(mis)adventures

Things I make. Places I go. Activities I enjoy.

[thea-rae]

Can machines convey an emotive state through movement?

I’ve created mechanical creatures that wiggle, wobble, and sway. They are a new species that evolved in our tech-saturated and sedentary world. These creatures are my attempt to help machines experience a state of ease and playfulness, and to inspire whimsy in those around them.

These creatures have currently evolved into three different species--Juleractis, Maratuglans, and Aureiladilldium--each with its own anatomy. Their presence and emotional qualities are directly related to their form and method of actuation . They all drink the life juice of electricity, but each metabolizes it in different ways: magnetic fields, vibration, oscillating motors, the push and pull of springs. With each evolution they grow into more complex organisms capable of new varieties of wiggles. And like most creatures, they grow old and weary with time until eventually their joints weaken, leaving their still, skeletal structures behind.

[thea-rae]

my grad school thesis ATM

Shimmer: an exploration of mechanized wiggling

What is a wiggle? The reverberation of force fluctuating through an object or a body part? Or is it an emotion, the playful shimmering of our bodies when we relax into them? Can a machine convey an emotion perceptible to humans through a wiggle?

Description

I am making a series of whimsical wiggling machines incorporating simple lines, organic forms and the sounds created from the frequency of their movement. The machines will be made from plastics, metal, wood and simple electronics. They will be made in a range of scale and materials to best capture the essence of a wiggle and to best convey the experience of mechanized motion. The works will focus on producing emotive wiggling through simple actuators--magnets, solenoids, pulleys and levers--while amplifying the motion through the ambient sound and refraction of light created by the movement. As of now, the forms are small and a lightweight mylar alternative, but as they grow in size their materiality will change in order to craft replicable wiggling motions. I hope to create one that is large enough for people to stand inside of the wiggle, but first I will focus on making smaller works to tease out the mechanics needed to convey a carefree wiggle mechanically.

Research Process

I’ve been researching wiggle-esque motion throughout ITP; I began creating wiggle machines my third week at ITP in Automata. At the time, I was attempting to create machines that would mimic sea anemones. I experimented with different materials, actuators, and shapes, but I failed to capture the essence of a wiggle. My work with nitinol is the closest I’ve come, but even those sea inspired creatures sway lazily, unlike the faster wiggle I imagine is possible. I’ve begun experimenting with different semi-flexible materials and methods of actuation from physical pressure in the form of a shove and the magic of magnetism. I want to distill the essence of a wiggle and replicate it through inorganic materials, and to do this I've been experimenting with varying the thickness of material, length and amount of force to produce different wiggles. I have also studied the works of artists including Theo Jansen, U-ram Choe, Tokujin Yoshioka, Numen / For Use, and Studio Drift for inspiration.

Personal Statement

Movement is my obsession, my passion, and my love. I live to move and move to feel alive. I strive continuously to be present in my body and true to its whims. In movement there is freedom and constraint: we ask of ourselves as proper humans to walk on two feet, sit in chairs, stand in lines--yet when we are happy, uninhibited and relaxed we wiggle, jiggle, slither and slide. Children are a perfect example of this. They move without the limits of social perception or expectation; they move freely, expressing their curiosity through movement. These wiggling machines are a portrait of my idealized self, sculptures that move in the free and fluid way I wish I might at all times. My hope in creating work that expresses movement is that I might inject some small bit of whimsy back into the overly civilized world.

Progress...

Over the last couple of weeks I have been researching materials, actuators and scale. Last week I focused on how sound might play a role in what a wiggle machine looks and feels like. I used the constraint of sound to lead me to the soft arches of Dur-a-lar to make the first prototypes of what a wiggle machine might look like.

Here are some of my early tests:

I have been looking at other artists making kinetic and playful work. (see bibliography for links)

U-Ram Choe’s work has always been an inspiration for me. His implementation of delicate materials to create elegant line and whimsical movement captures my imagination. I hope to incorporate a similar elegance and whimsy to my wiggle machines.

Theo Jansen’s work is an inspiration in the way that he has created a narrative around these creatures. Their origin story makes them all the more magical and captivating to me.

I’ve also been looking at a lot of actuators, and how I might repurpose them to make whimsical wiggling machines. This brought me back to my first weeks at ITP when I was making experiments for Automata. I realized I need to let go of the form for a moment and tackle the movement before returning to the form, and then if the form and movement come together i can look at how the creature plays with humans.

Bibliography

Brown, Stuart L., and Christopher C. Vaughan. Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul. New York: Avery, 2009. Print.

Corwin. “Electromagnetic Actuator.” Instructables.com. Web. 15 Feb. 2016.

“Choe U Ram.” Choe U Ram. Web. 02 Feb. 2016.

“DIY Super Electromagnet.” YouTube. YouTube. Web. 15 Feb. 2016.

“Electromagnetic/Anti-Gravity Levitation Device.” YouTube. YouTube. Web. 15 Feb. 2016.

“Magnets Fall Slowly Due to Eddy Currents.” YouTube. YouTube. Web. 15 Feb. 2016.

Marom, ADI. “Adi Marom – PORTFOLIO » Archive » SHORT.” Adi Marom PORTFOLIO RSS. Web. 15 Feb. 2016.

“My Keepon.” – Official Site. Web. 02 Feb. 2016.

“Mini Beasts | Books Beast Photos Events Theo Jansen Contact.”STRANDBEEST. Web. 02 Feb. 2016.

Roberts, Dustyn. Making Things Move: DIY Mechanisms for Inventors, Hobbyists, and Artists. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. Print.

Scherz, Paul, and Simon Monk. Practical Electronics for Inventors. 3rd ed. Print.

“The World of Len Lye | Govett-Brewster Art Gallery | Len Lye Centre.” The World of Len Lye | Govett-Brewster Art Gallery | Len Lye Centre. Web. 02 Feb. 2016.

[thea-rae]

bookmarklet

my bookmarklet replaces all text on a page with om nom nom and omnomnomivore. Pictures are replaced with cute dinos and links take you to urbandictionary’s page on dinos. 

normal page:

hacked page:

[thea-rae]

Can we preload babies for being linguistic geniuses? 

[thea-rae]

Score for charades

[thea-rae]

View this post on Instagram

I love the stills from this.

[thea-rae]

View this post on Instagram

snippet from the editing process.

[thea-rae]

tiled screens

I have been trying to make a piece that has a grid of tiled screens. I want them to function as sets of pairs. I have been trying to figure out how people do this with hobby electronics and keep coming up short.

I got this TFT screen from adafruit, but it is too small and won’t actually do a gif animation with the fps that I desire.

I looked into the Rz Pi, but that is cost prohibitive as it would be roughly 80$ per unit multiplied by 10(ish/for now)

I now have moved on to looking at cheap cell phones... I am debating about using a website or hacking the phone to loop the videos. 

http://www.uscenes.com/how-to-make-a-video-loop-on-android-tablets-and-phones/

http://www.amazon.com/TracFone-306G-Contract-Phone-Packaging/dp/B00JG3M47E/ref=sr_1_2?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1448999209&sr=1-2&refinements=p_36%3A2491155011

http://www.amazon.com/LG-Optimus-Exceed-Verizon-Prepaid/dp/B00K2XX4OY/ref=lp_2407748011_1_1?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1448999162&sr=1-1

[thea-rae]

MyLife in a week

I wanted to make something that could share my life with enough detail to feel invested, but not so much that it would be too invasive for me to show friends and family.

My site looks is a self portrait of sorts. It acts as a way of tracking me and my life in concrete, yet abstract manner. It summarizes my life in hour chucks I choose based on what I was doing for the whole of the hour or whatever I am doing when logging the data.

Time, location, and activity were my main focus. I am not interested in a history of my life so much as the portrait of a week. A week is only 7 days a period that slips by swiftly. This exploration allows me to reflect on my week as a whole while not dwelling on the past. 

It can be found here: https://bitchplease.herokuapp.com/

code lives here: https://github.com/Thea-rae/myLife

[thea-rae]

Crowd sourced analog tracking of the word "like". I didn't discriminate against the way I used it, but I did start speaking more slowly and relying on "such as", "adore", "love", and "as in". In the 5.5 days I spent tracking it I reached 198 tick marks on both my arms. I used teal to mark on the day and would then redraw the marks in black each morning to ensure their vibrant persistence throughout the week.

[thea-rae]

Analog data collection of the number of times I say the word "like". Sunday's record is on the right. Monday's at present is on the left side of my arm. (I will start a new color for each day moving forward.) #1 10:00 #2 14:00 #3 16:00 I am not discriminating based on usage at this time. I was asked if this is in effort to stop saying it, or simply a record. I am interested in how the knowledge that I am saying will effect the amount it comes up. It may effect a behavioral change, but that is not currently the goal. My pride, however, does not enjoy the number of instances I have accrued today. Next week I may try logging a word I adore saying to see how many times I can say it in contrast to a filler word.

[thea-rae]

Melissa Lozada-Oliva - "Like Totally Whatever" (NPS 2015)

This came up on my feed today. Perfect opposition to the other poem I posted today. I am interested in Lozada-Oliva’s strong perspective on “like”, “um” and “ya know”. This is a very powerful statement in favor of choosing to keep them as a conscious aspect of my spoken vocabulary. 

Will knowing how frequently I say “like” alter my use of the word? Would I want to edit out words such as, hella, rad, and wicked or keep them as well? I guess this is making me think more about what I want to investigate in my speech and what might I actually want to change... Yay research! 

[thea-rae]

Anne Curzan: What makes a word "real"?

This is also an important consideration in how I approach my speech tracking project. Especially because I enjoy leveraging silly words such as “cash monies”, “friendzies” and “noms” to list a few. 

Soooo much to think about...

[thea-rae]

Killing the Speech - "Modern" Kids losing Language and Confidence? - Obs...

This poem/animation looks at what frustrates me most about contemporary language. It is also the impetus behind my current exploration of my own verbal behaviors. 

[thea-rae]

Speech tracking wearable research

What I think I want it to be:

A device which gives its user haptic feedback on words they don't want to over use ie: like, so, um. tracks daily word diversity, most common words, and links to a calendar to to see these differences in relation to activities. At some point it would also look at pacing, pitch, intonation and volume.

I have been researching technologies, habits, speech therapies, how I can use a device to help others, and how I can potentially craft my speech. 

I have reached out to some researchers at NYU and an alum of ITP in hopes of speaking with people who’ve worked with speech and tech or are looking into speech habits and how they form. As of right now no one has gotten back to me, but I keep finding new people to contact.

I also reached out to EE friend of mine in hopes of getting some technological insight. He reminded me that Batteries would be the number one hurdle for a wearable that’s always on and processing speech. He also pointed out that tracking single syllable words would be a difficult task. 

I am a bit overwhelmed with information at this moment and want to start recording my speech and manually entering it. I am interested in seeing the process from a practice standpoint before I create a device. I am curious how much my goals will evolve through a manual practice and getter understanding of my own voice. 

I just got my two recorders and will be attaching them to myself as jewelry soon. I think I will also need to speak with a couple jewelry designers about the design for the project.  

I do, however, believe that I will need to build many prototypes this fall to even have a hope of making something work by the spring. 

I am thinking earrings, necklaces, tie clips and maybe a bracelet or wrist band for the haptic feed back. 

My research thus far:

Off the shelf recording hardware:

http://www.penrecorderpro.com/voice-recorder-usb-fd25?gclid=CPahuJqlqcgCFVAXHwodn60Jwg

http://www.amazon.com/Recorder-Activated-Recording-Battery-Extended/dp/B00ANU4P26

http://www.safetybasement.com/21-HRS-VOICE-ACTIVATED-USB-Flash-drive-Recorder-p/sb-v0177.htm

http://www.safetybasement.com/Triple-Action-Micro-Voice-Activated-Recorder-40-hr-p/sb-vr009.htm

//arduino shields

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13316

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/310865303/movi-a-standalone-speech-recognizer-shield-for-ard

http://www.veear.eu

Software for analysis on a big box not a Arduino:

http://speech-analyzer.software.informer.com

http://www.millisecond.com/support/docs/v4/html/howto/analyzevoicerecordings.htm http://www.millisecond.com

http://science.ehc.edu/~shopp/sound.html

http://www.speechandhearing.net/laboratory/tools.php

Speech related talks and researchers:

http://www.victoria.ac.nz/design/about/staff/anne-galloway

http://speakeasy.org.au/smooth_speech.html

http://www.latrobe.edu.au/communication-clinic/communication-clinic-documents/Stuttering-Treatment-for-Adults-and-Adolescents.pdf

https://www.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_how_to_speak_so_that_people_want_to_listen?language=en#t-581690

https://www.ted.com/search?page=1&per_page=12&q=speech

http://jslhr.pubs.asha.org/article.aspx?articleid=1795788

http://www.asha.org/PRPSpecificTopic.aspx?folderid=8589934663&section=Overview

http://s3.amazonaws.com/itp-thesis2014video/ITP%20Thesis%202014_Michelle%20Cortese_0_1400186400452_Large.mp4 //past itp thesis. tried to contact her but no reply yet.

http://www.secretlifeofpronouns.com/author.php

After emailing Leo always listening/battery things to look into:

http://www.wired.com/2015/03/always-listening-tech-isnt-always-creepy/

http://mashable.com/2015/03/16/kapture-hands-on/#E9TsAeyGkPqz

http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1322279 //power

http://www.ceva-dsp.com/CEVA-TeakLite-4

http://www.electronicspecifier.com/mixed-signal-analog/always-listening-soc-facilitates-voice-activation

http://www.bitsophia.com/BitVoicer.aspx

[thea-rae]

I decided not to write my own call for my next project, as I feel it is more meaningful for me to explore this body of work in the context of linguistic field. I looked into calls for papers, proposals and collaborators. I think this type of conference is where I would like to show case my project in a few months time. 

[thea-rae]

I made a thing

it tells you what i’ve been up to-ish

159.203.64.148:8080