As the project nears its end we’ve been working hard to finalise the wheel and unveil it to theworld.
In preparation for a press release we worked on a few key images that help to communicate what the product is and what it produces.
Hero Shot
Plan View
User Shot
We’ve also produced a short video to take you through what inspired us, the questions it raised and how we went about answering those questions.
So now we’ve fixed the motors into position and made sure that they simply cannot move it’s time to through some clay into the mix!
If you watched the above video you’ll know that it didn’t really go how we had planned. We made a few adjustments to the arms to stop them from interfering with each and also to make sure they actually hit the clay enough to make some sort of change to its shape. Take 2…
Again, it’s not spectacular but hey, we’ve managed to interpret a song into something physical! If you ever wondered what Mama Do The Hump would look like if it was a clay sculpture and not a song well… now you know.
We still have just over a week left so we’ll play around with a bit more and see what happens. Watch this space!
After the success of the servos working together with the LDR’s we have been able to start combining our spiral form with our electronics. Below is the first run with us connecting our sculpting arms with the servos.
From this prototype test we were able to make the most informed adjustments. We designed another set of sculpting arms for variety and that better connect with the clay. The programmewas also altered to react every 2 seconds rather than a quarter of a second as before. This was toreduce strain on the servos and also create a groove effect on the clay. Below is the improved prototype playing to Aloe Blacc’s – I need a Dollar.
Our next step is to strengthen the servo motors and create supports for them. When we aresatisfied with their strength we can begin creating outputs from clay!
This is our technical prototype for our project to make sure it works before we put it all together. Using the SoundView app we can generate an equaliser from the music coming from anything (in this case, an iPhone). There are 4 light sensors mounted on the screen to detect when the bars are high. Using a Picaxe we can then process the information from the sensors to drive themotors. Check out our video below to see it in action!
A lot has been happening the past couple of months. Last time I blogged I introduced you to the concept and the sketch prototype. Well now we have a much more resolved prototype which I’d like to get you up to speed on. I’m going to do it in a series of blogs instead of one big one. So here we go…
After speaking to our workshop technician, Sean Kingsley gave us a new contact who might be able to sort us out with some pottery supplies. We got in touch and Alastair Kettles was kind enough to give us an old pottery wheel. As long as it spins the clay, we can run with it.
We had a quick brainstorm to figure out what kind of structure we would build around the wheel. The structure would need to be able to house the motors that drive the sculpting arms but we wanted it to look good too. We decided to make it a spiral so that it would follow the shape of the wheel while holding the sculpting arms at varying heights.
Our customised potters wheel
It’s been a while since I’ve updated my blog. It’s fair to say that having reached about halfway through semester 2 the work load is starting to snowball. We just finished our 100 ideas and have chosen the ones we’d like to develop. I like to think that I have it under control but we’ll see how long that lasts for.
Anyway, here’s what I’ve been doing over the past couple of weeks.
The above video is me trying my hand at pottery… just to get a feel for it. Don’t laugh, I’m a beginner and James thought it would be funny to film me when I started to lose control! After we got the hang of it, we tried simulating what it would be like if a machine was manipulating the clay using various tools as demonstrated by Lynsey, below:
So the idea behind this concept is that a device such as a laptop would process sound into electric signals to be sent to an automated potters wheel. The end result would (hopefully) be a unique ceramic sculpture representing the sound that made it. It’s ambitious in the time we have but we’ll give it a try!
So that’s pretty much where we’re at with this project. I’ll leave you with one more thing. It’s a short video we made to demonstrate our concept. Of course its nowhere near a finished product, it’s more like a sketch prototype at the moment.
Enjoy!
Fail? Hmmm… not for me, thanks!
I’ll admit, I HATE failing. In fact I’m terrorised by it. All my life I’ve been afraid of failure. That can usually lead to one of two things. You either put your heart and soul into what you do to ensure you don’t fail (and when you occasionally you do you have a mental breakdown) or you avoid doing anything that you’re not certain about (which is pretty much most things). Both are crippling and can hold you back immensely! But you should never be afraid of failure.
“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games.
Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot… and missed.
I’ve failed over, and over, and over again in my life… and that is why I succeed.”
- Michael Jordan
There’s an important message in there. Nobody remembers Michael Jordan for his mistakes. One successful shot is enough to make up for 100 misses. It’s a rule that applies to all aspects of life. For a designer like me, I could try, test, and prototype 100 ideas before I create that one perfect solution. But each and every one of those failed ideas has only deepened my understanding of the problem and helped to find the right way to do it.
It’s not just me though. Imagine you were a writer and you’ve just published a new article or novel and it gets slated by the critics. What do you do? Do you wallow in self-pity and refuse to ever write again? No! You go back to the drawing board (or writing desk in this case) and you write a new article. Only this time you don’t make the same mistakes as last time and you become a better writer for it! Without the initial failure how would you ever have known what not to do the second time around.
So there you have it. If you want to truly succeed, you have to be willing to fail.
As research for our new project to do with sound we’ve been asked to look at a different sound artist each and write up an article on their background and a critique of at least one piece of work by this artist.
Alva Noto aka Carsten Nicolai
I have chosen Alva Noto aka Carsten Nicolai solely because his stagename (Alva) happens to be the name of my hometown where I grew up!
He was born in 1965 in Karl-Marx-Stadt, East Germany before moving to Berlin in 1990 to set up his experimental music label, Noton.
Six years later he collaborated with the like-minded Olaf Bender aka Byetone to create Raster-Noton. Archiv Für Ton Und Nichtton.
Spray (2006) by Carsten Nicolai
Noto’s work consists of transforming sounds by looping oscillators and sampling tone generators. He never uses sequencers. He also likes to decorate his tracks with fax tones, modem sounds and telephone pops and clicks and then he edits his work to add rhythmic structure.
Most of his tracks have some form of visual art to them. For example, Spray (2006) by Carsten Nicolai uses the principles of cymatics in a way that explores the idea of creativity through modularised systems and codes which is a recurring feature in Noto’s work. His art exposes the limitations and potential beauty and creativity possible within strict logical systems.
That’s as much as I know about Noto’s work for now. Whether or not it will inspire me is another question.
Just a quick update on what’s happening on the design front!
Our new project is very open brief. In groups of three, we have been asked to create a meaningful interaction using sound. I couldn’t be more happy with the group I landed. It’s great to be working with Lynsey Brownlow once again. I think this is the FIFTH time I’ve collaborated with her in my one and half years at uni. We are quite like-minded sharing similar ideas and design values and are able to work well as a team so I look forward to seeing what we can come up with.
John Thomson, Lynsey Brownlow & James Rice
The new addition to this group is James Rice. Worthy of our Dream Team status, he’s an experienced grade-A student who never fails to produce the goods. He’s the one who sets the bench mark each semester and if I’m being honest, I generally gauge my performance against his to see if I’m doing well enough. Having him on our side can only benefit us.
Together, we have created [Sound by Design] and it has its own blog! If you click the logo at the top of the page it should take you there!
That’s all for now. Watch this space…
