Week 2 - Meeting the Arduino

Today was the first day I've toyed an Arduino unit and tinkered with its IDE. Install on my Macbook Pro was simple and I got it running right away.The Arduino software was a pleasant change from Max/MSP's visual OOP. The language was simple to understand and the examples were well commented so everything made sense the first time around.

We just hit a little snag after connecting everything together and not seeing the same results Daniel had on demo. In our monitor, instead of a constant stream of resistance figures, we got weird symbols and characters. Sherry fortunately discovered that we had to change the baud amperage to what was declared in the code. It is also nice that we don't have to go out and buy supplies compared to other classes. Hopefully the group of us that are planning to buy an Arduino can place the order soon.

The second half of the class was welcomed with a luke warm response because I knew I was running a cracked Max version 4.3 and was lacking most of the great objects found in 4.5. It took me awhile to get back into the Max/MSP way of thinking, but after I looked at Greg's patch, I began to understand how each part worked. I will have to look at the Arduino code and patches again to figure out the details.

I tried creating the patch Greg asked us to draw out and discovered my Max did not have the atoi/itoa objects from TapTools. I went online searching if they could be downloaded for free, but came up dry. Greg then told me that 4.5 included these new patches. I may have to work in Windows or use the eMacs, if I can't find the objects needed to operate the Arduino. A real pity if it comes to that.

This semester has been throwing me curve balls so far, as the usual people I've worked with for the past three years are in the other group. Since I'm no longer with what I consider the Dream Team, I will take up the challenge of working with new people, try to push what we can do, and maybe have a friendly competition with my buddies.

edit// Thanks Yohei for uploading the circuit for the LED blink test.

Week 1 - Embodiment

To me, embodiment is the translation of what we create in our minds, to something tangible. Giving shape to an emotion, or texture to a smell. It doesn't have to be static, as motion can embody a feeling as well.

I found Feather Fingers, by Rebecca Horn, interesting because the feathers appear to be longer than your fingers, so you wouldn't feel anything. Whoever is being touched by the feathers would feel something. Cockatoo Mask also gained my attention because of her description of the process the user and another person would go through. Wearing the mask creates an intimate space and the user can open it up to invite someone in by letting them see. Or someone could open the mask themselves and invade that space.