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@g-klapproth-creativetech-blog
Sound Image Space submission. One thing I would like to mention about the setup was that I would of liked the Wall to be more straight instead of curve. But in order to fit my TV's in the space without intruding into others and having the power in a handy place I had to go with a slight curve.
Final Setup
After some long hours and continuous problems we finally finished our project for marking. We wanted our setup to relate with our first idea which was Clunky coming from a post-apocalyptic era, but also wanted to show our theme of reusing and recycling. Initially we wanted Clunky sit on two plinths and create an environment around him. This changed and we decided we could make our own plinths using tires and old wood which still allowed us to create a minimal environment. The reason for having a minimal environment and not having loads of rubbish and old recycled materials everywhere was because didn’t want to clutter our space too much as we wanted the main focus to be Clunky and the App. One of the last changes to our project was to use headphones. We found this more appropriate because since our MP3 shield gave in and the sound wouldn’t be coming out of the speaker anymore. Therefore it was only right that we make the translator app feel more like a translator by feeding the sound coming out of the app to the headphones. Even though this was our plan B we still found it worked well with Clunky.
Demonstrating Clunky
TV Wall – Gareth Klapproth
TV Wall – Gareth Klapproth
Concept For this installation piece I have continued to explore my main themes of studio which are: what is the future of technology and nature, and how nature and technology could co-exist? However this time around I was also interested in what I like to call the unknown answer which is communicating a message without giving them any answer. I would like to display some information and would like the audience to interpret the received information in their own unique way. My initial idea to communicate this message was through the exploration of magnification. The idea around magnification came from my original concept of the unknown answer, where I linked that if you have an unsolved answer you need to look deeper into the question or what I like to say ‘magnify’ the question and look at all possibilities. When starting out on the experimentation of magnification I found myself taking the cliché route of using physical magnification on an image, I realised that the word magnification means make (something) appear larger than it is, or to praise highly; glorify something (Magnify. (n.d.)). This realisation made my project steer in a different direction as I was looking at different ways to glorify my message or having the audience feel like they were being engulfed in a message.
Execution Now that the conceptual foundation was present I started to think about how I was going to present my message. I started experimenting again with an old 1990’s analogue TV, where I found one single moving image on a screen does not magnify my message across enough. This triggered a little obsession about all of the old analogue TV’s that were being thrown away due to the digital switch over, where this got me thinking about reusing some of those old nostalgic forgotten TV’s. I’m a person who loves to reuse, and by using the biffed TV’s again it gave me satisfaction that the TV’s would have one more chance to shine before hitting the dump. I decided in the end that I would like to use multiple TV’s to showcase my work. After doing some research I found an artist called Nam June Paik who was a master of stacking TV’s and displaying moving images on them. I was drawn to his work at first glance and instantly got inspired to carry on his legacy through my own themes. Another important aspect of my project was what images would be displaying on the TV’s. I put together two loops of moving images; First was a set was images that were going to cover most of the screens via UHF transmission which was the Technology progression loop, and the second loop which I wanted to play on only one television was the Nature Loop. The technology loop consisted of our daily life activities and also the progression of technology. I made the loop of the technology video black and white and quite short as I wanted to show how fast technology is developing. The sound for the video was aimed to be a confusing static mix with some important questions about technology and the future.
The natural loop was a set of images I filmed which I believe represents nature. All the images have slow moving actions that would relax the viewer. The sound was a combination of birds singing, waves crashing and leaves rustling. The loop was to be much longer than the Technology loop as I wanted to show the contrast, also the sounds from the Technology loop was going to overpower the natural loop and hopefully getting people to think about how technology might be taking over our lives.
The orientation of the 14 TV’s I managed to source was to be in a wall format like Nam June Paik’s design. I wanted the Natural loop to be placed in the centre where it would be overwhelmed by the surrounding Technology loops. The power of my project came about when the lights were switched off and where the light emitted from the TV’s were being reflected off the shiny vinyl floor; this is when I finally realised how engulfed you were by the TV’s and my message.
Clunky app with the sounds
Decided to make a video and upload a video of the sounds which Simon created so everyone can have a listen without using the app or watching a video.
A video with the head working and the movement of the servo after fixing the springs. Getting there.
Video of head working!
I made some quick sounds on the app for testing purposes. The sounds were just my voice but could be easily replaced with other sounds. We also decided to have multiple of each emotions so you wouldn't be bombarded with the same sound every time.
Now that we have the servo kind of working which was caused by a power issue and not the code; the DC motors, RGB eyes, and the small hobby servo are now running fine with the app we decided it would be a good time to glue and position everything onto the head. The result with the lights off were amazing. The movement of the eyes which are random look like Clunky is looking around the room and the motors behind the eyes definitely give another dimension to his head. Getting this to work definitely improved our moral and ambition to get everything done. With this done we also tackled the head movement again. Although this time our mindset was thinking outside of the box and we noticed that one of the springs wasn't pulling but actually causing more harm than good. After repositioning the spring the head seemed to move a lot more free. Last thing to do is to sort out the timing on the servo for the different emotions then we are well on track to finishing everything on time. Yay! Watch the video of it working!
Forgot to add this video. We were having trouble with the tension of the chain and I remember someone saying to put another cog in the middle to increase the tension. The problem was that we didn't have another cog to put in. So remembering this I found what I could which was a rod which just stretches the chain upwards a bit. The result was better as the more tension in the chain the easier it was for the servo to move the head. Still needs more refinement though.
Video showing what was happening when we had the wrong usb cable in. Cool... Hope mark can reply to our email. Although I still have the feeling he's enjoying his time in Fiji.
Today we are at a point where we need to get some more stuff done other than the servo movement and all the problems. I was out helping someone else for a couple of hours so I asked Simon if he could work on the sounds for the emotions and questions. Getting them done so that I can code in the sounds will save so much time. When I returned to see what sounds he had done I was very impressed to see that both our visions were alike. The sounds were high pitched and static like. Now that the sounds were all on drop box I was able to do my final coding to test these sounds. Whilst coding Simon decided to fit a plate onto the side of clunky to support his side better also it would help keep the servo from moving in and out.
2 Arduinos
Now that most of my app was done I have more time to help Simon with his side of things. We have had a couple of problems merging the code together. The sound and servo are the worst because they both require serial inputs. I put out an idea that now we have 2 Arduinos why we don’t control the inside of the head with another Arduino because these movements will be random. This also saves us some time trying to get the code working together. Time is definitely what we don’t have.
App progress
So, my application works with the code Simon has been working on I made a copy of the application for Simon so he could still work on the code while having the test app running. Now that we have a solid foundation for the code I can start working on the aesthetics of the App. The first thing I need to figure out is the questions. Last time we wanted something which was like a type writer and I found having all those timers a nuisance. After a while of thinking I came up with an idea to make a .gif image which I can make which could just be displayed. I tried uploading a test .gif to an image box onto the app but it would move… So I had another problem to solve, how I was going to get these gifs to show. To be honest it didn’t take me long to solve, because I was thinking what If I display the gif using the internet or a browser of some kind? And thank the MIT app gods they had a web browser attachment. I treated the Webviewer as an image box which worked and displayed my test .gif. Although the only problem was that we needed internet for the questions to show. Another improvement was putting the answers in a list picker which just tidied up the app a bit more and allowed me to code more universally. The aesthetic look I was going for was more of the minimalistic look as I don’t want the app to overpower what our actual objective was which was to view and enjoy the connection with Clunky.
Problems after problems
Course change
Getting everything to work at the same time was always an issue and have been spending way too much time on it, we have emailed Mark asking for some advice or help but we have yet to have a reply; I hope he is having a wonderful time in Fiji. Anyway, we managed to solve a portion of it by resending another case via the App to over write the current case being sent which would somehow allow the previous loop to run smoothly. So in that said we had everything running and working at the same time, and we thought na we don’t need to film it as it was late at night already and that we can film it at university when it is a bit lighter. Rock up to uni, NOTHING WORKS. Typical our luck. From then on we spent 5 hours debugging the code and hardware to find out what the hell was going on. However we did manage to make things more reliable by making sure pins were in the right place, replacing cables and other components that looked a bit dodge, and by wasting more money by buying another servo. 5 hours later still no luck and I could see Simon and I losing hope to solve this issue. I remember reading or hearing something about how some USB cables were shit. So out of the blue I was like to Simon try replacing the long cable with the original short cable. We weren’t expecting anything until it worked. The whole time it was the $1 USB cable from Japan that caused our whole project not to work.
Excited that it was working Simon decided to test the power supply he got from the electronic shop to see if it would work with the Arduino. It blew. It blew something in our circuit. Back to square one. No sound, and things don’t work. We tried to see what short circuited but couldn’t see anything damaged all that would happen is that the Arduino would receive no power. I decided to test it again when Simon went to work. I figured out that it thankfully was only the Mp3 shield which short circuited. So we have no time to order a new one and no one in NZ sells the same chip. In the back of my head while coding the app I always thought that if the sound from the shield didn’t go to plan we could use the app for sound. We both made the executive decision to scrap the sound coming from Clunk’s body. Which meant I’m back to coding the app again!
I manged to make all of the gifs for the questions. This took me ages to do as I needed to create individual images for each word. Also when uploading them I didn't want a watermark which most gif makers slap on. But, the only one which didn't put a watermark on was one that decreased the quality a little bit. Although the quality has been decreased it makes more sense as it has been translated and it isn't perfect. It also goes well with the whole them of Clunky, him being a little bit clunky.