Workshop 2 Projects

So Semester 2 is officially finished...
Here are a few short videos of some some projects I did using Pure Data, Flash and Arduino:

Hunt Museum Project Complete

This morning Dominique Bouchard from the Hunt Museum will be coming to the presentation of the Hunt Museum project. My interpretation of the Roman dodecahedron:

A Little R'n'R Time...

...never hurt anyone

Arduino and PD

I'm in the middle of building a basic prototype for my final project at the moment and I'm working on taking readings from sensors connected to the Arduino, using these readings to affect sounds files in PD and then sending the information into Flash to alter graphics. I'm using pduino to get Arduino and PD talking and am in the process of figuring out the PD/Flash connection.
Here's a little sample of Arduino and PD in action. There are two light sensors that pass light readings into PD and these two readings are each controlling the frequency of a waveform. Sounds a bit like bagpipes!

Hunt Project Progress

On Monday I took all my bits and pieces to the workshop in the Schroeder Building in UL. Much thanks to Séamus who gave me a run-through of the band saw and the bending machines. It was nice to be working with my hands away from a computer screen for a change. The piece is coming along nicely now and should be completed over the next couple of days...

Dodecahedron Plan Revised

I've thought about my original plan for building the dodecahedron for the Hunt project (only using circuit boards and LEDs) and have decided that it would be pretty boring. So, I've added some elements. I plan to make some of the sides using circuit boards, some using computer casing and some using the transparent, flexible circuits from the inside of the keyboard. It should give the impression of an object mid-way through construction where the different layers are visible. Kind of like the death star...

... except using

More scavanging

Got up bright and early today and cycled out to Hegarty Metal Recycling to look for more material for the Hunt project. There was loads of great stuff there but we got hunted out by the general manager (after being given permission by the guy at reception!). Dang it.
I managed to get something cool out of an old keyboard I found elsewhere though...

May Update

After a bit of a break at Easter it's back to work. Currently I am developing the concept for my project and working on building a basic prototype using PD, Flash and Arduino.
Also I've been scavenging old discarded electronic devices for pieces that I can use for the Hunt Museum project. I got my hands on 2 old CD players and a digital TV box and busted them open this morning. Some pics...

CD player 1

CD player 2

Digital TV box

The whole bounty!

Ignite Limerick

Last Wednesday (April 6th) I attended the first Ignite night to take place in Limerick. The event was hosted by Limerick IxDA. There were ten presentations made (each using 20 slides, 20 seconds each slide). Two of my lecturers presented: Gabriela Avram on Milklabs and Mikael Fernstrom on various projects he has worked on using PD. Also of interest to me were the presentations by another previous lecturer of mine, Trevor Hogan, on the Ars Electronica festival and the participation by CIT students in 2010 and Dermot McNally's demo of the Open Street Map.
Hopefully there are plans for another similar event soon. Looking forward to it...

Arduino, Piezo, LDR, Djembe ...

Here's a little circuit using the Arduino. The piezo is attached to the skin of the djembe in order to amplify the sound. A potentiometer turns the sound on and off and a light dependent resistor controls the pitch. Good fun +++

Initial Project Presentation

Yesterday I presented my initial research and concept for my final project to Gabriela Avram and the rest of my class as part of the Principles of Interactive Media module. Here are the slides.
I'm thinking of starting a new blog solely for the project as I can only add static pages to this one and would like to keep things separate.

Initial Project Presentation

View more presentations from Colm Walsh.

Dodecahedron in Sketchup

I've just started learning to use Google Sketchup. It's a much more user-friendly environment than 3D Studio Max, which I used to use years ago. It doesn't look as powerful though. I've modelled a dodecahedron so I can visualize what my final piece will be for the Hunt Museum. Here is a simple version:

Next step is to extrude the shapes, create the holes and apply an image map, if that's do-able...

Electronic Dodecahedron Idea

I've been working on an idea for the Hunt Museum installation. I would like to construct a replica of the bronze Roman dodecahedron from PCB electronics boards, that I will design, print and cut, and LEDs. The idea is to print the information about the item (period of history, where found, material, etc) onto the PCB board and then to cut out 12 identical pentagons. I would then construct the dodecahedron from the pieces. At each corner there would be an LED. All LEDs would be connected to another PCB board with a circuit on that tells the LEDs to light up at random. This board would be situated inside the structure. I would also like to hook up a sensor that would increase the speed of the LEDs as the viewer approaches. Ambitious? Definitely, given my lack of experience in this area, but I'm eager to give it a go!
Some sketches I made earlier today...

I started off with the basis of Metatron's Cube:

Then connected all the centres of the circles:

Constructed a dodecahedron using further calculations:

Visualisation of proposed idea:

Arduino Ping Pong Ball Mood Lamp

Over the weekend I did a little project with the Arduino. It's very simple. There are three LEDs (red, green and blue) that randomly fade up and down in brightness and they are placed inside a ping pong ball. The ball diffuses the light and so a constant blending of colours occurs. It's quiet nice but unfortunately the green LED is weaker than the other two so it's not exactly as good as I'd hoped. Here's a short video demonstration:

The Roman Dodecahedron

I've been researching the item at the Hunt Museum. It seems to be a mystery as to what the function of this Roman artifact might have been. The dodecahedron (one of the five Platonic solids) symbolized the spirit, or ether, for the Ancient Greeks but there has yet to be a definitive explanation of this bronze, Roman object. Some suggestions have been: a candlestick holder, dice, a survey instrument, a device for calibrating water pipes, a base for army standards. There has also been presented the theory that it was used for determining the optimal sowing date for winter grain. G.M.C Wagemans presents, in detail, this theory (see article).
A map showing the sites where this mysterious artifact has been found:

Installation at the Hunt Museum

As part of the Contemporary Art in the Public Realm module we have been set a task by the Hunt Museum to build models of the artifacts on display with an electronic theme. The idea is to reconstruct the pieces using scrap electronics. Today we visited the museum to view the pieces on display. There were a few items that caught my attention. First a spiked neck brace and helmet:

Also, there was a spectacle brooch from the Iron Age and a bronze dodecahedron from Roman times (1 - 4 AD):

The dodecahedron, in particular, I am intrigued by as I have long had an interest in sacred geometry. I would really like to choose this piece for the project. Some pictures of the dodecahedron:

There were other items that I thought would be interesting to work on too, including a small chest, a wooden cross, a neck ring and a small comb:

Abandoned Spots around Limerick

I've been noticing many abandoned buildings around the city since I've moved here. I would like to do a series of photographs of these places if time permits. I went to this building on Musgrave St. today mainly to take a photo of the door/gate that leads around to the back. Absolutely fantastic looking.

Digital Sex: Pornography and the Pornification of Society

I just delivered my seminar entitled "Digital Sex: Pornography and the Pornification of Society" this morning as part of the Professional Issues in Digital Media module. Phew! I really enjoyed researching the topic and am thinking of going into further detail on the issue for my final report. I discussed the varying definitions of pornography around the globe as well as pornography in terms of different ethical frameworks: Deontological, Consequentialist, Utilitarian, Feminist, Virtue. I came across some interesting landmark court cases in the states that have had serious consequences for the issue of Internet pornography and pornography in general. I might focus on the debate about virtual child pornography and it's legality and morality for my final report. A slideshow of my seminar can be found here for anyone interested.

Three Interesting Talks

I attended to three interesting talks in the last week.

The first was a talk by Stelarc AKA Stelios Arcadious  in the Crawford Art Gallery Lecture Theatre in Cork and was absolutely fascinating. Stelarc is an Australian performance artist probably most known for implanting an ear created from cells into his fore-arm. He also had a wireless mic fitted into the ear so that anyone could hear what the arm-ear was hearing through the internet. He took the concept even further by implanting a small wireless speaker inside his mouth so that he could make calls through the web, speaking into the arm-ear and listening through the speaker in his mouth!  lot of his work explores the bouderies and relationships between technology and the physical body. Food for thought. Check the Stelarc site for more. A very interesting character.

The second was delivered by Fabiano Pinatti, a PhD student at the Interaction Design Centre in UL. He discussed his area of study and his research methods. He is looking at the idea of Digital Nomads and the Knowledge Economy: "how place, activities and the social world constitute the experience of nomadic users; in what way technologies are shaping people's work/life on the move; what the aspects of mobile interaction that design could meaningfully support are." It was helpful to hear his approach to choosing research paradigms and epistemological and ontological assumptions.
Nomadic Work / Life in the Knowledge Economy website.

The third talk was at the monthly IxDA event at the Absolute Hotel and was given by Prof. Mike Phillips from the University of Plymouth. He focused on sustainable interaction design and towards the end talked bout the ongoing projects by the i-DAT research group at the Centre for Art, Media and Design Research in Plymouth. I picked up some great leads that will be useful for my own research at this.

Performance Art - BrainStroming (!)

Torn Paper Effect (Photoshop)

I've just finished a flyer for a band I used to play with in Padova using this Photoshop tutorial for creating a realistic torn paper effect. Very handy indeed and the result is great. I've wanted to known how to do this for years.

Here's a video of us playing at Ferrara Busker's Festival 2010. It runs for a week every August. Well worth checking out.

Arduino Workshop

I attended a great, albeit short, Arduino workshop today with Sylvain Delbart, a graduate of the Masters in Music Technology here at UL. Having done a research project on Arduino in Semester 1, I was familiar with the hardware and software and had already done a few small projects. I picked up a lot of useful tips from Sylvain today and set up a a potentiometer and a proximity sensor to input values into Arduino that were fed into Max MSP and used to control the pitch and volume of a sine wave. A valuable experience..

Here are a few images of the setup and a short video of the Arduino/Max setup in action: