"MAKING SENSE III"
08-11 December 2004
I attended the Making Sense III workshop led by Erich Berger at Atelier Nord,
Oslo. It was the 3rd of a series of physical computing workshops led by Erich
at AN. Here's the blurb from the website:
This last workshop of the Making Sense series in 2004 invites
artists and practitioners to apply with an own project in which a physical
computing solution is needed. The workshop aims to form a group of artists,
theorists, designers and technicians to be able to illuminate each project
in different directions and to perform together the necessary steps and experiments
to bring the projects closer towards a state of production.
My main interest in attending this workshop was to find out how sensors actually
work (!), how they are constructed and to look at possible strategies for
media generation via sensory input.
I teamed up with Jana Windern, a Norwegian artist who is currently interested
in generating fluctating sound frequences via data derived from light sensors.
I had an aim to also include kinetic elements in a phenomenological mode -
that is, making things "move" via unheard soundwaves (low frequency)
generated from the light sensor data.
So:
something visibly
perceivable (lightness - darkness) generates
modulating
sound, which
"touches"
something, and makes it move, even if the sound is unperceivable by the human
ear.
Movement does not occur until certain low frequency threshholds are reached.
I am interested in exploring this transitional threshold further in relation
to my project.
We worked in a practical, hands on mode, from putting together a circuit for
3 light sensors using Basic Stamp 2, programming the micro-chip,
constructing a max patch to generate various fluctuating sound frequencies,
soldering extension wires on to the light sensors (burnt my fingers!), sticking
peacock feathers into plastic cups (to see if low frequency sounds would make
them vibrate at different intensities)
and eventually trying the whole thing out.
HERE is a diagram
showing our max patch and describing our process.
REFERENCE LINKS
More info on the Making Sense workshops got to the project section of Atelier Nord's website:
http://www.anart.no
Basic Stamp info:
http://www.parallax.com/