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Enjoyed spending some time on my dycp project 'Fabricating Sculptural Instruments to see, hear and feel the natural world this week. I've been combining old work with new ideas - using a wind power circuit to connect to an ATtiny85 to explore possibilities of wind powered animated lights. I've also been looking into using solar power and capacitors to make simple circuits without needing batteries. I'm looking forward to developing ideas and working with fabricators thanks to support from @aceagrams

Soft sculptures exploring energy and pain level displays for people with musculoskeletal conditions

Three prototype interfaces to visualise energy levels and pain for people with musculoskeletal conditionals. All of the pieces are designed to be incorporated into clothing. Two of the pieces focus on communicating energy levels, one shows ‘bars’ of energy as LEDs which is controlled by tracing a circular motion over a sensor. The second uses a similar system where a linear motion is used to change the colour of three LEDs. With both pieces, the wearer is free to share the meaning of the different coloured light displays or to maintain their privacy. This would allow them to non verbally communicate energy levels or levels of pain. The work relates to that of Madeline Alsmeyer née Balaam and a group of researchers who devised the ‘Subtle Stone’ designed for children to non verbally communicate their emotions through changing the colours of lights. The third pieces is a heat pad which is operated by a soft sensor to sooth an area of pain. As the the pad heats a pattern is revealed using heat sensitive (thermochromic) ink. The pattern is based on pain drawings - peoples interpretations of the different sensations of pain. The piece is a prototype for a wearable system being developed as bespoke pieces made to suit the needs and based on an individuals pain drawing. The work is part of a project with Cornbrook creative and design for msk

Prototype for a heatpad which reveals a pattern

Testing out different soft sensors and switches for a wearable heat pad to soothe pain for people with musculoskeletal conditions. The heat pad would also display a pattern using thermochromic ink and conductive thread.

More Soft Potentiometer & Neopixel tests

Testing using a soft potentiometer to change the colour of neopxiels. This is a prototype display to show energy levels or pain levels of the wearer through a colour coded display. The work is part of a project with Cornbrook creative and design for msk.

Soft potentiometers & neopixel tests for a wearable display

Prototypes for a project with Cornbrook creative and design for msk. The displays would show energy or pain levels for people with musculoskeletal conditions.

#wearables muscoskeletal

Thermochromic Ink Circuit with Soft Pushbutton

Conductive thread stitched to make the circuit and heat the thermochromic ink which disappears when it reaches the right temperature. The voltage needs to be about 9v to cause the thread to heat, but be careful not to leave it on for too long as the thread can burn. You can make heat controlling circuits with a microcontroller to switch the the circuit on and off at intervals so it doesn’t overheat but. For simplicity I’ve used a soft pushbutton made with conductive tape and wadding with a .

I used thermochromic pigment from proto-pic mixed with acrylic base. Maplin also sell it online in readymixed form as well as SFXC who have a wide range some of which change colour rather than going transparent.

The thread is from cool components - it is worth testing out different threads, they need to have a certain amount to resistance in order to heat up.

#e-textiles #wearables #wearable technology #thermochromic #soft-circuits

DIY Soft Potentiometer using Resistive Tape

I’ve used resistive thread from Plug and Wear attached to ‘eyes’ from hook and eyes at either end. Each end is stitched to the bottom half of a popper using conductive thread. The wires have been soldered to the top half of each popper so clip on. One wire goes to 5V and another to GND The slider is a fishing swivel which I bought hoping it would be conductive and it is. The swivel is is on a long piece of conductive thread and attached to a wire via a popper again. This wire goes to an analog pin to read the values from the potentiometer. I’ve used the code from the Arduino Bar Graph tutorial also shows how to set up an LED array.

#e-textiles #wearables #textile sensors #wearable technology

Plant Synths at Critical Kits

I was invited to take part in ‘Critical Kits’ a symposium exploring participatory art using technology.

http://domesticscience.org.uk/criticalkits.html

The symposium was organised by Re-Dock a Liverpool based Arts Collective. As part of the day I was asked to run my plant synth workshop with the other participants of the symposium. It was a great opportunity to get feedback from artists and makers but also to discuss artists kits within a critical framework.

Redock: http://re-dock.multilogue.org/

Documentation from the day: https://gitlab.com/redock/critical-kits

Sci-Fi Light Drawings for START at the Atkinson

I'm working on the START project at the Atkinson, funded by Children and the Arts. I am working with three different schools for children with special educational needs. We look around the current exhibition and then create work in response. Recently we have been looking at "May the Toys be with you" an exhibition of Star Wars toys and posters. For the workshops we have been using a light drawing programme called 'light paint live'. Each pupil had a turn making an experimental drawing using fairy lights, torches, LEDs Light sabres and other light up toys. This allowed the pupils to see how the programme worked and understand how they could create different effects by moving the lights in different ways and at different speeds. Light painting programmes are a great alternative to traditional light painting as the image appears as you draw it. This makes it far easier to understand, the image can also be mirrored making it more instinctive. After experimenting we created sci-fi images which could be used as film posters. The workshop was designed for pupils on the autistic spectrum, we used plenty of props, masks and figures to act out scenes.

Touch Responsive Mural at the Atkinson

I was asked to make an interactive Mural for the Artbox at the Atkinson Gallery during the May the Toys be With You exhibition. I used a bare conductive touch board and bare paint to make the mural responsive. It played different sounds when each character was touched.

I've put a few examples on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DUhYZu0ZTc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfMu_lAN1Xs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrSpFio4-VU

ATTiny85 & Neopixel e-textiles for Make:Shift:Do at Does

I run a wearables group with Jackie Pease at DoES Liverpool. We planned a workshop in the wearables group, which I ran on the day Make:Shift:Do. Rather than using a Gemma for each person which was over of our budget, we used ATTiny85's.

Wind Triggered illumnating Windsocks for 'Flock'

Testing the wind triggered LED windsocks for my installation 'Flock' which will be shown in Blackpool. This version uses a tilt switch to switch the LEDs on and off with the wind.

Final Circuits for Wind Powered and Wind Triggered Windsocks

After a lot of experimentation I have finalised the circuits for the wind powered and wind triggered windsocks. The wind powered ones use low inertia solar motors, these work better than standard DC motors or stepper motors. I still used the circuit outlined in this instructable

Junior Wind Turbine

The circuit uses a Joule Thief to power the LEDs from the low voltage generated but the motor. I am able to power up to 9 superbright LEDs using this circuit and the solar motor. I used diffused white LEDs to give an even glow. The circuit requires a hand wound ferrite toroid, this makes a huge difference to how well the circuit works. I tried different types of toroids and wires to get th right combination, I used the largest toroid i could without the circuit becoming to heavy and the thinest insulated wire.

This is a useful step by step guide to making a Joule thief.

Evil Mad Scientist Joule Thief

The wind triggered version uses a tilt switch stitched into the inside of the windsock near the opening. The wind lifts the windsocks and triggers the tilt switch lighting the LEDs. For this version I used waterproof LED strips which need 4.5v and are powered by batteries.

Wind Powered LED Windsock

Testing out the final design of the Wind Powered Windsock for 'Flock' and installation of 70 wind responsive windsocks which will be shown on the Blackpool Coast. I've The wind wasn't very strong and was enough to light all of the LEDs. I filmed it underneath a street light to to see how well it would show up with some ambient light.

#wind power

Testing Wind Powered Windsocks and Fittings

I've been testing out some of the prototype windsocks in Blackpool. I have been working with Seamster Joe Booth who will be making the windsocks. The group were undecided between blue and orange, after testing them, the orange show up a lot better, particularly at dusk. The circuit needs some tweaking as its not generating enough power/ brightness. I'm going to exeperiment with a few different motors. I've been desiging holders for the mini wind turbines so they can be attached to lamposts or other locations, they could also be attach to rope to be put up across the street.

Prototyping Wind Responsive Windsocks

I've been working on a project with LeftCoast in Blackpool, working with a group of residents from the North Shore. I'm prototyping windsocks that illuminate in the wind to create an installation responding to the strong winds on the coast. I'm working on two types, one which is powered by the wind, this needs stronger winds to power it, I have based my circuit on the one used in this instructable.

Junior Wind Turbines Instructable

The circuit needs to be simple and cheap so it can be mass produced as we want to make at least 70 windsocks half or more of which will use this circuit. It also needs to be light so that it can be attached high up easily and be low risk if it did fall.

The other is a wind triggered version, it will be battery powered so it needs to be sensitive enough to be triggered by lower winds and breeze. As a first prototype I have used two pieces of conductive rip-stop nylon to form a switch. The pieces will be stitched into the inside of the windsock so when the wind blows through the sock the the circuit will complete and the sock will light up.

conductive rip-stop nylon from cool components

Museum Workshops at the Atkinson

As part of the summer programme at the Atkinson in Southport I ran the museum engagement workshops. These responded to a different theme or object from the museum each week over the summer holidays. This video is from a session inspired by the Dan Dare comics by Frank Hampson, participants designed their own aliens and we used a

bare conductive touchboard

to add sound effects to their designs

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