WeiJIA

MESS IS MORE

[weijiagu]

 Reflection   |   Final Outcome

working in the studio, mess is more, I have the opportunity to explore the field of experimental typographic and image-making practices by the interactions between humans and machines. At the beginning of the workshop, I learned the conceptual frameworks including  Spin, Turn, Crash ,Burn, Cut and Tear, Drip and Flow.These essential knowledge really help me to build a communicate system in this workshop. I also knew some fantastic artist like Duchamp, Calder and especiallyTinguely, his sculptural machines and kinetic art inspired me a lot in the studio. For the first assessment, I learnt the method of drawing a machine which using different color and transparency to help people to see the inside of my drawing system. Furthermore, we did some practical activities and group works in class, which is a great opportunity to share our ideas. For example, For the project 2 rapid prototype, I really had no idea before we did a game activity until we played Super Mario through consider the fiction and the system of the game, and finally we tried to combine our prototype and other group's prototype together. Therefore, I have gained the new understand of the rapid prototype type - exploring, testing and sharing our designs. For the tumblr journal, Sharing idea and research is very important in this class. Everyone had found amazing things in different aspect which might help me to further develop my idea.

The biggest challenge and the most exciting in the studio is final project - working prototype. I have enthusiasm on playing piano and drawing but there no chances to explore more or even combine them in the past few years.  Through playing a music on keyboard to actuate drawing machine to  leave mark was my main direction. Also, the pitch and chord can let drawing arm tocreate different degrees.  Unfortunately, I changed my plan because the previous plan will takes longer than expected after I did some research. However, I found that the vibrations from a speaker and woofer can  create patterns through the movement of objects. The shape of marks are multiple that depend on choice of objects such as cereal and screw. Also the frequency of vibration can be influenced with different instruments in garageband. Therefore, the aim of the sound drawing machine is to record the vibration of sound through the visual language.

Overall,  I am really happy in “mess is more” studio, especially we explored the fields of practice outside of traditional design which can open our thinking on my own work. Andy is being helpful all the time, and the skills I learnt from this subject wasn’t only just building a sound drawing machine but the thinking of the process. I believe that this would really helpful to my future either self project or in the workplace.However, For the next step, I will make a bigger system with more speakers and woofers on a stage which can let people to play and to create their drawing.

[weijiagu]

Final drawing system

[weijiagu]

[weijiagu]

Research   |   Spectromorphological notation of 'Les objets obscurs'

3 weeks ago, andy introduced a interesting app to me called “The Decibel ScorePlayer’’ which is an ipad application that enables network-synchronised scrolling of proportional colour music scores on multiple tablet computers. Now I found another interesting video shows the application of spectromorphological notation of the 3rd section Åke Parmerud's 'Les objets obscures', using the Sonova font.

[weijiagu]

RESEARCH 

A drawing machine that uses  loud music to move a drawing implement

[weijiagu]

[weijiagu]

Work with others  |   Cooperation

My drawing machine created by the vibrations from a speaker and various objects to create patterns. At the first step of the plan, Tan and I found a 10 Paper Cone Woofer in Jaycar,  which is a  excellent for replacement or for new speaker design constructions. My friend Jay(electronic engineering student) told me some Knowledge on circuit board for the test and gave me a lot of useful suggestion. I’m excited and happy to see next step.

[weijiagu]

[weijiagu]

Experimental music notation  |  Research

[weijiagu]

Evan Holm's Drawing Machine  |  Research

We can create a unique work of art with Evan Holm’s Drawing Machine . This participatory artwork involves a modified grand piano whose keys activate ink brushes to create a drawing when “played” on a continuous stream of paper. Stop by to see this incredible piece and collaborate on a drawing. 

[weijiagu]

Week 9  |  Rapid prototype

My rapid prototype developed on the sound drawing machine. I will use 88 digital keyboard, a micro controller and A drawing machine with two servo motors. for the funcition and the concept in my prototype, seven colors used to represent the scale which are do, re ,mi, fa, sol, la, si. when I play ‘DO, RE, MI’’ on the keyboard, the machine will leave mark from “Do” to ‘ MI ’and stop on ‘ MI ’ key, which also means a small degree will be created by the machine. However, a big degree will created on the paper when I play ‘ DO,MI,SI ’ because there is a big gap between ‘ DO ’ and ‘ SI ’on the keyboard. In addition, when I play the keyboard faster or slowly and the drawing will move faster or slowly.

[weijiagu]

work with Amme and Tan   |   Week 8

[weijiagu]

Week 7

[weijiagu]

Week 7  |  Practical activities | Work with other groups

This week we continued to develop our Rapid Prototypes through practical activities that using recycled cardboard boxes, plastic bottles, and other found materials. My group tried to playing Super Mario through consider the fiction and the system of the game, and finally we tried to combine our prototype and Amme’s prototype together.  We discuss in class that a rapid prototype is like a conceptual sketch in 3D useful for quickly exploring, testing and sharing our designs. A rapid prototype is more like an open question, and not a polished, final product with determined outcomes.

[weijiagu]

Week 6   |   Plan

This drawing using color to show the details and inside system of three robots, including LED lights, motors , printed circuit boards and so on. The robots have front and back arms with pen holders. The back arm is flexible and interactive with other robots. The interesting thing is the drawing robots can working in dark space because I will use uv light instead of normal led lights on the part of robot’s eye. 

[weijiagu]

Week 4  |  Class activities

In today’s afternoon, we worked with Andy’s drawing machines which is a lovely robot vehicle that draws directly onto the ground though connected our computers and phone's app.  We created our own drawings, typography and pattern through working with others and using phone controller.

[weijiagu]

Week 3  |  Class activities

In today’s class we start to experiment with the group project that we use small electric clocks to slowly turn typographic shapes. Andy also demonstrated the parts that make up my little “mechanical drawing creatures”, namely the different types of electric motors. For class activities，I  brought my toys and tried to interact with a electronic mouse toy. I’m interested to see how the mark can be created interactively by these toys. In addition, we further exploring the concepts of spin and turn by learning some essentials in electronics, robotics and drawings.