ideas.

Firstly, a good point was brought up about people who walk through Aotea Square (i.e our target audience) sometimes don’t really care about most things that happen in Aotea Square like they might not go out of their way to interact. Our idea for the interaction with the Kinect is a great way for those types of people to actually notice and be a part of something just by walking past even if they don’t actually have a problem with the alleyway at night time. It also means that the spot we chose is a good one because most of those people use the car park below Aotea Square.

Secondly, our project won’t have anything inappropriate so we should be okay in that aspect but also the art style we’re currently working on is a good example of that because you can’t really go wrong when your trying to create a positive interactive experience.

Thirdly, projection is going to be a challenge to setup because of multiple reasons such as the weather and security but more there will be more discussion about it once the project is more solidified

This week we got a new teammate who designed the assets so they were more consistent for us to create on Adobe Illustrator.

These are some designs he came up with:

I love these designs because they aren’t symmetrical and they’re just way more cartoon-like which matches the art style we originally wanted. Because we had these drawings done I could just focus on digitizing them rather than coming up with the designs myself. 

This is what the crate and barrel look like now:

These are made in Adobe Illustrator using vectors so I can change and resize anything I want and just re-save it as a .png image.

This week has been modelling a concept so I can start having a better scope for my project.

The process for this model involves shaping the petals for the flower as a whole.

It wasn’t too difficult to model the petals it’s just that I need to make them look all right when the whole flower ‘blooms’ because the petals themselves can’t actually change shape only that they will be moving.

Next I designed the basic structure of the flower so I know how much space I can work with and what I need to be able to change in order to make the mechanics in the future.

The ball in the middle is just a place holder for when the flower is ‘closed’ and how much space I’m allowing myself for the middle of the flower to put the LED lights/motor.

I’ve finalised my idea to model a flower that will bloom over time, this flower is a way of seeing the year progress and watching the piece change everyday. So far I need to think of what type of flower it’s going to be and how I’m going to assemble it to do what I need it to do.

I’d imagine I’m going to use Arduino for most of this project, to control the ‘when’ everything is supposed to happen. I’m not sure how to assemble this flower just yet but there are a number of ways to do it. I’ve found a list of videos I’ve found on youtube of projects that involve a mechanical flower to help me with assembling one myself. None of them are tutorials but rather projects that other people have done that involve something similar to what I want to achieve.

The flower I’m going to base it on is the lotus flower, the petals are a nice shape to be able to model and the flower is known as one of the prettiest flowers. The flower will bloom over the year, either it will bloom according to the season or bloom fully on New Year’s to show off the light show like I originally planned.

References:

M. (2010, September 24). Retrieved August 13, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnerjWiEOd4

N. (2014, November 14). Retrieved August 14, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjCzPp-MK48

We’ve been researching existing art styles for inspiration for our project, before we found something I tried at making my own cartoon crate because a crate is relatively simple to design, I wanted to see the difference between a plain cartoon crate and one with texture.

After making these crates for the standing meeting this week everyone decided that they liked the crate with the texture but also we decided to look for some proper inspiration so we all have the same idea of what the art style will look like.

We looked at a few games such as Castle Crashers, Kingdom Rush, Crash Bandicoot and Runescape. Crash Bandicoot was to help with the design of the crates that will be used in the project.

So far I’ve researched two existing projects that involve the idea of an annual clock, being able to tell the time over the whole year. I love this concept because it really extends our view of time.

Project 1: The Present

The Present is about a clock which is a simple way of telling time over the year using colors that you associate with each season. This project is quite interesting because there are no numbers or lines on the clock, just one hand and a spectrum of colors. Because we still use analogue clocks we all know how to tell the time using that particular clock, so this clock still uses the same way to tell the time but in a totally different concept.

Project 2: The Time Wheel

The Time Wheel is a massive hourglass situated in Budapest which is literally just an hourglass that takes a year for all the sand to drop. The hourglass is flipped on New Year’s at midnight.

I love this contraption because the concept is relatively simple, a massive hourglass, but the contraption involves the hourglass being a wheel and having to be turned at midnight by a bunch of people.

I love these projects because they’re so similar to my idea and using these sources I can expand more on the knowledge I wish to convey to my audience and hopefully make something amazing.

References:

News, D., Fegyó, K., Kovács, Z., Lajtai-Szabó, G., & Béni, A. (2014, March 31). The Biggest Hourglass Of The World in Budapest. Retrieved August 02, 2017, from https://dailynewshungary.com/the-biggest-hourglass-of-the-world-in-budapest/