The final thing

This is our movie and the final thing!

The Beamograph

/The group

The End, Ola part 2

Hello

The module is coming to an end. We made a good movie which felt like a good way to end up the project. Yesterday we had the exhibition day. I was sick but came to school an hour to fix some tech problems. As I was told everything seems to work smoothly after I went home to bed.

In general I’m satisfied with what we achieved. I overcame some fear for technology. That’s good I guess. I also think it’s a lot of thing we could have made better as well. Better communication between us, more distinct goals during the project, having someone who made the project management.

Something that’s really cool is our prototype. It’s awesome indeed. If you really want to check it out, try to find our video. It’s on youtube. The link will be here soon enough. ‘Til then. Have a nice weekend.

Cheers from Ola

Thank you and bye bye!

FINALLY! Exhibition over, and everything worked out good! It's been an awesome day!
When we came here this morning our project didn't work but after fixing and testing we got it together and the exhibition could start.
There were not many people on the morning exhibition but that was alright because we had some trouble with the sound at the beginning. Ola, who is sick today, came to school to fix it and then he left again. We had a break for 2 hours and 30 minutes and then the exhibition started again. This time it came a lot more people and it was fun!

What surprised us most was the reactions we got when people tried our turntable, they all found it fun and cool and some even came back to try again! Since we've been working with this project for three weeks we didn't think it was anything special but that was just what we thought! We are all happy how this day went and wouldn't have done it different. We did have more plans but since we didn't have time we couldn't do it.

When exhibition time was over Petter Wärnsberg (the module leader) had a short lecture. This was the first time we met him, when he had his first lecture at the beginning of this module it was a Skype lecture live from London.

After three week of hard work, a lot new experience and a bigger knowledge about all this it's done and it worked out just good! Tomorrow we have to do a information movie about our project, we are going to do a stop-motion movie in After Effects with a touch of the 70's (which was our main design). It's going to be awesome!

Well, thanks for your interest and for following our project. If having any questions, all of us has our own personal blog and the links is on the right side! Don't hesitate to contact us!
Pictures from the exhibition

Group 2
Madonna
Gustaf
Fannie
Ola
Martin

Exhibition time: Gustaf/Part 2

Happiness all around, we’re done! There was a small chaos in my brain this morning when I tried to connect the prototype to a new computer. I had to download all the software to my laptop since Ola was home sick and we have been using his computer in the development phase.

I couldn’t get it to work! So I called Ola, who was so sleepy I hardly understood what he said. But he made me wiser and i realised i had forgotten to load everything into Max/MSP. I got it to work but more panic arose. The light was different! after an hour of trying to fix it We had to call Ola in. He arrived fairly quick and got it to work around 11:00.

The day ended quite well and we have received many kind words about our prototype which is great. There was even one guy who came back twice to play with it. All in all it’s been a great experience with both highs and lows.

Were done, and it feels great. now I'm of to yoga class.

Peace!
/Gustaf

2 days of brain chaos.. Gustaf/Part_01

2 days of chaos to an end. Ola has been sick but worked as well as he’s been able to and managed to finish the Max/MSP program. I’ve been really stressed out and cranky and been concentrating on constructing the prototype. On Tuesday I decided I wasn’t allowed to go home before I was done, but around 00:30 I really had to go so I could get home. At least I was mostly done. I had soldered practically everything that needed soldering and today I only had to put it into the record player, which was fairly easy.

Around lunch Madonna and Fannie went to the city to pick up the piece of glass we had ordered. Ola also had to get a way for an hour or so since he’d forgotten the switches for the prototype. While they where away I sat around fixing with the prototype whilst being crankier than ever and Martin was working on the magazine article.

Madonna, Fannie and Martin worked on finishing the article and I was tweaking the prototype and added a knob to it as well. Fannie was great and did a record which we ended up not using, to bad. Madonna and Fannie cleaned up the final record and taped it to the piece of glass we bought.

When I left Madonna was working on a logo/presentation for our exhibition.

Bom shakalack!
/Gustaf

tomorrow is the exhibition day!

We have been working hard during the week. Monday and Tuesday we buyed all the material that we required. Me and Madonna were all over the town buying things like painting colures, a table, nails and other stuff that we needed.

I brought two things to school, from my home. A very cool lamp and a red chair.
So now you can sit on the chair and scratch on the turn table! The lamp is very good because the turn table needs lights to play all the different sounds!

We painted the table that the turn table will be on, in colures that match the lamp and the chair, we did a pattern of flowers and then we sprayed the color on the pattern!

Today we hade alot to do because of the deadline, everything had to be finished at five in the afternoon.
Our glass plate that we ordered in the beginning of the week were finished today, then we wrote on the magazine article and we all worked hard to finish the project in time!

Tomorrow is the exhibition day!
Byebye Fannie

Day before D day.

Tomorrow it's the big D-day, deadline! literally deadline.. We have exhibition on thursday, all day. In the morning it's going to be a private exhibition for invited people and after lunch (13-17) anyone who want can come.
And to bad for us if the prototype doesn't work. All this hard work for nothing! BUT HEY! It's going to work, and it's going to rock the sh*t.

Today Madonna and Fannie was out almost all day on a mission to buy things for the prototype and exhibition. They also visited schools to tell about the exhibition. Anyway they bought color to paint with, nails and sandpaper to the wood and then they found a table which they carried through the whole city to school.

Meanwhile Gustaf, Martin and Ola was at school fixing with the arduino board, MAX/MSP and the turntable.

Later Madonna and Fannie redecorated the table they bought and Gustaf continued to work with the turntable. Ola felt sick so he went home and worked from there, did testdriving to MAX/MSP and Martin did some changes in the projectplan.

Today was a day filled with shopping, building and testing. Tomorrow will be the hard day filled with panic and stress. But after that we can all look back and smile, beacuse if it doesn't work it will at least look good, that's a promise.

Here's some pictures,
to be continued...

Our table on a journey

And then it was time to work..




And then we took a coffeebreak


/ The group.

Deadline is approaching. Post by Ola, Part 1

It’s deadline day tomorrow. The work has gone forward pretty smoothly these weeks. At times I have torn my head apart. Max/MSP was the program of our dreams, the missing link in the project. When we got to know about the project we cheered in champagne. We found our golden pig. Max/MSP receives the signals from the Arduino board and is able to make music out of the input given. But the program can be “a bitch” as Kasper told us. Later on I though, No shit Sherlock – you are right. I learned a lot and we are going to get a good product for sure. I guess our thing also will be the funkiest product in our crowd. But hey! Don't blame me. It's just my assumption.

Tomorrow is the day. Tomorrow is the day of truth for Max/MSP. The time plan could be pretty tight but I think we will manage. Whole class has more or less loss of manpower because of a strange illness that spreads through the classroom. I’m working as good as I can.

Cheers
/Ola

Fannies story about this project, first part!

heey!

We have this individual task, where I have to write something on our group blog, and I must write it in at least 150 words, so here I go!

This project has been fun, we have done a lot of things!

In the beginning of this project we did a lot of brainstorming it was very good i think, we used the post-it -technique, its wild and fun hehe! we got to know each other better and everybody had a lot of ides!

It took us about two or three days before we had the idée clear, but we didn’t know the design yet!

There were a lot of discussing about the design, and we didn’t get along, we all hade different ides about the design, but on the second week the group finely comes up with a great idée, they decided that it would be a turn table, and it will play sound when the light comes in contact with it! I was gone that week, but
When I was back they told me about this, and I think it was a great idée!!!

More words from me, later on!

Bye bye then!

Fannie Redman

2 days left...

Today we started the morning,talking through what will happen to day and what we have to buy.

We bought boards, potentiometer and we ordered a glass plate today.

We also did the first draft of the magazine article and wrote a short presentation to the exhibition about our project.

And we have discussed how to present our project on the exhibition so it will look najss and lovely and 70's.

/the group

Just my thoughts..

Yes! Now it's almost time for the exhibition and we have a lot left to do but no worries! It's been 2 weeks but it feels like 500 weeks!
Things are happening and working fine, we've made big progress with the arduino board and guess what, it works! yey! There has been cooperations with Karlskrona and the magazine brief task is done so now we need to write the article.
On monday we'll start to build the prototype and that means no rest till deadline and exhibition! But that's not a problem because it's the fun part!

This week has been chaotic, I've been working with the project but I've also helped with the wall-painting and planing the student-part to the Resumébar openingparty. We've had good communication in the group about what we are doing, working with and how everything goes. But I haven't been as active as I would have liked to be about the programming and the arduino board, mostly I've helped with the writing.

We talked about this on the follow-up process and we decided that since it is Ola who knows most about how all the programming works I'm going to help him on monday when we are building the prototype. I really want to understand how it works. Everyone in the group is helping each other to understand different parts. The feedback we got from each other was good because now we know what we need to work with to maximize our learning in this project.
We finally decided how the prototype will look like, and how we did that I don't know. We had the idea but different thoughts about the design and one day during a meeting one of us said something about a turntable and we all liked that so we started with some light brainstorming and that was all we needed.

Now we have three days to build a working prototype and write an article for the magazine, but as I said before, no one in the group is worried, because we all agree that if it takes time we'll stay at school working all night if needed.

Don't miss the exhibition!

/Madonna

Final deadline is coming closer

Todays schedule was follow-up process with the group at 1:30 p.m.
But before that we had a meeting and discussed what we must do to finish the prototype till next week to the exhibition on thursday. We finally decided how our prototype will look like and then we made a plan for the day and for next week.
Then it was time for the follow-up process which took about 1 hour and 30 minutes. We talked about how the project was going and if we've follow our plan and of course we gave each other feedback.

/The Group

Other things going on

Today it's the Resumébar opening party here at Hyper Island and we've been distracted because of that.
What we've done today is finish writing the magazine brief we started with yesterday and sent it to the group in Karlskrona who is going to write an article about our project.
We had a meeting just to check everything and planned what needs to be done.

To be contiuned..
//The group

Our project plan...

HYPER ISLAND
Stockholm


Project Plan
Digital Media Stockholm 07
Module: Experience Technology
Group 2: Sound and Light
Fannie Redman, Gustaf Eriksson, Ola Möller, Madonna Arsan, Martin Johansson



1. INTRODUCTION
We like to create an experience based on participation. The lead words for our project are Sound and Light, these are also the backbone of the project. The user of the prototype/product will be able to use a flashlight to “play” the instrument, which produces different sounds depending on which areas are lit on the prototype. This project is a part of the module Experience Technology at the school Hyper Island at the programme Digital Media in Stockholm, Sweden.

2. PROJECT SPECIFICATION
2.1 Assignment
2.1.1 Main task
The main task is a group activity in which each group has to create a solution that involves one or several components that they are assigned. A component can be a device, an electronic component or a piece of software. The solution should explore the components and challenge their use in creating a proof of concept for a product, service, game or interactive installation (all with an emphasis on exploration, innovation and fun).

2.1.2 Sub task - Sound and Light
Work with light sensors, sounds sensors, microphones and speakers to create an art piece or prototype of a product based on abstract light and audio input. Avoid using digital visual output like a monitor. Think about the sounds that exist around us and how we react to them. What happens when sound goes beyond frequencies that we can hear? What is the relation between sound and other types of feedback like vibrations? What happens if the input and feedback happens in different locations? How can something visual be reflected in sound?

2.2 Solution
2.2.1 Product/Function
We like to create a product that plays sounds. The sounds played are controlled by different light sensitive components. If the components are illuminated, the product will play a sound connected to that specific component. If not, the product will not play the sound of the component. The idea is that you with a flashlight can make the product do different sounds which varies depending on when and how long the light sensitive component are actived by the light source.

2.2.2 Technology
When we create the product, the plan is to use a pattern of light sensitive components (active when illuminated) connected to an arduino board connected to a computer which process the information given by the arduino board. The computer gives output to a speaker system.


2.3 Feature description
To work out a description of the features we worked according to the MoSCoW method. We chose what we must have, what we should have, could have and what we would like to have if time was given.

2.3.1 MUST HAVE
- React on light
We use photo resistors.
- Different light sensors are processed differently.
Photo resistors are connected to different part of the processing unit so it can distinguish the specific components.
- Process reaction on the light
A combination of the arduino board and the computer software working together with arduino.
- Send signals to the speakers
Output from the computer or the arduino board.
- Play a number of sounds (depending on which sensors are illuminated)
The photo resistors that are connected to different part of the processing unit are processed to play different sounds.
- Be a prototype that functions.

2.3.2 SHOULD HAVE
- Be an appealing prototype

2.3.3 COULD HAVE
- Be able to change type of sounds
- Show lights when sounds are played
- Record the experience
- Replay the recorded experience

2.3.4 WOULD LIKE TO HAVE (if time)
- Have very remarkable prototype that feels like a finished product.


3. ORGANISATION
3.1 Project group
The project group contains of five Hyper Island students at DM07STHLM.
Fannie Redman, Gustaf Eriksson, Ola Möller, Madonna Arsan and Martin Johansson.

3.2 Responsibility areas
We have divided our work into five responsibility areas. To maximize our learning we chose to rotate the areas between us, this way of working gives us bigger knowledge in all areas and not only one and it give all of us a chance to learn how things work that we didn’t knew before. These are the areas:
Technology; hardware
Technology; software
Research
Copy
Project planner

3.3 Time estimates / Deadlines.
September:
24-25th Brainstorm and come up with an idea for the project
26th Research: how the technique works
Research: what material we need to buy
27th Draft for project plan finished
28th Deadline: Project plan 12:00 p.m.
Deadline: Peer marking 6:00 p.m.

October:
1 st Purchase of material
Research: how to build the prototype
Start building the prototype
4th Magazine brief
Deadline: Magazine, brief 5:00 p.m.
Work with magazine
8th Work with magazine
Deadline: Magazine, first draft 5:00 p.m.
10th Deadline: Magazine, 5:00 p.m.
Deadline: Prototype, 5:00 p.m.
11th Exhibition

4. RESEARCH
4.1 The Unknown
To be able to complete the project we have to discover the world of technology, both in a hardware and software context. The things that we will learn more about are especially the Arduino system and how we can connect it to different components.

4.1.1 ELECTRONICS
Components – how do they work?
Making connections
Discover more about the Arduino board

4.1.2 SOFTWARE
Learn more about Arduino development environment (which is based on Processing)
Learn about Max/MSP which is a music program that can be connected to Arduino DE
Learn if we can connect the Arduino board to flash and process the information there.



Tha shit from tha group!

Max/MSP and other strange techie things

Test of input from light sensitive component.
We tested in a dark room to get the most out of it.

The work is progressing. Today we made a working prototype that plays different sounds which depend on if the light sensitive components are lit or not. We got some help from a friend of us that studies at the Interactive Sound Design BA programme in Kristianstad so now we understand the principles of making sound with input from the arduino board ALOT better. Thanks Nils!

One picture tells a story greater than 1000 words.

This is the first working prototype. 6 LDRs (light sensitive components), connected to an arduinoboard. The arduino board collects the analog input from the LDRs and send it to the computer. In the computer will Max/MSP which is a music program collect the information and us it as different variables to controll different commands in the program. Eg. volume, tone and so on.

We tell more about the ideas how to we want to built the final prototype and more about Max/MSP later on.

Cheers
/Le Group

A kick in the butt

Monday, slowest day of the week. Today we've had a lot of meetings about everything. On our schedule we had the first meeting which was our daily morning meeting. After planing what we would today we had a class info-meeting about everything. During the lunch Madonna was away buying stuff we needed and later Ola and Gustaf had another shoping tour. So with that done we decided to start testing and programming tomorrow and start to look at the magazine task, on thursday it's deadline for the magazine brief.

The last meeting was with an exhibition group, they discussed how the exhibition was going to be planned and how we are going to cooparate with Karlskrona about the magasine task.

As usual, more to come
/Group two