Pineapple Pistachio Pie
February 22, 2012
In anticipation of Pi Day I’ve made a Pineapple Pistachio Pie (PiPiPi) recipe to share. The shapes made on the top of the pie are meant to reference Pi; the relationship of the diameter (width) of the inner circle to it’s outer circumference (the distance around the circle).
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Update: Further experiments have shown that other people in the house have decreased the size of Pi when I wasn’t looking.
Pistachio Nut Crust
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 sticks (16 tbsp) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into ½ inch pieces
½ cup finely ground pistachio nuts (preferably unsalted, if salted disregard the salt called for)
4 tbsp granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
4-6 tablespoons cold water
Finely chop the pistachios and then tap the bowl to separate the larger bits from the finer bits. Set aside the larger bits to use as a topping later. In a medium mixing bowl combine the nuts, flour, sugar and salt. Add butter and mix until mixture forms small chickpea-size pieces. Add cold water 1 tablespoon at a time, and mix until it is just moist enough to hold together. Form dough into a ball, divide it into two, wrap each ball with plastic wrap and flatten into discs. Refrigerate for at least one hour before rolling out and baking. Dough can be stored for 3 days in refrigerator or 2 weeks in freezer.
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Pineapple Filling
1 pineapple with top, bottom, skin and spine removed
1 cup granulated sugar
½ cup pineapple juice (from the puree)
Juice of a lime (about 3 tbsp)
1 tsp lime zest
Pinch of salt
¼ tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp cornstarch
3 tbsp softened butter
Cut half of the pineapple into small cubes and puree the other half in a blender. Put the puree into a sieve or clean linen cloth over a bowl with a rubberband to hold the cloth and leave it to drain the excess juice for 10 minutes. While the puree is draining, zest the lime then squeeze out the juice. In a saucepan combine the pineapple chunks, puree, sugar, lime juice and zest, vanilla, nutmeg, cinnamon, butter and salt and stir. Mix the cornstarch with a ½ cup of the left over pineapple juice then add the cornstarch mixture to the pineapple mixture and stir well. Bring to a boil then simmer. Cook for 30-45 minutes stirring occasionally until the texture resembles jam. Remove from heat, cool and set aside.
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Shapes
Set the bottom of the pie pan down on a large piece of heavy paper stock and draw a line around the bottom. Find the middle of the circle with a drafting compass and make a smaller outer rim about an inch away from the outside of the circle and then a smaller inner circle within the outer rim. Divide the outer rim into three equal pieces and a smaller fourth piece. Divide the inner circle in half. Cut out the shapes and set aside.
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Rolling the Dough
Remove discs and allow them to sit at room temperature for 5-10 minutes to soften. To form to the bottom of the pie roll out one disc onto a floured work surface until about 12 inches in diameter and about ⅛ inch thick. Roll from the center outwards and rotate the crust slightly to prevent sticking. Gently fold crust in half then in quarters and transfer to the 9 inch pie pan and press down gently so it lines the bottom and sides of the pan. Trim the edges, leaving about a ½ inch overhang and then fold the edges under to make the rim. Pinch the crust along the edge with your thumb and index finger to crimp the rim. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Take the second ball and roll it out as above. Cut out the shapes, place on a lightly floured cutting board, remove the paper, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. If you wish you can dab the top with a beaten egg mixed with a little milk or water (will make the rim and shapes glossy and golden) before putting in the refrigerator to harden.
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Baking
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Pour the filling into the pie pan and arrange the shapes on top. Place pie in oven (middle rack) on top of a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes then cover the rim with strips of aluminum foil and continue baking for another 35-40 minutes, rotating pan for even baking, until the top is golden brown. Allow to cool on a rack for 30 minutes and refrigerate for a few hours if possible to resist.
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Whipped Cream
1 cup heavy cream, well-chilled
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp confectioner’s sugar
Whisk cream until it is peaking slightly. Add vanilla and sugar and continue whisking until the peaks are firm (about 3-4 minutes). Sprinkle with extra chopped pistachio nuts.
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Bon ApPItite!
Comments (0) | Tags: food, nut crust, pi, pi day, pie, pineapple, PiPiPi, pistachio, whipped cream | More: Food
Diamond Testing
January 30, 2012
We were most of the way through the main course when our host, a goldsmith by trade, started in on a tale from her shop.
“We had a gemologist come in for an appraisal the other day and this guy walks in off the street with a loose stone and asks how much cash he can get for it Right Now. The gemologist takes the stone, draws a line on a sheet of white paper and sets the stone face down on the line and says ‘Nothing.’ Now the guy was obviously high and the stone was likely stolen, but the fact of the matter was that it had failed the line test.”
Back in 2006 I lived in a seedy neighborhood in Boston regularly peppered with night sounds of drunken brawls, smashed car windows and the occasional gunshot. The sidewalks were a mess to walk down; every kind of cast-off human and animal refuse you could think of, piled in drifts. On a nondescript day in May I happened to look down as my foot passed over a shiny bit of walk. I picked up a loose stone, clear cut and sparkling brightly. Not really sure what to do with it, I put it in my jewelry box and scouted the area for postings of lost gems. Months then years went by and I forgot about it.
As I sat there at dinner listening to my friend, my heart picking up in beat remembering the stone I’d found long ago, the excitement of proving it’s worth now catching up and overtaking me, I sped through my tale of the find and spent the next few hours shining memories in my head.
Back at home, my hands hurried and shaking, I drew a line on a sheet of white paper and set the stone face down. As I looked down on the stone I found that I knew it had always been the right kind of nothing.
Ottawa, ON
January 30th, 2012
Comments (0) | Tags: brightening, diamond, dinner party, lost and found, memory, nothing, test, writing | More: Writing
Failed Experiments
January 18, 2012
A few weeks ago I went through all of the photos I’d taken of my experiments with food and electronics and relived the frustration and embarrassment of getting it wrong all over again. There were some experiments that I got *almost* right, but for lack of some knowledge it’s failure highlighted the fact that I was for the most part groping around madly in the dark. As vulnerable as it makes you to expose a creation for your own making to the world, that vulnerability is quadrupled when you expose your mistakes. For all that though, I’d like to share with you my throwaways.
This was my first attempt at growing sugar crystals on LEDs. In the background you can see that I also candied some strings of dental floss, which delighted my dentist friend to no end. I made a massive amount of sugar syrup, spilling half of it into our kitchen stove in the process, and managed to fill the large glass jars. I then sat and waited, and waited, and waited. After about 4 weeks waiting, I discovered that the jars had grown tiny mountains of sugar crystals from the bottom up and that few crystals where actually on the LEDs. I went to drain the syrup and discovered that it is no easy thing to remove a giant crystal of sugar that had attached itself to the bottom of a glass jar, so while waiting with the hot water running full blast on them I remembered that we had some paper cups that were small and easy to rip open. I tried that and it worked!
After that win I got excited and started exploring how to incorporate the candied LEDs into an eco-friendly Christmas decoration. After my experiment with the saltwater powered paper lights I was curious to try different ways to wire the lights to make them more modular. I cut out 6 paper snowflakes, wired the anode and cathode through them and then connected it all together in a a big pretty circle.
Unfortunatly what is pretty is not always functional. This idea did not work because the electricity generated from the electrochemical reaction of the aluminum anode and copper cathode to the saltwater was pulled in too many directions to actually make it to the LED. Ah well.
This smoking disaster was the beginning of an experiment I affectionately call the Caramel Poop Battery. I knew something was terribly wrong after the caramel started to let off heavy tendrils of smoke and burning, but I pressed on for sheer stubborness and lack of knowledge of what would come next.
After pouring the mixture into a pan and letting it set, I dumped it out onto a cookie sheet for cutting. At the ten minute mark of it sitting in the pan cooling it had almost entirely solidified into a buttery blackened mass and I was losing hope fast after attempting to cut it in more than two pieces. Because of the huge amount of butter I used the rock was as sharp as hard candy, hot as hell because the cooled parts were too hard to cut, and intensely slippery. I don’t know how I didn’t cut my hand off trying to get the thing into smaller pieces but I was breathing hard and spewing profanity at the end.
At long last I managed to cut and roll the caramel into tootsie roll shapes with an aluminum anode and a copper cathode wire in the center. I had wanted to make them a bit more rectangular but it just didn’t work out that way. At least, I thought, at least once I hook them up they’ll redeem all the crap I went through!
…no. I stared at the candy, ingraining it into my memory, not letting myself look away from the sad thing my red haze of hubris had created. Then I very quietly snapped a few pictures and swept it into the trash.
A little while after that I started anew and decided to try a different track- molded sugar as a container for the electrochemical components. Wanting to be eco-friendly and thrifty I bought three large potatoes, cut them in half and dug out the centers to act as molds for the sugar shell.
I realized I had a problem in that the bottoms where round and could not stand- not to worry I said, and grabbed a handful of toothpicks to prop them up. I set in place the copper cathode and aluminum anode wrapped tightly within a paper towel soaked in cream of tartar and salt water and suspended it by masking tape and toothpick over the rim of the potato. I thought after they harden I’ll remove the masking tape and the cells will be entirely encased in the candy with only the connecting wires exposed. What a plan! I patted myself on the back.
I made the candy syrup out of dark honey and sugar this time, thinking that the slight electrochemical properties of the honey might add to the output of the cell, and poured the syrup into the molds. At once the middle insert floated to the top and I smacked myself on the head- why didn’t I think of that! and hurriedly added supports to center and stablize the innards.
About 2 hours of cooling off I found that the syrup hadn’t hardened. Curious… and also quite painful as I now had to move the molds into the fridge; molds that were filled with hot sticky liquid with tiny legs that kept breaking and a natural tendency to topple over. I eventually got them into the fridge and jammed together to keep them upright and with a last suspicious look closed the door. The next morning I opened the refridgerator to find that the syrup had still not hardened but had bled out overnight through the tiny holes made with the toothpick legs, leaving the centers exposed and a giant mess everywhere else. Well okay then, I said, scooping up what I could and pouring it into the molds again, this time reinforcing the sides of the potatoes with plastic wrap. A week went by and still the syrup had not set. Finally I was made to throw them out- the potatoes were growing mold and were wrinkled to the point of no return. My theory is that combined with the cream of tartar the honey syrup was able to maintain it’s viscous property and thus ruin the experiment.
A couple successful experiments later, I had made the Sweet n’ Salty electrochemical cells and was testing their stamina daily by juicing it with a 9 volt battery and measuring the energy that remained. I thought, you know what would absolutely crazy but just might work? What if I took the piezoelectric Rochelle salt I made and tried to juice up the cells by whacking it with a stick? Genius!
Sadly, no. Though the salt did produce measurable alternating current after an applied force in a future experiment, it did not by any means charge the cell. It did have the measurable effect of making me feel like a collossal idiot.
Moving on, one of my earlier experiments actually has some hope of a rebirth; the Peanut Butter and Jelly Battery. This previously unpublished project was an attempt to make an electrochemical cell out of a PB & J sandwich. In this experiment I took a sheet of copper, slathered it up with jam and a sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil folded a few times and slathered it up with peanut butter. I then slapped them together and affixed aligator clips to measure the current with my trusty multimeter.
At this point let me say that I had a very vague understanding of how to measure electrical potential, and so was confused as to why it was so low. I was expecting about 1-1.5V to be generated and nothing of the sort was happening. I then cut my sandwich into fours and wove the copper and aluminum through the bits.
Well that was higher, but I still didn’t see why it wasn’t working. I made another sandwich and cut it into 6 pieces and wove the anode and cathode through them again.
Ok higher, but still what was wrong? I discovered later after feeding the sandwiches to my friends I never turned the dial of the multimeter to measure the voltage; I was only incorrectly measuring Amps. Knowing that now, I still postualte that it is possible to generate current from the sandwich. Time will tell.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my mistakes as much as I hope you continue to make your own, as that is the only way we’ll learn to do things well!
Comments (0) | Tags: batteires, candied leds, electrochemical, electronics, experiments, failed, failure, food, mistakes, PB & J, Peanut Butter and Jelly Battery, rochelle salt, sugar cell | More: Projects
Curious Drapery
January 10, 2012
“You can wear the Canadian flag like a cape?!”
“Yep” said my boyfriend.
“You can’t do that with an American flag” I said.
The group of students parted the crowd, chanting and cheering for their country, leaving an easy spot to follow in their wake. My boyfriend fell in behind them and motioned for me to follow. With my mouth still poised making the “w” sound of wow I followed, my eyes more open than they had been before.
Ottawa, ON
July 1st, 2011
Comments (0) | Tags: canada, celebration, country, patriotism, writing | More: Writing
Foresaken
January 06, 2012
Caught in a moment of contemplation gazing at the passersby, my brother casts rather poetic shadows. The light of day almost obscures the double bandage on his arm, a burn sustained by another contemplating moment caught by a hot stove. It’s fascinating to try and guess the actions that shape the hands of strangers, and of people we’ve known for most of our lives. How a finger became bent at such an angle, how a callus formed, how the nails have been used. To sit and regale each other on stories of exciting past scars leaves out the loving living. Time passes and our hands get slower, bowed and cowed by the repetition of conscious and unconscious; the ever faithful servants of our wants and needs, there for all to know and overlook. How is it that I’ve missed your story brother? Why have I been so callous with mine, to not know your hands?
Burlington, VT
June 28th, 2011
Comments (0) | Tags: brother, hands, memory, regret, time, writing | More: Writing
After a Burning
December 23, 2011
Before dawn on the third Sunday in January ’10 a 20 foot by 50 foot space atop a small hill in western Massachusetts was noticed to be burning. The space, beamed with hemlock and made to encapsulate a community of births, weddings, gatherings and deaths for 170 years of human life, took a few hours to burn to the ground. A few hours- what is that? A drive to a nearby city, the time increment a newborn sleeps, a morning spent chopping wood or baking bread.
When we lose spaces such as these, with so many layers of memory built up within the walls, it’s hard not to feel cheated, like the workings of a magic trick revealed, though we have no right to be. Cheated with a touch of chagrin, that we let ourselves be taken, closing our eyes to the laws of the universe for a while, to catch and imprint as permanently as we can into our brains the complex emotions and thoughts that transpire when we come together and share bread.
It had been 5 months after the fire that I took this picture, the remains of the church gutted and corded off, the salvaged singed beams stacked neatly to one side. On top of the granite steps a mysterious plastic box sits, it’s lid partially open on one side, waiting. I stared at the box a long time after taking this picture, noting it’s durable hide and easy-to-carry handles. And for the first time in years, I suspended my knowledge of the laws of the universe and imagined that box full of the memories salvaged from the blaze. The ones that nothing, not even an all-consuming fire, could ever take away.
West Cummington Congregational Church
June 11th, 2010
Comments (0) | Tags: church, community, fire, memory, time, west cummington | More: Writing
Stranger Things
December 13, 2011
I moved into the apartment located at 10 Oliver Road in the fall after graduating from art school. I had spent the summer working at my family’s campground, feeling held in place by the enormity of the milky way and familial bonds. I moved back to the city to make a better life for myself, to be a part of the connected independence of strangers again. The first few months there were some of the darkest in my life. I had massive student loan debt, no job, no lover, few friends.
In this picture you have a view of our kitchen counter, the afternoon sun making streaks of shadows from the crumbs of hurried breakfasts and the amalgamation of four lifetimes of combined stuff. Casero, the law student, was the coffee drinker. Jones, a self-professed jaunty rogue who lived in a constant state of mischievousness, was the manager of a test preparation center and owned the water bottle, microwave, toaster, and had been grandfathered into owning nearly everything else in the apartment. Penney, a willowy AmeriCorps worker who loved Linux and cats owned the plants. I had made the print of the basketball players and wasn’t sure if that meant I owned it or not.
Penney was a bright flame of intellectual vigor and staunch independence. She knew how to take apart her computer and put it back together again, both the hardware and the software. She could make pie. From scratch. She had flings with interesting men and owned at least ten fall jackets, which were her favorite thing to wear. Knowing her eccentricities allowed me to embrace my own.
Casero was a clean man. He had a military-style buzz cut and was clean-shaven the whole time I knew him. He built simple, sturdy wood furniture for our common room and stapled gossamer fabric over christmas lights on the ceiling for the sky we missed while being in the city. He made huge batches of the freshest salsa known to man, which I constantly pilfered from. He owned a pickup truck, listened to a lot of Tori Amos and had six-pack abs with a mind as sharp as a tack.
Jones. Jones, Jones, Jones, Jones, Jones. The man was a scoundrel in the best of ways and my friend before he was my boss. You’d think that would make things awkward, but it didn’t. He had a way about him that drew people into his circle of double-entendres and wiggly eyebrows and made them forget that life wasn’t fun. There was never a serious sentence he uttered that didn’t have the faintest of winks crinkling the corners of his big blue eyes. Educated at Harvard and on his way to his first million when I met him, he was a man who knew the world was and would always be his oyster and delighted in the infinite tastes.
They were all older than me, and at different stages of their lives, busy learning and doing. They had entered the gulf stream of adulthood and were flying quite nicely while I was just moving my arms up and down. As it often happens those movements gained momentum and by the time we were celebrating Jones’ promotion and Casero’s graduation I had found a place in the V of our entwined lives, only to see it break apart, softly stretch so thin that I could barely see these bonds left to strangers.
Watertown, MA
May 30th, 2005
Comments (0) | Tags: city, strangers, youth | More: Writing
Further Testing of Sweet n’ Salty Capacitors
November 17, 2011
After two weeks of measuring daily the electrical potential in a single cell and four cells wired in series, observing physical changes through oxidation/corrosion and multiple recharging and discharging of the cells here are my observations.
From October 30th until November 6th, the daily measured electrical potential without load of four cells in series was 2.2V and .7V for a single cell. From November 6th to November 10th the electrical potential without load of the four cells went from 2.2 to 1.8V and for the single cell from .7 to .6V. After a minute of recharging the four cells on a 9V battery the electrical potential measured 6V and was quickly reduced to it’s resting state of 2V when a load was applied. After a minute of recharging the single cell on the 9V battery the electrical potential was 1.6V, which degraded down to .7V after a load was applied.
The cracked outer shell of the single cell remained intact and there was no leakage of the inner salts. The tops of the cells took on a hardened and bumpy texture, with one cell’s top collapsing slightly when pressed from a trapped pocket of air. Underneath the air pocket was a further hardened surface which lead me to believe that the salt solution had deeply solidified in the shell. From what I could determine there was no corrosion or oxidative effect on either metal in the cells.
I took the cells to Artengine’s Modlab gathering yesterday to perform capacitance tests to see what voltage limits they had and possibly explode them in the process. The starting electrical potential of the four cells was 5V since I had hooked up a 9V battery to them for a bit to show how fast they charged.
We started by running 30V through them in a series circuit which they took easily.
After running 30V through the cells we measured the inside temperature of the cells with an infrared thermometer which came to 25.2 degrees Celsius or 77.36 degrees Fahrenheit.
I then rewired the cells into a parallel circuit, which allowed each of the cells to have their own direct path through the circuit to the power supply instead of a shared path between all the cells to the power supply. So 30V running through each cell instead of 30V running through all cells combined.
While I was rewiring them I had to turn some of the cells on their sides and break a bit of the top to move the wires into place when I did that small drops of salty sugar syrup oozed out of some of them. Here’s a video of the capacitance test:
They took the voltage without bursting, though there was a faint smell of cotton candy in the air most likely due to the newly widened wire holes. You can see from the video that the cells are allowing the increasing voltage to flow through by the increase in milliamps, which measures the amount of electric charge passing a point in a circuit in time.
The two pictures above also show the increase in milliamps corresponding to the increase in voltage applied. After a minute or so of 30V direct power I unhooked them and measured their electrical potential.
The four in parallel had the electrical potential of 1.59V. Then we did a load test of a stepper motor on the cells which totally drained them and the motor did not run.
After taking the load off the cells the electrical potential bounced back to 1.42V.
We then put a 1.5V LED load on the cells and it powered the light rather well.
I was curious to see what the inside of the cells looked like and since one of the cells had slightly come apart from the movement of the rewiring I lifted the solidified salt innards and wires out of the cell.
At the bottom of the candy shell was a small pool of what I can assume was a liquified salt and sugar mixture, which seems to have helped in the exchange of electrons between the two dissimilar metals. The salty plug was moist throughout and gradually harder nearer to where the salts met the air surface of the cell. Here is another picture with the light corrected to show accurate coloring and stratification of the salt plug:
So there you have it! Darcy White, one of the Modlabbers present, also made a post here on the experiments with some great pictures. From my observations and the tests it seems more appropriate to call these objects rechargeable batteries instead of capacitors. I plan to revise the design a bit to see if I can get more out of the cells in the future.
Comments (1) | Tags: alternate energy, capacitor, electronic components, energy harvester, energy storage, homemade, materials test, non-toxic, piezobrine, piezoelectricity, rechargeable battery, sweet n’ salty | More: Projects
Further Testing of Rochelle Salt
I took some of the larger salt crystals to Artengine’s Modlab gathering yesterday to perform a mechanical force test to measure voltage on both an analog and digital oscilloscope. For my first test I constructed a holder for a single crystal out of conductive foam and a small sheet of copper.
I hooked the ground terminal to the copper and tapped on the exposed crystal head with the power probe.
The oscilloscope was set at 10 millivolts per division and auto-triggering so when I started to tap the crystal lightly we saw spikes between 40-50 millivolts. I then clamped the crystal between two pieces of conductive foam and hooked the power and ground probes of a digital oscilloscope to the foam.
After a light tap on the crystal the digital oscilloscope (set in millivolts) recorded quite a large spike!
We were able to record an output of about 100 millivolts from the digital oscilloscope just with light tapping on the crystal. There are 1000 millivolts in 1 volt, so the output from these tests was small, but from the experiments I could see the application of a larger force generating an even greater electrical potential from the crystal.
Comments (1) | Tags: analog oscilloscope, electrical potential, hands-on science, home-grown crystals, homemade, materials test, mechanical force test, oscilloscope test, piezoelectric, piezoelectricity, Potassium Sodium Tartrate, rochelle salt | More: Projects
Sweet n’ Salty Capacitor
October 28, 2011
I started this experiment attempting to create a low voltage non-toxic battery that would be easy to make and carry around. I may yet do this but for now I’ve created a capacitor, which is a electrical component used to store energy in an electric field. I chose to make the housing or shell out of hard candy because sugar heated to high temperatures takes on some of the properties of glass and is an easy insulator to create cheaply.
I initially made molds by hollowing out potatoes, which could still be done, but I became frustrated with my design falling over and spilling the sugar syrup so I bought a silicon mold used to make ice cube shot glasses instead. Whatever you decide to use, oil all surfaces that will touch the sugar and set on a cutting board to allow for ease of movement.
Add 2 cups of sugar, 2/3 cup of corn syrup and 1 cup of water into a medium sized saucepan over medium-high heat.
Heat to 300 degrees F, stirring frequently. Use a candy thermometer to ensure accurate temperatures. I don’t advise changing the temperature of the stove at all to speed up the process or you could burn the syrup. Depending on the stove this step should take 20-30 minutes. I also recommend using a silicon spatula that can withstand high temperatures.
When it reaches 300 degrees take off the heat and allow to cool slightly to 265 degrees. You could add food coloring at this time if you’d like to have more colorful capacitors, though if your mixture is brown, any color you add will most likely come out dark brown. Letting it cool slightly will reduce the amount of bubbles in your molds.
Pour the sugar syrup into the molds and allow to set overnight. Incidentally the sugar syrup makes these amazing circular crackles in the pot after dousing it with cold water!
Pop the candy out of the molds and wipe off the excess oil. They look almost like stained glass- just lovely.
Cut 4 pieces of both copper and aluminum wire (20 gauge) into 9 inch long strips. Wrap one piece of the aluminum wire around some needle-nose pliers four times and pull up to form a spiral. Make sure none of the curves touch each other to ensure a maximum surface area when placed into the shells.
Drop the wire into a shell and bend the arm of the wire over the side to secure it in place. Do the same to a piece of copper wire and drop it in on the opposite side of the shell.
Fill all four of the shells with the wire and set aside. Take out some previously prepared Rochelle salt (Potassium Sodium Tartrate) and some Epsom salt (Magnesium Sulfate), easily procured from a grocery store or pharmacy. For those who haven’t used Epsom salts before, they are often used in baths to relax sore muscles, a coagulent for making tofu, a brewing salt in beer production and as a laxative.
Make sure the Rochelle salt is crushed to ensure that it will be mixed thoroughly with the Epsom salt.
For this experiment I mixed 1 part Rochelle salt to 2 parts Epsom salt- for four cells it was a combination of 4 tablespoons of Rochelle Salt and 8 tablespoons of Epsom salt. In the picture above the Rochelle salt is in the pot and the Epsom salt is in the spoon.
Stir frequently and mix the salts thoroughly- do not boil the solution. Just heat it until it is liquid which should take 5-10 minutes depending on the stove.
Pour the solution into the candy shells and set aside to cool overnight.
From my research onto the strange properties of combining these salts I have come to some conclusions on what is happening inside the cell. There have been some interesting experiments in the past with Epsom salt cells and combining other material with Rochelle and Epsom salts, though they don’t go into much detail as to why or how it works. From what I can determine Magnesium Sulfate (Epsom salt) is the primary substance that causes the absorption of sound in seawater. Absorption in this case means the conversion of acoustic energy into heat energy. Potassium Sodium Tartrate (Rochelle Salt) releases energy when pressed and seems to emit the energy in waves as the particles attempt to realign after the applied force. A quartz clock works in this way- electricity is applied to it causing it to oscillate and generate a regularly timed series of electrical pulses that is used to mark time. The quartz crystal has a precisely defined natural frequency (caused by its shape and size) at which it prefers to oscillate, and this is used to stabilize the frequency of a periodic voltage applied to the crystal. My theory is that the Epsom salt allows for the continuation of tiny oscillations from the Rochelle salt when a charge is applied. Both Epsom salt and Rochelle salt are highly hygroscopic, which means they attract and retain water from their surrounding environment, and this allows for the movement of ions through the solution despite it being almost entirely solid. I discovered that my cells have a resting state of .6V DC per cell.
When under load the cell discharges rather quickly. To test my theory I took a 9V battery and hooked it up to one cell.
After 30 seconds of energy exchange between the 9V battery and the cell, I unhooked it and measured the voltage.
The cell had gone from .6V DC to 1.6V DC.
I then tied four cells together anode to cathode and left an anode and cathode free to hook the battery to:
The resting state of four cells together is 1.9V DC.
I hooked the 9V up to the open anode and cathode and charged it for 30 seconds.
The four cells went from 1.9V DC to 6V DC.
I then put a load on the cells by hooking a 3V LED (Candied from a previous experiment).
The LED remained on for about 60 seconds then flickered out. I tested the voltage of the cells after unhooking the LED and found that they had discharged 2.9V and their capacity was at 3.1V DC.
So there you have it! I then tested the cells by blowing hot air from a hair dryer onto them, which fluctuated the voltage .1V up and down and also put them on a subwoofer to see if vibrations would cause fluctuation, which it did .1V up and down. I cracked the outer shell of one of them during the hot air test and since then they’ve stayed in my kitchen with me periodically testing their energy stores which after several days have stayed at .6V per cell. An instructable on how to make them is here.
Comments (10) | Tags: alternate energy, capacitor, electronic components, energy harvester, energy storage, hard candy shell, homemade, non-toxic, piezobrine, piezoelectricity, sweet n' salty | More: Projects
Making Rochelle Salt
Piezoelectricity is the charge that accumulates in solid materials in response to applied mechanical stress. Substances that exhibit piezoelectric properties to a greater or lesser extent are crystals (Tourmaline, Quartz, Topaz, Rochelle salt and sugar cane), certain ceramics and biological matter such as bone, DNA and various proteins. Quartz and Rochelle salt exhibit the greatest amount of piezoelectrical properties and since the ingredients and instructions for making Rochelle salt are relatively straightforward I decided to make some to play with.
I found some helpful guides here and here, but diverged from both guides several times without ill effect. Here are my instructions for making Rochelle salt (Potassium Sodium Tartrate), which yielded at least 5 tablespoons full of the salt and several large single crystals in a few days.
The recipe calls for cream of tartar (Potassium Bitartrate or Potassium Hydrogen Tartrate) and washing soda (soda ash or Sodium Carbonate). Cream of tartar is a byproduct of winemaking; as the grapes age this acidic salt forms on the barrels of wine and is collected and used in a variety of household purposes, from preventing sugars from crystallizing to an ingredient in baking powder to stabilizing egg whites in recipes. Washing soda is highly alkaline (pH of 11) and often used as a water softener. It can be extracted from the ashes of plants and is sometimes used to make German pretzels. Washing soda can be made by heating baking soda (Sodium Bicarbonate or Sodium Hydrogen Carbonate) in an oven to break and evaporate the bonds of hydrogen to leave the Sodium Carbonate.
I didn’t have access to washing soda at my local grocery store so I had to make some. There is a difference between store bought washing soda versus washing soda made at home from baking soda. Arm & Hammer washing soda or any similar brand is decahydrate (contains ten molecules of water of crystallization per molecule) and homemade washing soda is anhydrate (lacks the presence of physically attached water). This means that you will need less homemade washing soda to achieve the same or similar results of store-bought washing soda. In the picture above I started with 1 1/2 cups of baking soda on a baking sheet. This makes way more washing soda than you need for the Rochelle salt so I suggest saving it to clean with or make a homemade laundry detergent.
Spread the baking soda across the sheet in a thin even layer and bake at 300 degrees F for 2 hours, stirring and re-spreading into a thin layer every 30 minutes. Take out and allow to cool for 5 minutes and prepare in a small saucepan 10 tablespoons of cream of tartar in 1 cup of water.
Washing soda can be slightly irritating to the skin and mucous membranes so it might be best to ventilate the area and wear gloves. Heat the water and cream of tartar over medium heat until it is slightly boiling and add a teaspoon full of washing soda to the pot. You’ll notice a lot of bubbles and fizzing!
Keep adding teaspoons of washing soda to the solution until it reaches it’s saturation point. This will be suddenly apparent as the bubbling and fizzing will stop abruptly after adding the soda.
I added a total of 8 teaspoons of my homemade washing soda to reach the saturation point. Boil this solution uncovered for 5 more minutes to evaporate more of the water. Allow the pot to cool then place uncovered in the refrigerator or a cool place. After a few hours you should see crystals start to grow!
Keep in the refrigerator overnight (I kept mine in the coldest part of the refrigerator) and in the morning you should have a substantial growth of crystals.
Drain the excess fluid and place a few small crystals back in the dish as seeds and place in the refrigerator again. Separate and dry the other crystals on paper towels.
When tested a Rochelle salt crystal can generate a peak charge of 9.6 volts of electricity after being tapped. They can also be used as a laxative and in microphones. Here is my instructable on it. After they are dry you can store them in a glass jar for later use or crush them for use in my next experiment!
Comments (1) | Tags: baking soda, cream of tartar, growing crystals, hands-on science, homemade, piezoelectric, piezoelectricity, Potassium bitartrate, potassium hydrogen tartrate, Potassium Sodium Tartrate, rochelle salt, soda ash, Sodium Bicarbonate, Sodium Carbonate, Sodium Hydrogen Carbonate, washing soda | More: Projects
Pumpkin Battery Aftermath
October 24, 2011
After posting my tutorial on the creation of the pumpkin battery I left it on the windowsill for lack of a better place to put it. I expected the energy output to decrease over time and when they were massively moldly I’d be coaxed to remove them from the apartment.
Because I’m a curious person, I peeked inside all the pots, fascinated to find that the gelatin overflow had sealed the insides from evaporating. The aluminum wire on some of the pumpkins was in a state of foaming oxidation but the copper looked shinier and not much changed. For giggles I jiggled each pot to stir up the electrolyte a bit, then opened the center Jack O’ Lantern. To my mixed delight I found the sugar crystals completely melted from the LED dome and it alight!
It seems that the sugars released from the decaying pumpkins added to the electrolyte mixture to fuel the light a bit more. I was kicking myself for not testing it throughout the week too. I came back to the window when it was dark out to see the effect and it looked even brighter than when I initially created it!
Granted it looks a bit creepier than when it started out but was I impressed! The giant mold splotch on the center Jack O’ Lantern face can be attributed to it’s elevated sugar content as the sugar syrup from the candied LED is inside.
I tested the voltage as well- a solid 1.5 volts. Just super. You can bet these babies will be staying the apartment for further study!
Update: One day later and I noticed the aluminum wire had melted and broken in several pots.
Since the connections were broken between the wires the LED would not light. Thus ended the pumpkin battery experiment. It had a great run of more than a week, which was longer than I expected it to go!
Comments (0) | Tags: alternate energy, baby boo pumpkin, biobattery, electrochemical cell, fall center piece, food battery, galvanic cell, gelatin salt bridge, green, halloween, jack o’ lantern, pumpkin battery | More: Projects
Pumpkin Battery
October 17, 2011
Here is a fun food hack I did over the weekend that is a useful alternative to lighting jack o’ lanterns with candles or traditional batteries on Halloween. It could also double as a center piece for the fall and is easily made with common household items.
You’ll need miniature pumpkins (I used Baby Boo), unflavored gelatin, salt, vinegar and oil from the grocery store. You’ll also need 18 gauge copper and aluminum wire, an LED (preferably one that runs on 1.5 volts- I used one that I had candied in an earlier project), wire cutters, pliers, a ruler and multimeter. In the kitchen you’ll need a medium sized bowl, small bowl, small pot, cookie sheet, pairing knife and mellon baller (or spoon). If you already have the tools and kitchen stuff the project should cost about $20.
Start by cutting the top off a pumpkin in a circle and scooping out the seeds and innards.
You will only need seven pumpkins, six to make the battery and one to house the light so choose the battery pumpkins to be slightly flatter and the center pumpkin to be slightly larger so you can cut a decent face into it. Keep the guts and seeds for later!
Cut 6 pieces of both aluminum and copper wire into 8 inch strips and take one piece of aluminum wire and wrap it around itself three times.
Flatten the swirl, making sure none of the wire touches the inner curves of the swirl (this increases surface area for the electrochemical reaction) and bend the straight part up.
Set inside the hollowed out pumpkin and do the same thing to a piece of copper wire. Set the wires on opposite sides of the pumpkin and cut small groves into the rim of the pumpkin so that the wires can sit comfortably far apart from each other.
It is important that the two wires inside the pumpkin do not touch or the circuit will short out. Position the wires so they are a few millimeters above the bottom of the pumpkin. Repeat theses steps for the rest of the wire and pumpkins. Take the center pumpkin and carve a face into it.
Set the pumpkins aside and mix together 4 packets of gelatin, 8 tablespoons of salt, and 1 cup of vinegar.
Boil 1 cup of vinegar. I ended up adding an additional cup of water to the electrolyte so I’d have enough for all the pumpkins and had just enough so add 1 cup of water to the recipe. After it has boiled add it to the mixture and put in the fridge to set overnight.
Take the pumpkins seeds and guts and drop them in a bowl filled with water. The seeds will float to the top for easy pickings. Separate the guts from the seeds and spread the seeds on a cookie sheet. Leave the sheet out to dry overnight.
Form a circle with the pumpkins matching a copper wire from one with an aluminum wire from another.
Remove the tops off of two pumpkins and tightly twist the aluminum and copper wires together at least three times. Repeat this step for all of the other pumpkins and stop before you tie the last two wires together.
Take the LED and test it to make sure it works with a 3V coin cell battery. You don’t have to do this step if you don’t have a battery but it doesn’t hurt to make sure.
The LED I used has been candied with sugar crystals- it diffuses the light better and makes for a fun addition to the Halloween themed project. The legs of the LED are different lengths- the longer leg will be twisted around the copper wire and the shorter leg will be twisted around the aluminum wire.
This is what the circle should look like by now:
Take out the electrolyte from the fridge and stir until completely mixed.
Pour into the pumpkin pots, making sure both the copper and aluminum wire swirls are completely covered.
By the fifth pot you should see the LED alight. If not, check your connections and make sure the LED was twisted around the correct wires.
You can check the voltage by attaching a clip from the aluminum wire to the ground probe of a multimeter and a clip from the copper wire to the power probe.
Set the multimeter to detect DC and you should see the output of the pumpkin pots is 1.5 volts.
Woo!
Take the pumpkin seeds and mix them up so they aren’t stuck to the pan. Spray or mix a tablespoon of light oil- vegetable or canola and a teaspoon of salt into them. Make sure they are evenly dispersed in a single layer on the pan.
Heat the oven to 300 degrees and bake for 15-20 minutes or until a golden brown, mixing them up half-way through. Take out and allow to cool. Put in a bowl and into the center of the pumpkin pots.
If you are lucky enough to be near some trees dropping colorful leaves go pick some up and line the bowl with them.
I checked the voltage every hour on the hour and the pots put out between 1.4-1.5 V from 1PM until 7PM. The LED light decreases over time but you can revive it a bit by stirring the contents of the pots.
When the pumpkins get wrinkly you can compost or recycle the parts! I’ve also posted an instructable on how to make it here.
Comments (0) | Tags: alternate energy, baby boo pumpkin, biobattery, electrochemical cell, fall center piece, food battery, galvanic cell, gelatin salt bridge, green, halloween, jack o' lantern, pumpkin battery | More: Projects
Candied LEDs
August 29, 2011
Take the LEDs, wire and electrical tape and wrap the wire around the leads, securing them with the tape. Wet the heads of the LEDs slightly and roll them in sugar to coat them and provide a base for the crystals to grow.
After turning the sugar syrup off wait 5-10 minutes for it to cool, then pour it into either glass jars or paper cups. My first attempt was with glass jars but I found the crystallization took too long so I transfered the mixture to individual paper cups and that made it much easier.
Wrap the ends of the wire around a pencil and lower it into the cups, adjusting the wire wraps to the height of the sugar line so that the head of the LED is totally immersed in the sugar.
Set aside in a cool place away from direct light and wait 1-4 weeks, depending on how large you want the crystals to be.
Peel off the paper cup from the sugar crystal and carefully break off the unconnected crystals from the main crystal formation around the head. Running it under warm water helps.
Set on a sheet of wax paper and allow to dry for a day or so.
After completely dry, test with a 3V coin cell battery. You’ll notice that the sugar helps diffuse and extend the luminosity of the LED to a much larger area.
I’d advise you not to eat this experiment- LEDs are small enough to be accidentally swallowed so use caution if you do this experiment with kids. Have fun! Here’s a link to the instructable too!
Comments (1) | Tags: candied leds, food electronics, fun science experiment, hands-on science, rock candy leds, sugar crystals, sugar-coated leds, sugared leds | More: Projects
Comments (0) | Tags: character art, curious creatures, fantasy art, regal squid rabbit, watercolor | More: Art
Time as a Giant Eyeball in PHP
June 23, 2011
I’ve been learning how to code in PHP over the past couple weeks for a currently undisclosable exciting opportunity in Ottawa and here is my first web application written primarily in PHP.
It is a visual clock made from code that queries the server for the current time and creates three ovals filled with a shade of gray dependent on the hour, minute and second, then saves the image created as a PNG. The darker the shades the closer it is to the end of the day and the lighter the shades the closer it is to the beginning of the day. I used some HTML to display the current image of time and Javascript that refreshes the page every second to constantly display the continually regenerating PNG.
I grasp concepts more easily if there are visual elements involved and I’ve been really interested lately on ways to depict time and nature on the web so I came up with this nested circle idea to help me understand how PHP works and how it interacts with HTML and Javascript. After I came up with what I wanted to create I searched and found this awesome example from Jack Herrington at IBM of how you can draw and position shapes along a z axis to make them appear layered.
Using the glib.php from the example I added the shade variations and rewrote it to draw the circles with the new shade of gray depending on the breakdown of current time. The orange cresent is just for aethetics. Here’s the code for the project:
<html>
<head>
<title>Current Time</title>
<body bgcolor=”3399CC”>
<script type=”text/JavaScript”>
<!–
function timedRefresh(timeoutPeriod) {
setTimeout(“location.reload(true);”,timeoutPeriod);
}
// –>
</script>
</head>
<body bgcolor=”3399CC”>
<font size=”20″ face=”Georgia” color=”#FF9900″>
<body onload=”JavaScript:timedRefresh(1000);”>
<?php
require_once( “glib.php” );
function zsort( $a, $b )
{
if ( $a->z() < $b->z() ) return -1;
if ( $a->z() > $b->z() ) return 1;
return 0;
}
$ge = new GraphicsEnvironment( 800, 800 );
$ge->addColor( “orange”, 255, 153, 0 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray59″, 0, 0, 0 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray58″, 4, 4, 4 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray57″, 8, 8, 8 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray56″, 12, 12, 12 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray55″, 16, 16, 16 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray54″, 20, 20, 20 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray53″, 24, 24, 24 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray52″, 28, 28, 28 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray51″, 32, 32, 32 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray50″, 36, 36, 36 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray49″, 40, 40, 40 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray48″, 44, 44, 44 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray47″, 48, 48, 48 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray46″, 52, 52, 52 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray45″, 56, 56, 56 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray44″, 60, 60, 60 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray43″, 64, 64, 64 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray42″, 68, 68, 68 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray41″, 72, 72, 72 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray40″, 76, 76, 76 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray39″, 80, 80, 80 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray38″, 84, 84, 84 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray37″, 88, 88, 88 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray36″, 92, 92, 92 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray35″, 96, 96, 96 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray34″, 100, 100, 100 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray33″, 104, 104, 104 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray32″, 108, 108, 108 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray31″, 112, 112, 112 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray30″, 116, 116, 116 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray29″, 120, 120, 120 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray28″, 124, 124, 124 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray27″, 128, 128, 128 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray26″, 132, 132, 132 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray25″, 136, 136, 136 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray24″, 140, 140, 140 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray23″, 144, 144, 144 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray22″, 148, 148, 148 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray21″, 152, 152, 152 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray20″, 156, 156, 156 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray19″, 160, 160, 160 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray18″, 164, 164, 164 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray17″, 168, 168, 168 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray16″, 172, 172, 172 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray15″, 176, 176, 176 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray14″, 180, 180, 180 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray13″, 184, 184, 184 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray12″, 188, 188, 188 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray11″, 192, 192, 192 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray10″, 196, 196, 196 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray9″, 200, 200, 200 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray8″, 204, 204, 204 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray7″, 208, 208, 208 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray6″, 212, 212, 212 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray5″, 216, 216, 216 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray4″, 220, 220, 220 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray3″, 224, 224, 224 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray2″, 228, 228, 228 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray1″, 232, 232, 232 );
$ge->addColor( “msgray0″, 236, 236, 236 );
$ge->addColor( “hgray23″, 0, 0, 0 );
$ge->addColor( “hgray22″, 10, 10, 10 );
$ge->addColor( “hgray21″, 20, 20, 20 );
$ge->addColor( “hgray20″, 30, 30, 30 );
$ge->addColor( “hgray19″, 40, 40, 40 );
$ge->addColor( “hgray18″, 50, 50, 50 );
$ge->addColor( “hgray17″, 60, 60, 60 );
$ge->addColor( “hgray16″, 70, 70, 70 );
$ge->addColor( “hgray15″, 80, 80, 80 );
$ge->addColor( “hgray14″, 90, 90, 90 );
$ge->addColor( “hgray13″, 100, 100, 100 );
$ge->addColor( “hgray12″, 110, 110, 110 );
$ge->addColor( “hgray11″, 120, 120, 120 );
$ge->addColor( “hgray10″, 130, 130, 130 );
$ge->addColor( “hgray9″, 140, 140, 140 );
$ge->addColor( “hgray8″, 150, 150, 150 );
$ge->addColor( “hgray7″, 160, 160, 160 );
$ge->addColor( “hgray6″, 170, 170, 170 );
$ge->addColor( “hgray5″, 180, 180, 180 );
$ge->addColor( “hgray4″, 190, 190, 190 );
$ge->addColor( “hgray3″, 200, 200, 200 );
$ge->addColor( “hgray2″, 210, 210, 210 );
$ge->addColor( “hgray1″, 220, 220, 220 );
$ge->addColor( “hgray0″, 230, 230, 230 );
$newcolorH = array();
$newcolorH [0]= new Oval( 100, “hgray0″, 0, 0, 600, 600 );
$newcolorH [1]= new Oval( 100, “hgray1″, 0, 0, 600, 600 );
$newcolorH [2]= new Oval( 100, “hgray2″, 0, 0, 600, 600 );
$newcolorH [3]= new Oval( 100, “hgray3″, 0, 0, 600, 600 );
$newcolorH [4]= new Oval( 100, “hgray4″, 0, 0, 600, 600 );
$newcolorH [5]= new Oval( 100, “hgray5″, 0, 0, 600, 600 );
$newcolorH [6]= new Oval( 100, “hgray6″, 0, 0, 600, 600 );
$newcolorH [7]= new Oval( 100, “hgray7″, 0, 0, 600, 600 );
$newcolorH [8]= new Oval( 100, “hgray8″, 0, 0, 600, 600 );
$newcolorH [9]= new Oval( 100, “hgray9″, 0, 0, 600, 600 );
$newcolorH [10]= new Oval( 100, “hgray10″, 0, 0, 600, 600 );
$newcolorH [11]= new Oval( 100, “hgray11″, 0, 0, 600, 600 );
$newcolorH [12]= new Oval( 100, “hgray12″, 0, 0, 600, 600 );
$newcolorH [13]= new Oval( 100, “hgray13″, 0, 0, 600, 600 );
$newcolorH [14]= new Oval( 100, “hgray14″, 0, 0, 600, 600 );
$newcolorH [15]= new Oval( 100, “hgray15″, 0, 0, 600, 600 );
$newcolorH [16]= new Oval( 100, “hgray16″, 0, 0, 600, 600 );
$newcolorH [17]= new Oval( 100, “hgray17″, 0, 0, 600, 600 );
$newcolorH [18]= new Oval( 100, “hgray18″, 0, 0, 600, 600 );
$newcolorH [19]= new Oval( 100, “hgray19″, 0, 0, 600, 600 );
$newcolorH [20]= new Oval( 100, “hgray20″, 0, 0, 600, 600 );
$newcolorH [21]= new Oval( 100, “hgray21″, 0, 0, 600, 600 );
$newcolorH [22]= new Oval( 100, “hgray22″, 0, 0, 600, 600 );
$newcolorH [23]= new Oval( 100, “hgray23″, 0, 0, 600, 600 );
$newcolori = array();
$newcolori [0]= new Oval( 200, “msgray0″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [1]= new Oval( 200, “msgray1″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [2]= new Oval( 200, “msgray2″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [3]= new Oval( 200, “msgray3″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [4]= new Oval( 200, “msgray4″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [5]= new Oval( 200, “msgray5″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [6]= new Oval( 200, “msgray6″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [7]= new Oval( 200, “msgray7″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [8]= new Oval( 200, “msgray8″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [9]= new Oval( 200, “msgray9″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [10]= new Oval( 200, “msgray10″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [11]= new Oval( 200, “msgray11″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [12]= new Oval( 200, “msgray12″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [13]= new Oval( 200, “msgray13″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [14]= new Oval( 200, “msgray14″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [15]= new Oval( 200, “msgray15″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [16]= new Oval( 200, “msgray16″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [17]= new Oval( 200, “msgray17″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [18]= new Oval( 200, “msgray18″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [19]= new Oval( 200, “msgray19″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [20]= new Oval( 200, “msgray20″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [21]= new Oval( 200, “msgray21″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [22]= new Oval( 200, “msgray22″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [23]= new Oval( 200, “msgray23″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [24]= new Oval( 200, “msgray24″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [25]= new Oval( 200, “msgray25″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [26]= new Oval( 200, “msgray26″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [27]= new Oval( 200, “msgray27″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [28]= new Oval( 200, “msgray28″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [29]= new Oval( 200, “msgray29″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [30]= new Oval( 200, “msgray30″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [31]= new Oval( 200, “msgray31″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [32]= new Oval( 200, “msgray32″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [33]= new Oval( 200, “msgray33″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [34]= new Oval( 200, “msgray34″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [35]= new Oval( 200, “msgray35″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [36]= new Oval( 200, “msgray36″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [37]= new Oval( 200, “msgray37″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [38]= new Oval( 200, “msgray38″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [39]= new Oval( 200, “msgray39″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [40]= new Oval( 200, “msgray40″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [41]= new Oval( 200, “msgray41″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [42]= new Oval( 200, “msgray42″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [43]= new Oval( 200, “msgray43″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [44]= new Oval( 200, “msgray44″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [45]= new Oval( 200, “msgray45″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [46]= new Oval( 200, “msgray46″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [47]= new Oval( 200, “msgray47″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [48]= new Oval( 200, “msgray48″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [49]= new Oval( 200, “msgray49″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [50]= new Oval( 200, “msgray50″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [51]= new Oval( 200, “msgray51″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [52]= new Oval( 200, “msgray52″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [53]= new Oval( 200, “msgray53″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [54]= new Oval( 200, “msgray54″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [55]= new Oval( 200, “msgray55″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [56]= new Oval( 200, “msgray56″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [57]= new Oval( 200, “msgray57″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [58]= new Oval( 200, “msgray58″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolori [59]= new Oval( 200, “msgray59″, 45, 45, 345, 345 );
$newcolors = array();
$newcolors [0]= new Oval( 300, “msgray0″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [1]= new Oval( 300, “msgray1″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [2]= new Oval( 300, “msgray2″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [3]= new Oval( 300, “msgray3″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [4]= new Oval( 300, “msgray4″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [5]= new Oval( 300, “msgray5″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [6]= new Oval( 300, “msgray6″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [7]= new Oval( 300, “msgray7″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [8]= new Oval( 300, “msgray8″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [9]= new Oval( 300, “msgray9″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [10]= new Oval( 300, “msgray10″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [11]= new Oval( 300, “msgray11″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [12]= new Oval( 300, “msgray12″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [13]= new Oval( 300, “msgray13″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [14]= new Oval( 300, “msgray14″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [15]= new Oval( 300, “msgray15″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [16]= new Oval( 300, “msgray16″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [17]= new Oval( 300, “msgray17″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [18]= new Oval( 300, “msgray18″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [19]= new Oval( 300, “msgray19″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [20]= new Oval( 300, “msgray20″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [21]= new Oval( 300, “msgray21″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [22]= new Oval( 300, “msgray22″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [23]= new Oval( 300, “msgray23″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [24]= new Oval( 300, “msgray24″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [25]= new Oval( 300, “msgray25″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [26]= new Oval( 300, “msgray26″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [27]= new Oval( 300, “msgray27″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [28]= new Oval( 300, “msgray28″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [29]= new Oval( 300, “msgray29″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [30]= new Oval( 300, “msgray30″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [31]= new Oval( 300, “msgray31″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [32]= new Oval( 300, “msgray32″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [33]= new Oval( 300, “msgray33″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [34]= new Oval( 300, “msgray34″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [35]= new Oval( 300, “msgray35″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [36]= new Oval( 300, “msgray36″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [37]= new Oval( 300, “msgray37″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [38]= new Oval( 300, “msgray38″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [39]= new Oval( 300, “msgray39″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [40]= new Oval( 300, “msgray40″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [41]= new Oval( 300, “msgray41″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [42]= new Oval( 300, “msgray42″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [43]= new Oval( 300, “msgray43″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [44]= new Oval( 300, “msgray44″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [45]= new Oval( 300, “msgray45″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [46]= new Oval( 300, “msgray46″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [47]= new Oval( 300, “msgray47″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [48]= new Oval( 300, “msgray48″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [49]= new Oval( 300, “msgray49″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [50]= new Oval( 300, “msgray50″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [51]= new Oval( 300, “msgray51″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [52]= new Oval( 300, “msgray52″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [53]= new Oval( 300, “msgray53″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [54]= new Oval( 300, “msgray54″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [55]= new Oval( 300, “msgray55″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [56]= new Oval( 300, “msgray56″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [57]= new Oval( 300, “msgray57″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [58]= new Oval( 300, “msgray58″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$newcolors [59]= new Oval( 300, “msgray59″, 75, 75, 175, 175 );
$gobjs = array();
putenv (“TZ=US/Eastern”);
$gobjs [0]= $newcolorH[(int) date("H")];
$gobjs [1]= $newcolori[(int) date("i")];
$gobjs [2]= $newcolors[(int) date("s")];
$gobjs [3]= new Oval( 0, “orange”, 0, 0, 620, 620 );
usort( $gobjs, “zsort” );
foreach( $gobjs as $gobj ) { $gobj->render( $ge ); }
$today = date(“H:i:s”);
echo ($today);
$ge->saveAsPng( “currenttime.png” );
?>
<center><img src=”http://www.emilydaniels.com/learning/currenttime.png” /></center>
</font>
</body>
</html>
To get the increments between the grays I divided 60 into 255 and rounded for the shades between the minutes and seconds and 24 into 255 and rounded for the hours. I’m sure there is a better way to have done it, but it worked and it was a fun intro to PHP. Next up, learning to comment the code.
Comments (0) | Tags: circular web, HTML, Javascript, natural web, organic web, PHP, PHP clock, PHP graphics, time in PHP, time on the web, visual clock, web application | More: Projects
LCRC Kinetic Painting with Robots Workshop
May 18, 2011
After making tiny vibrating robots from the head of a toothbrush, dipping it in paint and watching them spin on paper, I asked the kids if they were the artists or if the bots were. Mostly the answer was “It tickles!”
In this final workshop for 6 to 8 year olds at the LCRC after school program we explored the act of co-creation in kinetic painting with robots. This project is part of Artengine‘s community arts initiatives and is funded by the Community Foundation of Ottawa.
Based off the bristlebot design from Evil Mad Scientist, the robots were made from the head of a toothbrush, a pager motor and a 3V coin cell battery. When the battery connects with the motor it produces vibrations that shake the entire brush, and when set down on paper it spins and moves based on the weight distribution of it’s parts.
I had prepared ahead of time 8 containers of non-toxic acrylic paint lightened with water but still opaque in color. On absorbant paper the paint could flow and dry quickly, allowing for a build up layers and trails the likes of which I haven’t seen since the days of learning about abstract expressionism. Here are some robot creations:
One of the fastest bots made!
One with huge googly eyes!
This one had a pipe cleaner pull string!
I had the kids race and move the bots about on 4 large sheets of paper and at the end of the class I was so surprised when I saw what had been created. There were sections of the paintings that could rival a Kline or Twombly.
In allowing for a type of controlled chaos of unthinking movement guided by the hands of those that know no self-doubt in expressing themselves, the paintings showed a remarkable amount of depth and dynamism.
I couldn’t look away from the abstract worlds this merging of human-robot movements had made.
There was a recent study done examining the differences between abstract expressionist masterpieces and paintings done by children. The researchers brought in people trained in the arts and non-artists and showed them two paintings side by side, one a masterpiece and the other a child’s painting. When asked to identify which one was the masterpiece, the researchers discovered that on average we are able to recognize the mind behind the art and label the works correctly.
I wonder what the perception and reception would be of these, an amalgamation of machine defined movement and semi-cognisant control by human hand. All I know is that the kids had a lot of fun.
Comments (0) | Tags: abstract expressionism, after school workshops, art robots, artengine, bristlebots, co-creation, kinetic art, kinetic painting, lcrc, ottawa, robotic art, robots | More: Artengine
LCRC Homemade Papercraft Batteries Workshop
May 11, 2011
In front of a room of 25 astonished faces I dipped my finger into the brine and dabbed the last of the water onto the flower, the LED popping on and cries of “But but…where’s the battery?” echoing amid “Wait…what?”
This workshop focused on understanding how a battery works by taking the traditional model of a voltaic cell and crafting homemade batteries out of paper and wire with 9 to 11 year olds through the LCRC after school program. This project is part of Artengine’s community arts initiatives and is funded by the Community Foundation of Ottawa.
I devised two designs that utilized the absorbency of paper to act as the salt bridge between two dissimilar wires. Wiring together 6 cells produced enough current to light an LED for 2 hours. I had an additional challenge of making the design solder less to accomodate the size of the class and the technical challenges of not having hot irons in the room we were in. In preparation for the class I cut out bases and laid out the rows of holes in the paper ahead of time so that the kids could just focus on weaving the wires and decorating the paper.
All of the materials are common household items- salt, water, paper (the more absorbant the longer the LED stays lit), cardboard, the wire is easily purchased at a hardware store and the LEDs you can get at an electronics store. I’ve posted instructions on how to assemble them here. While testing the design the lights went through 6 uses of 2 hours each and it still seems to be going strong. After a while the metal will oxidize to the point of non-use, and then you can just recycle the parts or make something else with them! Here are some of the designs the kids made:
A fun multi-colored petaled flower.
The bases come from the cardboard of tissue boxes.
She was super quick in making it- one of the first ones to grasp it and be done!
A good shot at making the lamp version.
It was great to see so much excitement over batteries- adapting the functional aspects into the design itself allowed the kids to really grasp the workings of the light and empower them to not feel dependent on store-bought batteries to power the things around them.
Comments (4) | Tags: after school workshops, alternate energy, artengine, clean energy, homemade battery, lcrc, LEDs, ottawa, paper battery, paper circuitry, papercraft, salt water power | More: Artengine
LCRC LED Foldie and Pac-Man Tag Game Workshops
April 28, 2011
Amid screams and shouts the stamping feet of 25 kids jumping from line to line to avoid the ghosts chasing them, their hands cupped tightly around tiny cubes of light illuminated by LEDs, echos up to the rafters in the darkened gym. Gosh those kids were loud.
This game was the culmination of a two part workshop I planned and led for 9 to 11 year olds through the LCRC after school program. This project is part of Artengine’s community arts initiatives and is funded by the Community Foundation of Ottawa. The first part of the workshop was focused on introducing the kids to basic electronics through the creation of LED-lit cubes. I augmented the design put out by Evil Mad Scientist to accomodate smaller, less coordinated fingers, cut out the aluminum traces and laid them out on adhesive sheets pre-workshop. Because there was a big range in their level and comfort with folding paper I brought an easier cut-out box to the first session as well.
I made a few quick drawings to help the kids understand what was happening with the battery and LED:
Then I let them choose which design they wanted to make. After testing the Foldie design many times I was able to work with the delicacy of the foil and paper fairly well, but the kids went through many ripped aluminum traces before being able to get it working.
Here’s one of the best examples from the kids:
And here are some alternate boxes the kids made:
The nice thing about the cut-out boxes was that the design allowed for drawing and coloring, while the design with the aluminum traces became too bulky with crayon and marker build up to fold and work properly.
In the second session I came back with a third design that involved no cutting and easy folding to form two halves of a box. After the kids finished we went into the gym to play a large-scale human version of the classic arcade game Pac-Man, where the kids became Pac-Men holding their bits of light as food and running away by following the lines of the gym from two kids appointed as ghosts holding nothing.
I was able to capture their movements through the light trails of the LEDs, which look like the erratic movements of very excited fireflies:
If they got tagged by the ghosts they had to sit down on the spot and not move until they were able to tag another Pac-Man within their reach. They played for an hour with a few change-ups of the ghosts.
After seeing them run through the darkness with lights stationary and moving it felt like being transported to an open field at dusk with the magic and wonder of the cosmos all around, if one could tune out the echoed endless shrieking.
Comments (0) | Tags: after school workshops, arcade games in real life, artengine, interactive, interactive art, large scale human video games, lcrc, LED foldies, LED-lit cubes, LEDs, ottawa, Pac-Man, pac-man tag game, paper circuitry, papercraft | More: Artengine
LCRC Squishy Circuit Workshop
April 12, 2011
We’ve underestimated the potential use of energy emanating from 25 excited kids eating sugared playdoh. I reached this conclusion shortly after starting to talk about squishy circuits with a group of 6-8 year olds at the LCRC after school program. This project is part of Artengine’s community arts initiatives and is funded by the Community Foundation of Ottawa.
I was inspired by AnnMarie Thomas’ recent TED talk and her research at the University of St. Thomas on engaging hands and minds with different approaches to technology. Her squishy circuits, made with two different kinds of homemade play dough, can be used to demonstrate electrical properties and empower kids to use their creativity to design simple circuits.
By the light of LEDs, whir of spinning motors and hum of peizo buzzers the kids were able to physically enable their dough creations to take on new life. The magic happens in the dough:
I made 8 batches of the conductive and insulating dough in orange, pink, blue and green, which I thought would be enough to satisfy the whims of nearly any creator. Little did I know how tempting it would be to eat the insulating dough, which consists of flour, sugar, oil and water. The conductive dough was a bit too salty for the tiny palettes and was spared the consumptive onslaught.
I set up each table with a bag of each dough, a handfull of LEDs, a few mini motors and buzzers, a 9V battery with power connector snaps. Looking back on it I would have reenforced the ends of the connector cables to give more surface area for connection and stability to the wires, but they worked well enough as they were. The conductive dough is fairly corroding, so if you want to reuse the electrical components afterwards you’ll have to strip or cut off the exposed areas.
A lot depends on the ages and size of the group- the group I had were on the younger side so much of what I had to say about electricity and how it worked was lost. I made working examples at each table so they could see what was happening and that helped. It was so fun seeing the aha moment when the LED they inserted the right way lit up! Even when they could see other kids creations working, the infallible surprise and delight at their own was so endearing. Here are a few proud circuit designers and their (mostly) working attempts at harnessing the electricity in the dough.
Snack in one hand, bug sculpture in the other.
This one looked cool, but wasn’t functional.
Green pizza with red blinky lights?! OMNOMNOM
Another bug!
This one somehow lost the outer ring that had it working, but she had a lot of fun making it. The workshop was very low in cost to run, I’d estimate I spent $40 on the supplies I used and depending on attention spans, the time spent creating is 1-2 hours. Super fun!
Comments (2) | Tags: after school workshops, artengine, conductive dough, hands-on science, insulating dough, lcrc, LEDs, ottawa, playdoh, soft circuits, squishy circuits | More: Artengine
Artist-in-Residence at Artengine
January 20, 2011
At the end of December I was invited to be Artengine‘s first Artist-in-Residence. Artengine is a non-profit artist-run center with a focus on community outreach through tools and resources for creating electronic and interactive art. My work will focus on leading art and electronics workshops, creating my own interactive art projects and helping to further develop resources and tools for the maker community in Ottawa.
Thanks to the support of the Community Foundation of Ottawa, Artengine and World Inter-Action Mondiale (WIAM) are collaborating together on electronics and art workshops at the Lowertown Community Resource Centre (LCRC) as part of the Awesome Arts Program. The focus of the program is to enable Lowertown youth to explore and express their own cultural stories and global issues using art and technology. The youth will be encouraged to use various mediums to gather and tell their stories such as videoblogging, podcasting, website creation and opensource software to create interactive art. The stories will then be developed into performances using music, dance, theater, visual and multimedia arts. These efforts will be showcased at the 3rd annual Awesome Arts Festival in Ottawa, May 27 & 28, 2011.
I’ll be working with a group of kids aged 6-11 to make LED foldies, a paper circuitry project first demoed on Evil Mad Scientist, and then incorporating the foldies into a physical game of Pac-Man. With a group of 12-17 y.o.’s we’ll be creating digital graffiti with Wiimotes using BombIR software and making games with Scratch. With a group of 18-21 y.o.’s we’ll be circuit-bending electronics to make music. So exciting!
Starting in February I’ll be working with members from Artengine’s Mod Lab to bring knowledge-sharing workshops free to the public and resource lists for further learning and development. Some of the topics we hope to cover: Learning to Solder, Intro to Processing, Using the Arduino, 3D Printing with a Makerbot, Wearable Tech, Web Design and Development and anything else people would like to learn how to do!
I’m also currently working on some secret interactive art projects which are in line to be completed in the next few months. Artengine is such a unique resource and awesome to have in Ottawa- I feel so honored to be a part of it and hope that I can continue to contribute to it’s development.
Comments (0) | Tags: 3D Printing, arduino, artengine, artist-in-residence, awesome arts festival, bombIR, free workshops, LED foldies, light graffiti, lowertown, lowertown community resource centre, Makerbot, opensource, ottawa, Pac-Man, paper circuitry, papercraft, papertronics, processing, Scratch, Soldering, wearable technology, web design, web development, wiimote | More: Artengine
Designing Nature and Time into the Web
January 03, 2011
This past month was spent planning and designing a web application for people to take advantage of the enormous amount of space dedicated to outdoor play in Ottawa. One of my first impressions when I moved to this city was how easy it was to go from busy city streets to quiet parks in a matter of minutes. Ottawa is really well balanced in this aspect and I wanted to make something that highlighted how easy it was to break out into open play.
My original idea was to use the GPS and compass functionality of the iPhone to direct one’s feet in the direction of the nearest space of play, but after considering the strengths of my partner James DeMond we decided a Javascript app would make for a nice cross-platform functionality on all browsers and smartphones so more people could use it.
I was inspired by the pastoral landscapes painted in the old days to convey lands of plenty and whilst Beethoven’s 6th Symphony played, I made the first design.
The color field at the top of the screen allowed a view to the underlying Google map while the bottom was solidly grounded to hold the porthole window. After I got the gist of what I wanted to portray down, I added icons specific to the season that would show on the underlying map as good suggestions of things to do.
After fooling around with the Google Maps API, James pronounced the circular porthole design dead as apparently when dealing with image overlays even transparent areas are treated as part of the image and that doesn’t allow you to interact with the map underneath. Square and rectangle windows cool, circle windows, not.
I hated it. I really wanted the wondrous magic of looking through a porthole to another world that a circular frame would provide so I tweaked the design a bit more.
And a bit more…
And a bit more. I used small floating dots to create a kind of effervescent effect to play with the viewer’s depth perception and recreate a little bit of the magic you experience in a field of fireflies at dusk, which also could be read as softly falling snow for the whimsy to span multiple seasons. I also added the call of Go / Allez so that once you discovered where you were and what was good to do, you’d… go do it.
After James had it up and working I realized that though the color field was sky-like on my screen, on a larger monitor or screen size the effect would be lost and it would look like just another rectangle. Keeping with the idea of discovery, I changed the color overlay to read like you had set down your glass on a table and were looking through the bottom of it into something extraordinary.
The effect was hard to pull off so I blurred it up a bit so it seemed to read like a foggy window and added more glowing bits.
Which worked well until we discovered that there wasn’t data available for some of the things in each season or there was a lot more data sets available for individual seasons, so 2 suggested activities turned into 8 and I needed to redesign the content keeping this in mind. I discovered how to make the square that I was bounded by disappear with the way I erased and cut up the pieces of the image for the page. On the advice of a friend I went back to a cleaner more defined look to the elements and realized I was still holding on to parts of the design that no longer made sense to be present. I moved the rotation of the seasons out of the porthole and made them more in tune with how one would think of the earth orbiting the sun to give the information more of a grounding in reality. In order to advance through the seasons and see all pages you need to click the sun and it will only go around in a circle, pausing to load the data for each season as one would go through a year; winter, spring, summer and autumn.
When building web pages and apps it’s easy to forget the concept of time and nature. Why would one go to the trouble of incorporating asymmetrical shapes or buttons that take you through a journey in time when it’s so much more useful and utilitarian to stick to squares? The simple answer is because it reminds us of our humanity. We contribute daily to our collective wisdom through the web and the windows that we use to interact with and add to it need to reflect more than bits and bytes in order for us to remember how organic and experiential the world is. It’s a harder road to design upon but in the end it will help to preserve the random complexity of life.
You can experience the application for yourself here.
Comments (1) | Tags: Art, circular web, css, design, google maps, Javascript, natural web, open data, ottawa, outdoor play, porthole web page, Projects, spaces of play, time on the web, web application | More: Art, Projects
What Twirling Will Do
December 03, 2010
As they began twirling I was curious to see what the motion would look like through the filter of a microgalactic lens.
The lens captured movement in nanoseconds and I witnessed an unusual unfolding…
The girl with her handkerchief raised high knew what positive thoughts could do and her fist started eddies of hiccuping light.
The light floated up and suddenly I saw when I zoomed out a most remarkable creature.
At the instant I realized what the light was connected to, it burst into dazzling luminescence emanating from the center outwards. “Great Scott!” I exclaimed and fell directly backwards.
“I shall have to try this lens again!”
Comments (2) | Tags: Art, atmospheric art, atmospheric effects, deep sea creature, deeper connections, digital art, emotional connection, emotional creatures, fantasy, helper creature, microgalactic, microgalactic lens, positive thoughts | More: Art
What Brings The Snow
November 17, 2010
She was laughing at something I said and didn’t see what passed behind her.
“Aren’t you cold?” I asked.
“No.” she said.
Comments (1) | Tags: Art, atmospheric art, atmospheric effects, digital art, emotional connection, emotional creatures, fantasy, helper creature, snow | More: Art
The Culture of Making
November 10, 2010
Over this past weekend 40 makers and a handful of volunteers gathered together in the nation’s capital, laden with gadgets and moded parts, cloth and paper, Arduino boards and LEDs, and brought the first Maker Faire to Canada. The makers came from all over Canada and the U.S.- some as far as 8 hours away to participate in the faire.
For some context, a Maker Faire is an event created by Make Magazine to “celebrate arts, crafts, engineering, science projects, and the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mindset” and has been held in various locations in the U.S. since 2006. The Ottawa Maker Faire was part of the Electric Fields Festival hosted by Artengine; a non-profit, artist-run center that provides community resources to foster democratic and innovative approaches to electronic art and media.
Our event drew over 500 attendees over the course of the weekend and kept the makers on their feet answering questions and explaining their work. From delicate papercraft to hardy aquatic robotics, the projects ran the gamut of inventive and playful exploration into the workings of things. As varied as the projects and people are, it is the underlying threads of idea sharing and collaborative doing within these makers that unites and bonds them together; a drive that continually renews itself by friendly competition and the satisfaction of creation.
As catchy as it is to say DIY, these projects are not sole endeavors. Without the opportunity to share ideas, support of the community or resources to create, many of these wonderful innovations would not see the light of day. From the age of disillusionment from planned product obsolescence to the age of enlightenment from empowered ownership of all processes it is apparent that we cannot help but seek to make a difference in everything that surrounds us and define the world through our things. This holds true for what rests on the web- it’s ephemeral nature requires a different perspective of the creation space but it is no less valuable to the continuation of our collective wisdom and joy.
With this said, how do you promote a culture of making? By the seat of your pants I say! For innovation to take place, events and spaces need be but constructed conduits of basic needs. A well-outfitted lab of the newest equipment and tools is great for a focused approach, but to further along the propagation and mutation of different perspectives and fields, a broader community needs to be tapped. This means doing some digging and widening the array of programs and offerings with an eye for what catches hold and what doesn’t, and having the flexibility to adapt to the particular needs of the group being fostered. It also means having an early eye trained on people who become pilars of support and beacons of encouragement for the rest and relinquishing control so that the structure can stand easily with the loss or gain of more.
Our Maker Faire was a group effort and it’s success was due to the ideal collaboration between many different communities of people. Future makers take heart in the joy it brings and solace in the meaning of what has collectively become our own.
Comments (4) | Tags: art and tech, artengine, diy, electric fields festival, electronics, hacker, hackerspaces, hardware, innovation, maker, maker culture, maker faire, making, mini maker faire, open source, ottawa, ottawa maker faire, ottawa mini maker faire, Projects | More: Projects
Waiting on Rideau Street
November 05, 2010
“I’m glad you could get off work early” he said.
“Me too.” she responded.
She reached over to take his hand while the light changed to red.
Comments (0) | Tags: Art, atmospheric art, atmospheric effects, joy, memory of movements, movement memory, thought visualization, visual conversation, visualized thoughts | More: Art
On The Mountain
October 15, 2010
“Be careful here.”
A soft gust of wind pushed her back towards her friends.
“..Yes Dad.”
Comments (2) | Tags: Art, atmospheric art, atmospheric effects, digital art, emotional connection, emotional creatures, fantasy, helper creature, visual emotion | More: Art
Dancers
October 05, 2010
“…and HOLD!”
They looked at her expectantly, the memory of movements practiced already accumulating in corners and sifting softly to the floor. Outside a car honked sharply, causing more of the girls’ thoughts to fall.
“AGAIN!”
Comments (1) | Tags: Art, atmospheric art, atmospheric effects, memory of movements, movement memory, thought visualization, visual conversation, visualized thoughts | More: Art
LED Acorn Lantern
September 26, 2010
I went for a bike ride through Gatineau Park with some friends yesterday and while we rested I was inspired by the large amount of acorns on the ground. An acorn is the perfect size to house an LED light and battery for a different take on LED Throwies developed by Graffiti Research Lab. I made this one to be like a tiny lantern, but if you can buy a smaller battery than the 3V coin cell one I used the light and battery will fit completely inside the acorn.
Step 1
Assemble as many acorns, LEDs and batteries as you see fit. Separate the acorn tops from the bottoms and choose a bottom that is slightly soft. You’ll also want to have handy a pair of scissors, electrical tape, wire, wire strippers and Elmer’s glue.
Step 2
With the sharp end of the scissors clean the acorn of it’s insides by scraping out the meat with circular scrapes. If your acorn is fresh it will be a little tough to do this, but once you have the majority out you can scrape designs into the wall of the acorn without worrying it will break under pressure.
Step 3
Thread the ends of the LED into the crack at the top of the cap, or make two tiny holes to push the wires through, making sure that the wires are not touching each other. If they touch it won’t light properly.
Step 4
Test the LED light by inserting a 3v coin cell battery between the positive and negative ends. Match the + side of the battery with the longer wire of the LED.
Step 5
Strip the wire of it’s plastic coating with the wire strippers or use wire that does not have a protective coating on it. Wrap the wire around each end of the LED and flatten the end of the wire to look like feet.
Step 6
Wrap the feet of the wire onto the top and bottom of the battery and cover it in electrical tape when the LED alights- you may have to reverse the feet to make sure the battery is matched on the correct positive and negative sides of the LED.
Step 7
Apply Elmer’s glue to the top of the hollowed out acorn shell and hold it to the top of the acorn in place for 30 seconds. After you release you’ll want to keep the pressure off it for a while to let the glue dry completely.
Step 8
Success! The LED lantern will shine non-stop for about 7 days. You can remove the tape or replace the battery at any time.
Comments (0) | Tags: acorn light, DIY project, hacking nature, led, LED acorn lantern, LED acorn light, LED acorn throwie, LED lantern, LED throwie, Projects | More: Projects
You Need to Ask First
September 23, 2010
… if you want to know more about me” she said.
He stared at the sand between his shoes. “Okay… what do you like to do?”
“Oh, you know… stuff.”
“…Like?”
She laughed and the pocket of air surrounding them popped, filling them both with warmth.
He grinned and looked at the sand again.
Comments (0) | Tags: Art, atmospheric art, atmospheric effects, digital art, emotional connection, emotional creatures, love, text visualization, visual conversation, visual emotion | More: Art
Comments (0) | Tags: Art, atmospheric art, atmospheric effects, emotional connection, photoshop, visual emotion | More: Art
A Conversation on the Sidewalk
September 10, 2010
She looked up from her half finished text and stared in wonderment and fear.
It responded with a harmonized hum and a new message appeared on her phone:
“<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 …”
Comments (0) | Tags: Art, atmospheric art, atmospheric effects, digital art, emotional creatures, fantasy, love, text visualization, visual conversation | More: Art
Girls in Conversation
August 31, 2010
“And then he walked past and I was like…[screech]!”
“LOL! What did you do?”
“I just stared. I’m such an idiot!”
Comments (0) | Tags: Art, atmospheric art, atmospheric effects, conversation visualization, visual conversation | More: Art
If There’s No Good News Then Make Your Own
August 20, 2010
Hansy Better has done it! Our first ever grantee of the Awesome Foundation was featured on the front page of Thursday’s Boston Globe for making the largest portable hammock in the world. [Thanks Reed for the picture] The hammock is made of 4,278 feet of rope made from recycled bottles inspiring both public and environmental joy alike. In a world where so much of the news consists of negative sensationalism it’s empowering to see this one, rather large, bright spot.
After being funded by the Awesome Foundation Hansy received gifts of materials and additional funds from Kickstarter, a site for funding creative and innovative projects, and countless man hours from volunteers who helped weave the hammock. What drew us as a group to funding the project was firstly, it’s a GIANT HAMMOCK, and secondly, it had the potential to bond communities together and allow everyone a place to feel how awe-inspiring the world can be.
Since then the projects we’ve funded have had a decidedly powerful aim of individual empowerment and public good. What we do together as a group is not anything secret or special- we are ten individuals who come together monthly and pool our own money into funding the next awesome project. Anyone can do it. Anyone. can. do. it.
I can’t speak for the others involved but I believe it’s made me a better person and I definitely feel that some of the awesome that our grantees have in spades has rubbed off a little and kicked me into action on other projects that help. And I’m challenging everyone right here, right now to look into their pockets or live a bit more simply and support the making of awesome in the world. I’m not suggesting diverting funds that would go to support other’s basic survival, but I think we all have the obligation to support our communal enjoyment of life. So, let’s go!
Comments (2) | Tags: awesome, Awesome Foundation, giant hammock | More: Awesome Foundation
LED Origami Brooch And Thoughts On Foo Camp
June 30, 2010
Ah, Foo Camp.
Over this past weekend hoards of thinkers, makers and doers descended on the gorgeous Xanadu of the O’Reilly Media headquarters in Sebastopol, CA. Invited by Tim O’Reilly to participate in a free-form weekend of focused and unfocused conversations and talks concerning current and emerging ventures in technology, it was a nerd’s paradise. There were talks on Cloud Robotics, The Slow Technology Movement, How to Get a Billion Views on Youtube and Better HTML5 Apps. One participant brought Nao, a $14,000 autonomous, programmable humanoid robot made by Aldebaran Robotics. It danced and entertained us with it’s version of MJ’s “Thriller”:
The Makershed was open for soldering blinking LED pins for our name tags and I took mine a step further by crafting an origami brooch around the light. I used a star box for the base and a modified balloon fold for the covering. After I folded the star box I marked the corners and unfolded it to draw the designs on the arms of the star with pen and ink:
Then encased the light inside the paper structure:
And cut the balloon to hollow out the middle and cover the light:
All in all the project took about an hour to make, and the light from the LED had a stunning effect on the paper folds at night. I met many amazing people at Foo and there wasn’t one person there that didn’t inspire me to keep the bar raised high and continue thinking, making and doing wonderful things. It’s important to have these resources and events for people to coalesce around and understand and appreciate the different perspectives and needs of each other. By meeting face to face it’s honestly the only way that we can gain enough perspective to broaden and deepen the impact of technology in relevant ways for it to contribute to the success and enlightenment of our people. Thank you again Tim and Sara and the whole O’Reilly team- you hosted an awesome event!
Comments (1) | Tags: Art, foo, foocamp, led, led origami, origami, Other, papercraft, Projects | More: Art
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The Perspective Between Two Doors
June 01, 2010
The end of last month marked an important milestone in my life. I realized along with my co-founders and partners that the direction our studio was headed in was not the direction we had originally intended. Our business had transformed from a shared passion for projects that bridged the gap between art and technology to a development studio for mobile software applications. The studio had originally emerged as a shared space where classes and workshops could inspire and support the community of hackers, scientists, artists and makers as well as create experiential installations and events. The money that we would get from developing web and mobile games and applications would go towards continuing this outreach and support of creative play.
What we realized along the way was that the work needed for the code development of the applications quickly overshadowed all other projects and endeavors. Had the studio petitioned for non-profit status there may have been more resources and manpower available to extend the educational development and event program, but as it was our basic sustainability needed to happen first. What started as sustainable development projects became long-term commitments and I had to adapt quickly to learning how to code. As we moved farther away from our original plans my business development and artistic skills where put on the back burner to the amount of coding help the studio needed.
Besides my new-found love of coding, the ability to think on my feet and understand both the big picture as well as being a part of all processes of a new business is a skill I’m proud to say I’ve achieved. And I do mean all, from knowing how to sweet-talk a government official into not making us refile our papers for a small name change to knowing what makes an iguana happy. [I'll leave you to figure out that one as it's one of the sweetest joys in life.]
The conclusion we reached together that DINO was not able to cultivate or require my best strengths was both heartbreaking and revitalizing. It’s allowed me the freedom to identify my next challenge and reassess where my abilities can be best applied. Thank you, David and Aaron, for everything. I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat. Now, what’s next?
Comments (0) | Tags: business development, DINO, entrepreneurship, growth, small business, startup | More: DINO
And Then It Wasn’t
May 24, 2010
Having survived a drop the distance of 500 feet, the monster opened it’s one functioning eye to perceive lamposts and the undersides of two fighter ships descending to street level. It heard a soft shriek and footsteps nearby followed by the high-pitched whistle of missiles launched. There was an acrid sweet smell in the air and it occurred to the monster that there really wasn’t anywhere else better to be than in London after a good rain.
Comments (0) | Tags: Art, digital art, fantasy, london, monster, scifi, story | More: Art
Sacred and Profane
May 15, 2010
This is a drawing I did many years ago for a life drawing class- we had to select objects that we felt contained elements of being sacred or profane in a still-life arrangement and draw them from hand.
From Wikipedia: The concept of sacred and profane comes from French sociologist Emile Durkheim; the dichotomy between the sacred and the profane to be the central characteristic of religion: “religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden.” In Durkheim’s theory, the sacred represented the interests of the group, especially unity, which were embodied in sacred group symbols, or totems. The profane, on the other hand, involved mundane individual concerns. Durkheim explicitly stated that the dichotomy sacred/profane was not equivalent to good/evil. The sacred could be good or evil, and the profane could be either as well.
I had chosen an African head sculpted from ebony wood, a hair comb of my grandmother’s, an unidentifiable translucent shell, a glass ball used to buoy sea nets, the broken top of a guardrail holder and a scarf with alternating silk and matte stripes.
Philosophically, the objects made little sense as being imbued with either good or evil, but the arrangement and atmosphere of the composition gave them a greater mysterious pull. It was the longest life drawing I’ve ever done, taking around 60 hours to complete over the course of weeks of 3-5 hour sittings. I used hot-pressed 300lb heavyweight Fabriano paper (which I highly recommend for any serious drawing) and the finished image measures 18″ x 30″.
Comments (0) | Tags: Art, drawing, fabriano paper, graphite drawing, illustration, sacred and profane, still life | More: Art
Ouroboros Ring Game
May 14, 2010
These images were created as the first level in a meditative puzzle game where the player is given a mixture of inverted and rotated rings and has to flip and spin the rings to match the lines of the light and dark side to advance. I originally drew this freehand in my sketchbook with a Uni-ball Vision pen:
And then brought it into Photoshop to divide and invert each individual ring:
As you can see in the inverted image of all rings:
The artwork needed to be composed with both the light and dark values taken into account and each made visually compelling. I chose to use black and white in the composition because I thought it would reduce eyestrain. Here is a shot of the rings inverted and rotated as you might find in the game:
The initial sketch took me around 6 hours to complete and then the Photoshop editing and fine-tuning took another hour. In subsequent levels the images diverge from the organic curves of the first to a more industrialized and geometric composition, with each level image solved becoming the center hub of the next level, until you are brought full circle back into the organic world and re-create the circular forms from the geometric. Part homage to M.C. Escher, part reflective return to a unified self, like most things, this game is still a work in progress.
Comments (0) | Tags: Art, art game, drawing, ouroboros, ouroboros rings, pen and ink, puzzle game | More: Art
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Mushroom Sprite from iPad App Akina
May 04, 2010
This sequence of images is based off the growth cycle of a Fly Agaric mushroom, or Amanita muscaria, and is one of the sprites I made in Photoshop for DINO’s iPad art generative application Akina. According to Wikipedia there are a great many stories surrounding the use of this mushroom, the most interesting of which is the association of the mushroom with viking berserker rages, trance states of Siberian shamans, prescribed to eat along with drinking urine in India and in the origin of Santa Claus. Who knew!
Comments (0) | Tags: akina, Art, digital art, DINO, game art, game sprite, ipad game, mushroom sprite, photoshop | More: Art, DINO
HTML5 Game Pits Bjork Vs. Cthulhu
April 27, 2010
Over this past weekend my friend Darren Torpey and I ran the second in a series of game jams at the Sprout/DINO space in Somerville, MA. I had recently heard about Kesiev who created an open HTML5 game engine called Akihabara and wanted to try it out since we only had 23 hours to create a game start to finish. I chose to do a first person shooter game with Björk as the main character, coming home to Iceland to defeat Cthulhu, who had taken up residence there. Link!
I chose to create my sprites in pixel art style, and let me tell you it is an under-appreciated art style; pixelating Björk consisted of me defining and implementing a color strategy that took about half an hour for the small span of 12 x 12 pixels! Maybe I was too much a perfectionist about it, but I don’t think so.
Here you can see Björk in her normal and death states. I gleaned a lot of inspiration from her Homogenic album, which I thought captured her at her most iconic. After that I asked the other game-makers at the jam what came to mind when they thought of Iceland. Having recently been in the news for the massive volcanic eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, we were able to come up with a slew of stereotypical Iceland things.
Vikings, hot springs and a bankrupted coin sprite were made. Next I set about defining the minions of the hideous world-crushing creature from H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Call of Cthulhu”.
As well as the Big Boss Cthulhu of the final fight scene.
Note that in their death states, the people turn into angry-eyed zombies and the creatures turn into peaceful-eyed angels. I am not sure why. The Akihabara game engine consists of a main HTML doc of less than 1,000 lines of code that calls 7 relatively small Javascript files and 9 PNG images. My image files ended up being 737kb, and the code files were 151kb, so the entire game was under 1MB! I could fit it on a floppy disk if I so chose! All this able to be run inside any browser capable of supporting HTML5. Really really cool.
After swapping in the sprite sheet and backgrounds I created some witty banter between Björk and Cthulhu, using actual quotes from Björk and her songs. Björk says “I am a fountain of blood. In the shape of a girl.” and Cthulhu says:
And it continues. Cthulhu sics his minions on Björk, she blasts them with fire pellets, and the battles take place over the landscape of Iceland.
Land of both fire…and…ice.
After Björk makes mincemeat out of these gremlin minions and evil vikings, she parlays with the Big Boss.
Her response to this is “All is full of love.” Well said Björk! Now, while I was working with this code I noticed that you could win the game if you just stayed in the position where you were from the beginning and mashed the z button really hard for the whole game. If you aren’t distracted by the Power Up bankrupt coins falling from the sky, you can get through the minions and have 3 Björk lives killed by the Big Boss and still defeat him in the end.
I have to give huge kudos to Kesiev- I’m not a traditional programmer and I know only bits and pieces of HTML and Javascript, but I was able to figure out what I needed to comment out from his code and what I needed to change in order for the game to be up and running pretty quickly. The only thing that’s missing is the audio, but that should be easy to implement in later releases of the code.
Start to finish this game took me 12 hours to make. The thing that has been most trying is working within WordPress to host the game files in order to display correctly. That is the nice thing about making something like this in HTML5- being able to open it in any browser and play. I haven’t figured this out yet, so I’ve embedded a video of the game from start to finish (it’s 3 minutes long) with me filling in some sound effects and dialogue.
UPDATE: Thanks to my friend Eric Ferraiuolo the game is now playable for all! Can YOU help Bjork defeat Cthulhu? (The “A” Button is the “Z” Button and move with the arrow keys.) Link!
Comments (5) | Tags: akihabara, akihabara game engine, art game, bjork, cthulhu, HTML5, HTML5 game, Javascript, Projects, SHUMP | More: Projects
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Creating Artistic User Interfaces
April 13, 2010
With Akina out for a little over a week it was good to have some time to flesh out any UI tweaks to the app and make it more user friendly. With that meant taking a controller with already very visually and abstractly defined elements, and making it easier to navigate with, without losing the integrity of it as an object of art. Below are the old and new controllers for comparison:
The nice thing about designing artistic elements for a piece that is controlled with a finger is the simple fact that fingers are attached to hands. This means that where the controller shows up under your finger there is a ‘blind spot’ where non-essential functions can be put, in this case it’s the lower right corner of the new controller that keeps with the original design idea, yet you lose none of the important options for lack of seeing through one’s hand.
Comments (0) | Tags: Art, artistic interface, digital art, DINO, ipad game, ipad ui, ui, user interface, ux | More: Art, DINO
Variations on a Theme: Putting Art in Business Cards
April 10, 2010
Using some of the elements I recently created for our website, I set to making business cards that matched our style. This whimsical and slightly abstract unknown world I created incorporates our business logo into the art. On the back will be our contact information, leaving the front dedicated to having a tiny piece of art in your pocket.
Comments (0) | Tags: Art, artistic business cards, brand design, business cards, DINO | More: Art, DINO
Using Physical Objects to Interface with the iPad
April 03, 2010
Over this past week my partners and I at DINO Interactive Studios have developed an iPad application that allows input from a specific grouping of ‘fingers’ from the bottom of three objects. When you place the object on the screen surface of the iPad, flowers and vines grow from underneath the object.
This corresponds to the application as it is a flower growing app called Akina HD, available for free in a human-touch enabled version in the Apple App Store currently. My process in creating this was to take the aesthetic of the app and bring these elements into the objects as if they were an extension of game. The art I made for Akina is derived partly from the art of an interactive book I’m currently working on and plan to release on the iPad soon.
Comments (1) | Tags: akina, Art, artistic interface, DINO, ipad, physical objects interface, physical ui, Projects, ui, ux | More: Art, DINO, Projects
Comments (0) | Tags: Art, digital art, jellyfish, monster, monster jellyfish, mustache jelly, photoshop | More: Art
Comments (2) | Tags: Art, baby triangle, digital art, ghost tentacles, monster, photoshop | More: Art
DINO Game Jam
February 22, 2010
This weekend DINO Interactive Studios hosted a game jam and interactive project creation session at the Sprout space in Somerville that spanned both Saturday and Sunday. Our jam lasted 27 hours total and had 12 participants and teams either creating new games from scratch or reworking current games and adding new features.
We had a pretty lively crowd with luckily enough string cheese and Oreos to go around. There was some LOLing with Pong on an Arduino made by Jimmie Rodgers.
An awesome Tic-Tac-Toe game made out of wood by Schuyler Towne that will have locks to pick in each turn in order to place an X or O on the board.
I made Giant Snail Take Over- a papercraft game from a Mountain Dew box and some animals and town scenes I found online as well as some motorized props. The gameplay was recorded into a stop-motion papercraft spaghetti western movie on Youtube.
Darius Kazemi reworked his turn-based strategy game and posted a movie to Youtube.
Michael Carriere and K. Adam White collaborated on a game affectionately called RAAJOCBDFOTLSOTS made in Flixel, in which you run around and jump on cars but try not to fall off the left side of the screen!
Darren Torpey demoed an early-stage game he is going to bring into Facebook to log emotions and experiences and David Ludwig demoed his Ball Game, a puzzle based game made for the iPhone that uses the accelerometer feature for a ball to reach it’s target as well as his Falling Stuff screensaver he made in Box2D.
Last but not least Fahreddın Basegmez, one of the makers of Mekanimo- a free 2D physics simulator, and his son Dennis created Cows In Space.
All in all a very productive weekend!
Comments (0) | Tags: Art, collaborative, DINO, dino jam, game, game jam, interactive, Projects | More: Art, DINO, Projects
Giant Snail Take Over
February 21, 2010
This weekend DINO hosted a game jam and interactive project creation session that spanned both Saturday and Sunday. Typically the purpose of a game jam is for teams or lone creators to make a working project in either 24 or 48 hours. Sometimes there is a theme or things that you must incorporate into the piece you make.
Our jam was a bit more casual so I, not really knowing how to code, made a scene out of paper incorporating some creations from Cannon and Yamaha online papercraft communities. I made a short film of me playing with it stop-motion spaghetti western style with music from The Left Handed Gunfighter. I drank the give up beer after with relish.
This epic saga details the attempts of a lone defender of a town ransacked by giant snails. Will the townsfolk perish or will a savior come to the rescue? Watch and see.
Comments (0) | Tags: Art, giant snails, interactive, paper game, papercraft, Projects | More: Art, Projects
Smile or Else…
February 05, 2010
Lauren McCarthy, winner of the Awesome Foundation- Boston grant for December wants to teach you some manners. Specifically, how to improve your social interactions for the betterment of all. Through three different handmade devices she proposes that the wearer will be happier, more focused and more personable in conversation.
The Happiness Hat works by jamming a tiny spike into the back of your head if the sensor resting on your cheek notices you are not smiling. The Anti-Daydreaming Scarf creates an intermittent vibration on the back of your neck once it senses you are in close proximity with a person to make sure you are paying attention. The Body Contact Training Suit fills your head with white noise through headphones that stops if it senses you’ve come into physical contact with another person.
Lauren created these wonderful/terrifying inventions with arduinos, heat radiation sensors, capacitance sensing circuits and servo motors. If you suffer from a lack of social graces no need to rely on etiquette books or awkward self-attempts at forced interacting- now you’ve got a dedicated helper on your side that will keep the ladies/men coming in droves to be your friend/date/love you. Bravo Lauren!
Comments (2) | Tags: Awesome Foundation, interactive, lauren mccarthy, lilypad arduino, soft circuits, wearable technology | More: Awesome Foundation
Business Cards with Teeth
January 19, 2010
With a pitch to a potential client due the next day and an intense desire to put our best foot forward, there wasn’t much time to make our cards in bulk so I made them the old fashioned way- clicks, beeps, cuts and voila. We’ll probably revise it a bit more later but we each have ultra-gloss spikey works of art.
Comments (3) | Tags: Art, business cards, creation process, DINO | More: Art, DINO
A Difference in Desks
January 17, 2010
January 15th, 2010 marked my last day working at the company I had worked at for 6 1/2 years. It was my first job out of college and it was through them that I cut my teeth in the business world. I had been promoted through the ranks from test proctor to school director which I owe to my cheery determination and mulish work ethic.
I had originally gone to school for art-making, graduating at the top of my class with absolutely no idea how to use this degree to make money and live. Not wanting to burden my family and fed up with the starving artist stereotype, I looked for a job with steady income and benefits. By the time I had landed some form of a job I embraced the 9 to 5 culture as it felt like I was contributing to a greater something and giving back to society.
If you are an artist and you get a steady job with a set schedule it’s easy to say you’ll find time to create. The reality is very different- there is no on/off switch to creation. Once you get invested into the place where you spend most of your time, evenings and weekends are spent unwinding, not inducing the giddy rush of creating. Staunching that after it starts leaves me feeling empty and unsatisfied.
After getting to a certain point in my company career I knew that though all my creature comforts were taken care of there was still something missing. I knew if I ever wanted to create again I needed to fully dedicate my time to it. Despite reigning back the urge there was little that could change this large part of me, except for the gradual accumulation in years of a 9 to 5 mentality. As I write I am still under the grip of the perspective of the world that comes with intense multi-tasking and high level customer service.
Making the decision to quit my job to open an interactive design studio with my friends was not easy but so far it’s the best decision I’ve ever made. And I owe the process of my realization and understanding of my abilities to that company I spent so long at. I know we’ll do well because I’ve done well, and I know we have what it takes because I have what it takes.
To the left is my desk at my old job. To the right is my desk now. I like where this is going.
Comments (7) | Tags: business development, DINO, entrepreneurship, new beginnings, small business | More: DINO
The Logo Creation Process of DINO
January 10, 2010
This weekend I created the logo for DINO interactive studio. Aaron had a fun idea on a post-it note that I ran with. I drew a couple sketches then took pictures and loaded them into Adobe Photoshop. After playing around a bit Aaron opened my eyes up to the wonderful world of vector aesthetics and I used Adobe Illustrator to smooth and perfect the rest.
Next up is our main page!
Comments (2) | Tags: Art, business development, creation process, DINO, logo, logo creation, small business | More: Art, DINO
Interactive Paper Art
December 08, 2009
It’s been a while since I’ve worked on this but here are two examples of a simple way to integrate LED lights into a piece of art to change the story and engage the viewer with the 2-dimensional surface of the drawing. In Robodino Bond, pressing the dinosaur’s heart causes the robot’s electronic heart to light up:
And in RIP My Love, pressing your fingers against the gravestone makes the ghost’s eyes light up with electric anger:
I’d like to explore this further and build an interactive childrens book around simple switches, buzzers and lights embedded in the art of the piece. So many wonderful projects to explore! So little time!
Comments (0) | Tags: Art, interactive, LED art, papercraft, papertronics, Projects | More: Art, Projects
Doing Good
December 01, 2009
I got into a debate with my mom and my sister the other day about how much influence a person has over their personal network, how extended communities interact with each other and what happens to these communities when your actions show how you choose to live. My mom and my sister were not convinced that people on the individual level had that much effect, but I disagree.
We are by nature competitive beings who want the attention and affection of the people around us for acceptance of our actions so we feel that our lives have been lived well. When you start giving your time, energy and money to causes and people working to make the world better by your standards, not only does it flood your system with altruistic endorphins and promote public good; it pushes the people around you to recognize the benefits, figure out what your actions mean to them and adjust by doing or by appreciating to stay within your social circle.
With Facebook and Twitter and other social media networks we have taken advantage of our own personal ‘word of mouth’. The ability for us to know everything that our extended friends, family and interesting people we don’t know but like are posting to the web is free and addictive. It’s not a new thing that people have become individualized brands in and of themselves but the methods by which this happens is faster and more accessible to the general literate, internet-connected populous (which is actually only about 7% of the world).
Websites like Kiva (connecting people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty) and Kickstarter (funding creative ideas and ambitious endeavors) are excellent examples of the literate, internet-connected world’s ability to push up sleeves and put the web and social networks to good working use.
These are some Kickstarter projects and Kiva loans I’ve pledged to fund (yep, I like funding poor women makers, ‘green’ things and golden books):
WindowFarms
Tigerbuttah: A Hand-Painted All Ages Story Inspired by Golden Books
Comments (0) | Tags: collaborative, entrepreneurship, Other, philanthropy, small business, web | More: Uncategorized
Ambient Text Mashup of Modest Mouse
November 22, 2009
Processing is amazing. I can’t say enough good things about an open source intuitive language built to allow *everyone* easy access to a wide array of tools and resources made for developing visual programs and interactive fun.
This weekend I took part in Music Hack Day at the Microsoft Startup Labs in Cambridge and built an audio/visual mashup of a few different libraries from Processing and music from the EchoNest. My boyfriend James helped a lot with the coding and though he had not created anything in Processing before, his knowledge of Java made it a cinch.
The visual loads the lyrics of the song and makes repeating words larger. The title and chorus words of the song throb to the beat of the music while turning red. The one we did was a demo but it could be modified to any song and have it be an interesting way to take in the artist’s message as well as listening to the melody. Oh yeah and we won an iPod Nano for it! Pretty good weekend all around.
Here’s an image taken from the visual and a link to the applet.
Comments (3) | Tags: Art, collaborative, modest mouse, music hackday, processing, Projects, text visualization | More: Art, Projects
A First on Google Wave
November 19, 2009
©2009 Google
My friend kittenthebad did a rally call to her friends the other day to join an Intro to Java class she was teaching on Google Wave. She had set up instructions ahead of time for people to download Eclipse and when the time came we proceeded through her slides and demos while she held an open dialogue on the wave for questions and comments. She was super thorough with her examples and I felt well taken care of and slightly more knowledgeable than when I came in!
All and all an interesting experience, though GW was running a bit slow and we griped that there wasn’t the Chrome browser for macs yet. It was easy enough to set up an additional training session by the yes/no/maybe invite event function in GW and the next class will focus on an Intro to Processing (<3). A really neat tool for people to connect and work together over distance/disinclination to change from pj’s.
Comments (1) | Tags: collaborative, google, google wave, interactive, Other, web | More: Uncategorized
Levels of ‘stashe
November 18, 2009
This was a fun project- the mustache man below is the main character in a game created in Processing by my friends and I over this past weekend. The basic premise to the game is that you play the role of a newspaper editor trying to maintain a balanced coverage of news stories coming through the web. Link!
Comments (0) | Tags: Art, DINO, game art, interactive, processing, Projects, sprite | More: Art, DINO, Projects
A Forceful Application of Sugar
October 18, 2009
What you are looking at here is the prototype for dynamic confectionery goodness. Made out of the extruding parts of an espresso machine, drill bit funnel, 1/2 soda bottle, 12 volt motor and a lot of sugar this machine is set to stun and compel the world into Type II diabetes. The machine is a working model that extrudes strands of cotton candy and propels it up to 3 feet away. Josh Gordonson, the maker of this fine device, hopes to add parts for coloring the cotton candy and a more directional focus along with spikes and a butter compartment for caramel (okay the spikes and butter are my addition) so that it can shoot up to 10-15 feet. Josh is the October recipient for the Awesome Foundation grant and will be using his massive check:
To ensure that future generations do not go without a solution to the 2AM problem of how one injects assorted colorful arrays of sugar fluff into oneself, roommates and passersby. Bravo Josh.
Comments (3) | Tags: Awesome Foundation, cotton candy cannon, josh gordonson, projectile candy | More: Awesome Foundation
Comments (1) | Tags: Art, boston, photography, prudential | More: Art
***some.
October 04, 2009
When Tim Hwang started batting around the idea of the Awesome Foundation for the Arts and Sciences 4 months ago I really didn’t know what to expect. Assembling 10 friends together to give $1000 every month in an elaborate ceremony to fund the start of some absurd or largely irrelevant project seemed, well, a trifle self-indulgent. Being a fan of self-indulgence and needing no further motivation to promote and propagate joyous absurdity in the world, I joined.
What has happened in the last several months is fricking amazing.
This beast of inspiration has sliced and diced the red tape, endless hoops and halts people face when trying to fund ridiculous or atypical creations. It has also revealed to us the overwhelming amount of ingenuity out there and shamed me into working on my own gratuitous displays of public and private joy.
Not that the foundation was set up with the aim of wasting resources and mental space; we are all now at the point when reading through the grant applicants that it’s an automatic delete on apps that try to knock-off someone else’s project or augment something already in existence. Who doesn’t take the time to at least google search an idea to find out if ten spot-on matches are not already out there done? Non-winning applicants.
That said, I’ve heartedly enjoyed the ride. Since the applications have no expiration date, we haven’t collectively decided to showcase any yet in case we choose to fund an older one. I’ve been assembling some data on the criteria and trends that have emerged but that will be for later posts. For now, I’ll leave you with a raptor-proofed pirate ship of a home looking at the stars and wondering when the first Native American woman will walk on Mars. Foo!
P.S. I can’t use awesome anymore as a word. It’s been like eating pizza for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Comments (0) | Tags: Awesome Foundation, collaborative good, philanthropy | More: Awesome Foundation
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~awesome is as awesome does~
August 08, 2009
Giant pretzels?
Yes.
Giant check?
Yes.
Giant hammock?
YES.
So went the evening of Friday August 7th 2009. The trustees and friends of the Awesome Foundation gathered at 50 Church St. to award Hansy Better $1000 to make a giant hammock for public use in Boston Common:
Our first ever awesome grant to an awesome lady. Dibs on the first swing!
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…and DINO is born.
August 04, 2009
On or around April 27th, David Nunez, Aaron Waychoff and I decided to build a space to inspire people to make, do and learn.
It’s main focus is to build the community of hackers & makers in Boston and give people the support and knowledge they need to create and share their projects and ideas. We’ve teamed up with Sprout, a community science center and open studio focused on making science personal and accessible, and took over the lease on a space close to Davis Square-
And since then have painted-
And sat back-
And appreciated being a part of something great.
Comments (1) | Tags: DINO, petridish, Projects, sprout | More: DINO, Projects
I like giant helpful tables
July 22, 2009
Within the MIT media lab, through four doors and up three flights of stairs stands a great table. Roughly 6×10 feet of mesmerizing tactile phantasmagoric construction, the MemTable by creator Seth Hunter is indeed real and highly prone to the continuous company of men peering into it’s depths.
I got to take part in a user study on the effectiveness of said table in the context of meeting to discuss and plan a fictitious business venture and the collective conclusion at the end of the study besides new heights of appreciative wonder of Seth was that besides the growing pains associated with learning a new technology, the table’s ability to record/photograph/allow freeform drawing/upload web content/shoot lightning bolts allowed for a deeper non-interfering analysis of the interaction between people as they talk through their ideas. And yes, I *would* like one for my birthday thank you for asking.
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Offen! {that is German for open.}
July 14, 2009
What do you get when you cross a lock-picker and a jeweler?
a) a magical mythical beast
b) a mildly obsessive conversation about intricate tools
c) a magnetic pin finisher solution to a nook & cranny polishing problem
d) all of the above
For those of you who’ve never had an extended conversation with a lock-picker and a jeweler, it is d) all of the above. At tonight’s open hack I learned not only the average time it takes to open a lock at the Dutch Open (7min) but also added two gorgeous tools to my list of favorite things of the world. Allow me to present:
The Bogota Rake
The handle end doubles as a tension wrench and is best used “in a jittery motion as though the user had consumed too much coffee.”
The Columbian Royal
This tool combines a king and queen pick together in illustrious, 2 for 1 fashion. And, if you want to enjoy the experience of your eyes popping out and your mouth going slack, google the EVVA 3KS. Ggaaaaaahhh, lovely.
Comments (3) | Tags: Dorkbot, locksport | More: Dorkbot
A Very Tiny Sound Pushpin
June 29, 2009
Lesson learned: Do not post a how to on a ‘sound-generating’ pushpin before checking that it consistently generates said sound. In this case, it moves [which is nice] and makes some sound [which is nice] but when it hits something in it’s way it stops [which is not so nice]. The micro vibration motor is too tiny to withstand any additional pressure besides the flying aluminum wings, and that is a sad sad thing. Unless you have the ears of a bat, then it’s probably annoying. To have bat ears.
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The Awesome Foundation
June 25, 2009
In the name of all that is glorious we bring you: The Awesome Foundation.
What is this you ask? It’s a monthly no-strings micro-grant given to people making awesome things. Period.
Who is giving away this crazy amazing free money?
- David Nunez (Dorkbot Boston)
- Reed Sturtevant (Director, Microsoft Startup Labs)
- Emily Daniels (Dorkbot Boston)
- Keith Hopper (Public Interactive Group, NPR)
- David Fisher (Web Ecology Project, Development Ninja)
- Erhardt Graeff (The Berkman Center for Internet and Society)
- Evan Burchard (Developer, Rocker)
- Tim Hwang (ROFLCon)
- Jon Pierce (Betahouse)
- Matt Blake (ROFLCon)
Why are we doing this? Because it’s awesome!!!
How do you apply? Link!
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What is the smallest unit of funk?
June 24, 2009
Tonight I went to an event put on by my friend Josh Rosenstock at MassArt called the Shrine to the Funky Drummer: an experimental documentary/video mixtape/mashup he had been working on as artist in research at the Berkwick. It was a great piece and it got me thinking to create an interactive James Brown polyester suit with built-in beat. Basically you could add little pockets/sew into seams of the elbows, lapels, tails, etc. tiny motion activated sound-generators which, when you started to dance, would turn on and throw off some beats and depending how you moved, would make a super funk-inspired music piece. I think that would be awesome.
Comments (2) | Tags: ideas, interactive, Projects, wearable technology | More: Projects
Sound-generating Pushpin
June 07, 2009
After BYOR night I started experimenting and forming tiny sound sculptures built on the head of a pushpin- the idea came from the cheap accessibility of making LED Throwies and the random fun that comes with harmless graffiti. I took a mini pager motor, a 3 volt battery, some aluminum foil and wire, the pin and of course ducktape and pieced them together:
The sound it generates is kind of a gentle rustling that, when combined with many, forms this great wall of sound. I’d like to take this project and hold an openhack around putting them together and having a shared experience of the sound generated in a park when there are no leaves on the trees. In the meantime I made an instructable on it in case you’d like to do it at home!
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Bring Your Own Robot Night Got Brought
June 04, 2009
Fun night tonight- set up shop at True Grounds near Davis Sq. and invited hacker/maker friends to join me in working on projects- Jimmie made some LED throwies, Brett cooked the rug a bit with his hacked toaster and Gideon showed us all up with his wax etching printer!
I brought the pieces of crybot and actually got the sensor sensing with Gideon’s help- exciting moment! Also made a sound throwie that I’d like to customize a bit more before releasing as an instructable.
There may or may not have been some mischief following said event that involved throwies. Only the closing barista at Starbucks in Davis can tell for sure.
Comments (3) | Tags: collaborative, Dorkbot, geek, robot | More: Dorkbot
It’s Alive!
May 24, 2009
Three 9 volt batteries later, the little pump I got at the MIT swap is projectile throwing soon-to-be tears into crybot’s belly. Yesssss!!
Comments (0) | Tags: crybot, emotional robots, Projects, robot | More: Projects
Playing With A Creepy Cave Crab
May 23, 2009
A while ago I was the self-appointed minion to Jimmie Rodgers’ creepy cave crab project for Willoughby & Baltic’s Halloween show at the Charles River Museum of Industry. as you can see from this movie the crabs are indeed creepy and crabby and liked the dark.
[A single hex schmitt trigger inverter IC to generate the sound, 2 RGB color change LEDs to generate the light and 8 photo resistors to sense the light all held together semi-neatly with friendly plastic and silver paint]
Here’s the link!
Comments (4) | Tags: geek, interactive, led, Other, photocell, robot, sound art | More: Uncategorized
$35 Gets You This!
May 17, 2009
Successful spoils from MIT’s Swapfest today:
Some stuff strange [vintage Burton-esque rake and the ugliest heat-sink ever]
Some stuff questionably fun [Hermes 811 calculator w/ vacuum tubing + Heathkit ‘color generator’]
Some stuff useful [a real clamp! and a hand-powered drill to replace my Dremel in case power goes out]
Some stuff that I really did need [RGT rinse pump #2 and a solenoid for the crybot]
and I no longer can deny- vintage tools that are both aesthetic and functional hit a sweet spot in me. Sigh..
Comments (0) | Tags: geek, MIT swapfest, Other | More: Uncategorized
Ode To An Abhorrent Water Pump
May 16, 2009
What you see here is a half-hacked mini aquarium water pump ‘clamped’ to my desk with duck tape and its suction feet helpless to the impending battle bt. Dremel and weird green resin/plastic casing.
What you do not see is my look of utter disgust and defeat while I came to grips with the fact that copious amounts of toxic dust in my lungs and an hour of cutting did not result in a satisfying cracking open of it’s contents, just sparks/smoke/unhackable motor.
….aghah#$%&^@*)!!!!!
Comments (1) | Tags: crybot, emotional robots, Projects, robot | More: Projects
Sound Throwie
May 13, 2009
Modeled after the LED throwie, this device is easily inserted into walls/porous surfaces with it’s pin backing and a mini-pager motor runs it’s rasping aluminum foil wings as it generates tiny brushing sounds.
Comments (0) | Tags: ideas, Projects, sound art, tiny sound device | More: Projects
Sentient Arduino
Some things are too easy- I googled Arduino code for PIR sensor, clicked the first on the list, ctrl c + ctrl v’d and whamo- a functioning sensing program.
Comments (0) | Tags: arduino, crybot, emotional robots, Projects, robot | More: Projects
Basic Tools
May 09, 2009
I took this pic in Oct 2008 when I first started collecting thing that would help form the basis of projects I was thinking of. A captured commemorative event of my realized and accepted geekness. I labeled all the compartments of this box with its contents:
PNP type transistors. NPN type switching transistors. IC sockets. photo cells. electrolytic capacitors. ceramic disk capacitors. LEDs. 1/4 watt resistors. 1N914 type diodes. 2 1/4 alligator clips. instructional data. other.
Have since added to the mix:
servo motor. stepper motor. darlington arrays. various potentiometers. pc boards. ultra-sonic range finder. pir sensor module. an additional arudino diecimila. other fun stuff!
Things that have come in handy while I’ve tinkered with the project tentatively named ‘crybot’. More to follow on that later..
of many I hope.
