Let's Do It Then!

So today we built our sculpture/model of our path. We named him "Squirtle". So in order to avoid future confusion, when we refer to "Squirtle", we're talking about our model! After having to annoyingly feed the reluctant wire trough the tubes, we molded it into the shape of our path, and to our surprise it actually ended up looking pretty cool! We spoke to Norm more about the circuits, and realized it's a much larger task than we thought. But hey... we've come this far, no sence in changing the whole idea now. It doesn't appear to be that complicated, just a lot of tedious wiring and stuff. Wieslaw's portion of the project is coming along well, we're excited about the installation!

Here's Squirtle!

How We Gon' Do It?

So today we went shopping at Active (twice) for the parts that we needed for our project. Some of them anyway. We picked up 110 LED's, 20 100K resistors, some fairly sturdy wire, and this weird tube stuff that shrinks when heated up (we're going to put the wire through it when making our model).

We still can't decide if we're going to do the 4017 circuit, or use the basic stamp and write a code. Whatever we end up doing... it's going to involve a hell of a lot of wiring. Wiring 100 LED's is never fun. Never!!!!

What'cha Gon' Do?

After a lot of brainstorming and discussion, me (Jeff Graham) and Robyn Murphy have finally decided on a final project for our Physical Computing class. Since we have two large technology based projects due this semester (this one, and one for Wieslaw) we have decided to combine both to create a large installation piece. In our blog entries we'll save you the extra reading, and only discuss the physical computing aspects of our project. ;)

We have decided that the main artistic focus of our project is to create a GPS drawing. We found this technique to be particularly interesting as it is a fusion of art and technology which we felt to be very New Media-esque. We will be creating a GPS drawing of the path below:


Does that look like a turtle? Ehh...? we think it does! Upon completing the drawing, we plan on creating a large sculpture of the path which will be lined with approximately 100 LED's. We hope to use the 4017 circuit, or the basic stamp to have the lights illuminate in a sequence to show the path in which we walked to complete the GPS drawing. We will be suspending this sculpture from the ceiling in our space. In Norm's words, we are "ambitious!"

Along with the suspended object, we plan to construct a screen and project a video behind the sculpture. The video will show footage of our path, information on GPS drawing, among other things.

We really liked this idea and how it blends art and technology together, GPS drawing is a relatively new practice that most people probably won't know much about, so we hope that by creating an installation piece and presenting some visuals to attract the viewers attention, they me become interested in learning more, and we hope that the viewer will find it as interesting as we do!