For today’s lab session, we each gave a presentation in which we shared the current progress of our designs and some of the trials and tribulations we have encountered.
It is always reassuring to hear of the work of others and know that you’re not alone in your endeavors and that everyone struggles with something.
Jade’s presentation on her piano design was really insightful as to the playability and functionality of her device. Tolu’s project was very inspirational as he had taken the time to fully understand his code which is something I am personally struggling with. Emily’s project was interesting as she has taken her design from the previous year and decided to improve on her previous work with the power of self reflection which will surely render her work much better, due to the lessons learned from last year.
Questions and feedback are crucial when designing a project like this as things you might overlook can be pointed out to you by others, giving you the chance to reconcile before you have to submit them.
In the lecture today we discussed ways in which you can document the process if our projects so that we know the aspects of development that have occurred throughout our projects. We discussed there categories:
Visual (videos, pictures and diagrams)
Written (Blog posts, publications and lab notes)
Code repo (GitHub blog posts)
Quantitative and qualitative data (Excel spreadsheets)
Lab
Today we all completed a 10 minute presentation of how far we have come with our projects so far and explained any aspects that we still needed to complete. We all then graded each other on four different aspects of our presentations which included:
Clarity
Complexity
Aesthetics
functionality
Those of us that have managed to get sound to work with our projects have shown how they can be used. Below I have included the slides for my presentation so that you can see the progress that I have made with my Arduino project. In the presentation slides there is also a video of my project so far and the issues that I have been faced with.
Although I am having an issue with the fact that the code is struggling to work with my project, after meeting with my peers today I see where the issue is and how I can change my code so that it works successfully.
It is also interesting to see how far we have all come with our projects individually as we have all been given the same brief but chosen to approach it differently.
During this mornings session, we watched and gave feedback on a great presentation by Dr. Rebecca Stewart, based around electronic music interfaces, primarily using unconventional materials like fabrics or textiles. It was very helpful to see and witness how one can experiment with somewhat traditionally sourced materials.
This is a screenshot of one of the projects featured within the presentation, by Afroditi Psarra
In the lab session, we revised last weeks topics and began working towards our final projects independently. I personally tried to resolve some software issues I am having with MAX/MSP but they are persisting which is causing me great frustration. I am at this stage considering switching to Pure-Data instead, before I am too far into this project and I cannot change program as I have committed too much time into one software.
In this morning’s session, Tolu gave a great presentation on some projects that inspire his project and gave a great insight into his thought process into how he decided his final project.
For the lab session, we began with a recap of last week which we then followed by an informative session around remote access of the DMU computers which in turn gives us access to software such as SolidWorks which is a material design/3d printing and construction software that will be crucial for us to
A Screenshot of a half sphere created within SolidWorks
The second phase of the lab was spent checking fitting within the enclosure and trying to work out creative ways in which I can get the most out of my circuit and make it a unique, interesting project.
Today we presented our presentations about Arduino projects that have helped give us ideas towards our own. This was a timed presentation that was 15 – 20 minutes and everyone in the class gave feedback on how the presentation was completed as well as the criteria that they had completed their project up to. It was interesting to gain feedback from those in the class as we completed these presentations on our own and needed ways in which we could improve them. It was also captivating to see how other people had done their presentations and the ideas that they had for their own projects as we all have very different ideas about the projects that we wish to complete.
This is one of the instruments that I looked at during my presentation and it is the instrument that has had the most influence on my final piece in total.
We took a tour of the mechanical workshop to see what machines they had available and the kinds of projects that they were producing. It was interesting to see a completely different department compared to the one that we are usually situated.
The mechanical workshop is a room that has multiple different pieces of equipment inside it that can be used to make various different projects that include making physical things.
2. Who are the contact persons?
3. When can you go?
The timetable is on the back of the door of the workshop room.
4. Where is it located?
In Queens at the back of the building near the very end.
5. Why you should go?
You should go to develop any project that you have decided to create to add originality and a creative fare to it.
6. How are you planning to use the mechanical workshop concerning your project?
I may decided to use the mechanical workshop in my project as I’d like to create a mini piano that look realistic. This would mean that I could laser cut pieces of the piano such as the keys. However, I don’t know have access to one of these machines so visiting the mechanical workshop would be necessary.
Conclusion
In conclusion it was interesting to see the various pieces of equipment that they had available to use as I wasn’t aware that the department existed. They had various models of planes and cars which was interesting to see as there are many different options that you can make. It has allowed to to see that I can create a much more interesting instrument that I first thought and I think that it will look more professional in total.
In this session, we began by sharing previous work from a previous years module that was applicable to the current module. Emily’s instrument comprised of a multiple oscillator synth, with multiple monophonic synths assigned to multiple control knobs that alter the pitch.
My own instrument comprises of a light dependent resistor (LDR) to control a monophonic synthesizer within an enclosure. The lighter the environment, the higher the pitch. It was interesting to compare as we never ended up getting to show each other our work last year during the module.
We then plugged in the Arduino and had a go at writing our first code which makes the Arduino LED blink in one second intervals, which is essentially the coding equivalent of “Print (“Hello World!)”.
Figure 1 – Screenshot of the code within the Arduino IDE software
As you can see from figure one, it is incredibly simple to understand the function of the code and it is incredibly concise.
We then adapted our own code by writing our own function to call an if/else statement that would print the value status of either high or low to the serial monitor. I have learned more about the Arduino coding language to which I am very unfamiliar, and is both similar and dissimilar to any coding I have done before.
