Kinetic Spaces

by Shuqi He

WRITE UP

1.CLOUD

KEY: collective actions, direct interaction

This is an installation by Caitland Brown. It is made from 1,000 working light bulbs with pull-chains and additional 5,000 burnt out light bulbs donated by the public. Hundreds of pull-chains are hanging under the bulbs, but only a few of them have the function of turning the lights on or off. Visitors could pull the chains causing the CLOUD to sort of flicker and trying to find the right one to turn on or off all the lights. This installation becomes a hit for children, causing lots of broken chains to be repaired.

The interesting point about this project is that, it uses the repetition of a single action to involve as many people as possible, by which creates uncertain results. Besides, to some point, it extends the interaction from between installation and human, to among human too.

2. EVENT OF A THREAD

KEY: Swing, collective actions, direct interaction

Made by Ann Hamilton, the project is displayed as a fantastic “event” in Park Avenue Armory in New York. In the center of the armory, a billowing white curtain is suspended by ropes and pulleys, with all its movements based on the swings connected to it. The curtain changes as the swings’ movements change, through the collective action of the swingers. There are also bells ringing occasionally, and multiple choices of activities happening.

This project is amazing no matter in terms of motivation, form, or result. It did more than a device, creating an environment that allows both dynamics and static movements. Big scale, multiple functions, quiet sound, soft light, and the billowing curtain all help creating such “event”.

 3. LISTEN TO COLORS

KEY: prosthetic, transformation between color and sound

Neil Harbisson, born with inability to see colors, wears a prosthetic device on his head that allow him to transpose the light frequencies of colors hues into sound frequencies, even those colors beyond the range of human sight. In the “Sound Portraits” series, he listened to the colors of faces to create a microtonal chord. In a reversed way, he also creates and compares two paintings which are based on the speeches from Martin Luther King and Adolf Hitler.

What interests me in this project is that it provides a new aspect of discovering the world. The example itself doesn’t show a lot about interaction, but I think it has a great chance to fit into the interactive installation to display this kind of interesting transformation.

  COMPARISON

CLOUD                                 collective, noisy, small scale, mechanism

EVENT OF A THREAD         collective, quiet, big scale, mechanism

It turns out that the previous idea of final project is too ambitious for me to achieve for now. So another form should be considered and we are thinking about a flexible wall on the corner of a room to create a similar space I have mentioned. Have no idea...

Following the idea from the project 4 -the movement of open up and close-I am looking for a possibility to relate the movement to a spatial experience. More precisely, when you get closer to the device, it will create a private room for you to stay. Below is a sketch for the device.

In this exercise, we transfer the data and commands from Arduino to movements of physical object. At the same time, I am thinking about the reuse of daily common materials and objects. What came to my mind is paper cup. The main idea here is when you are close to the range finder, the cup will open up as flower.

The coding is simple, while the output is the main problem. Basically, I use sutures to connect the five parts with a straw, which is tied with the servo motor on the other side.

#Codes

#include <Servo.h>

Servo myservo;

int potpin = 0;

int val;

void setup() {

  myservo.attach(9);

  Serial.begin (9600);

}

void loop() {

  val = analogRead(potpin);

  Serial.println(val);

  if (val>=10) {

    myservo.write(90);

  }

  if (val<10) {

    myservo.write(180);

  }

  delay(500);

}

After a couple of weeks for getting know about Arduino and Processing, this exercise focus on the information transmission between them. What I am trying to do here is mapping out distances, and further, the spatial configuration of a room.

Below are the main steps and coding:

obtain data of distance from range finder through Arduino;

convey the data from Arduino to Processing;

show the data graphically and visually on the screen.

#Code:

For Arduino:

int howfar = 0;

void setup() {

  Serial.begin (9600);

}

void loop() {

  howfar = analogRead(0);

   Serial.write(howfar);

  delay(50);

}

For Processing:

import processing.serial.*;

Serial myPort;       

int L;

float a = 0.0;

float x;

float y;

int i = 0;

int n = 0;

void setup() {

  myPort = new Serial(this, “COM3”, 9600);

  size(1200,800);

  background(0);

  stroke(255);

  translate(width/2, height/2);

}

void draw() {

  i = i + 1;

  if ( i > 720 ){

    n=n+1;

    i = 0;

    saveFrame(“mapping room02.jpg”);

    background(0);

   }     

      L = myPort.read() * 2;

      println(L);

      a = TWO_PI/720*i;

      x = L*sin(a);

      y = L*cos(a);

      pushMatrix();

      translate(width/2, height/2);

      line(0, 0, x, y);    

      popMatrix();

      println(x);

      println(y);

  }