Interaction model

soft sensor interaction model

Space

This hastily spawned project was inspired by a reading a got to slip while backtracking to school, leaving me with 2.5 hours of extra transit since it was during “let’s-keep-the-hard-working-night-owls-away-from-their-soft-beds-for-even-longer” hour.

Inspiring excerpts from “Sensing a Dwelling.” The Green Imperative. written by Victor Papanek.

“Scientists tell us that we experience the world primarily through our eyes…We are endowed with five senses and more: we have sensory nerves which make us aware of the body position and movement in relation to a space (kinaesthesia)…”

“Why are we only now becoming increasingly aware of the impoverishment of our sensory ablilities?”

“It has been known for decades that certain red-orange colour will kick into high gear several psycho-physioloogical systems that deal with aggression and sexuality; recent studies in colour thereapy and photobiology seem to show that ‘passive pink’ (the bubble-gum colour), has an almost immediate effect on aggressive behaviour. When people displaying berserk behaviour are put into a small passive-pink room, they tend to calm down within minutes and go to sleep.”

“We walk through three-dimensional spaces with light changing through windows, clerestories anf other penetration of walls or roof.”

“Light through a rose-window in church floods the space with brilliant colours.”

“… visual acoustics.”

“Light needs space: it is the room that dictates the flow of the light – it is the light that modulates the volume of the room.”

Color therapy and photobiology has always fascinated me, so these notions easily peaked my interest. Through framing of architecture and infliction on our line of sight can create space and a feeling of enclosure. This could easily be illustrated by creating blinders to wear over you eyes to create a physical blocking of peripheral movement and light. At the same time this gives the wearer a feeling of privacy and focus on one’s work. This can also be illustrative of the desensitizing of our other 4 senses. We have the whole of our body outside of this small enclosure, having a constraint on our vision that is uncommon for us punctuates the what we might take for granted and heighten the senses that might have been dulled through neglected conscious awareness.
There was surely more to explore, other than physically enclosing a space around your field of vision, and what feelings that might invoke. There was room for color and light play.
This was a project that was a resourceful one. I wearily (though not reluctantly) looked around my room and spotted my materials, black frame glasses without lens, a small box, and a stack of colored origami paper.

The idea was bind the box to the glass frames and create a sliding system of which to interchange color slides made of cardboard with the origami paper adhered to it. There would need to be a fine slot cut into each of the slides in order for you to see, still obstructing your view to a fine plane.

Once the box was attached to the glasses, I put them on and immediately knew that the color slides would be useless due to lack of light. The slides would not me immersive enough anyhow, it wouldn’t effect your mood nearly as much as being surrounded in a room by one color.

Well, this led me to turn to the component that is the LED. From here, the project become a proof of concept. An LED, or five for that matter, would not be a controlled enough frequency of light wave with the right tint of red on painted on the bulb. It could still effect you mood, but with a “you take what you can get” attitude.

This is what I proceeded with, the idea of installing five LEDs into the blinder box with an on/off switch.

quickly sketched schematic

silver conductive ink used to paint on traces

I hit the underneath of my pre-punched holes of too for extra coverage

taped down components to traces

upside down and inside look at the installed LEDs

Physicality and embodiment public experiment

Untitled from lara grant on Vimeo.

Untitled from lara grant on Vimeo.

Untitled from lara grant on Vimeo.

Untitled from lara grant on Vimeo.

Untitled from lara grant on Vimeo.

Untitled from lara grant on Vimeo.

Untitled from lara grant on Vimeo.

Untitled from lara grant on Vimeo.

Untitled from lara grant on Vimeo.

Physicality and embodiment

In softness this week we have explored what physicality means and how to explore different aspects of this idea as it pertains to space.
The assignment is to create an object and a public experience within this theme. To challenge ourselves by stepping out of our box of comfortableness.

This week I am working with Carolina Vallejo on a project that opens a conversation between us and the public regarding our bodies and how they perceive or want to perceive them.

Carolina informed me that she was interested in creating a wearable that commented on body augmentation and plastic surgery. She was interested in focusing on the breasts, this is a video that she showed me that also deals with this is a very comedic way.

These are the notes from our final decision on how we are going to approach this:

a block of clay that straps to the breasts inviting people to mold their ideal ones onto me.
giving people a blank canvas to create an intimate part of the body. what will their thoughts be? will they be challenged by the honesty they need to portray? will i be offended by their choices? will it bring a dark revelation, or an inspirational outlet?
this can be applied to other parts of the body, the nose, the eyes, the ass. things that are augmented daily and readily by women.
what will the creations of strangers reflect on in regards to their critique to me?
will people be influenced by the rest of my body image? or will they be able to focus on what they want and purely impose on me?

can i be as neutral as possible?
can i dress up sexy and get pornstar boobs?
can i looked tired and haggard while they give as much attention that needs be to create the “perfect breasts” they may be creating?

We are currently constructing the wearable block of clay and are a bit nervous of the public aspect…

UPDATE

we have constructed the wearable that we will engage the public with and will be embarking on a public space tomorrow. Here is the documentation of the creation of the piece and trying it out on Carolina’s and my own body, plus what it will take to create a “blank canvas” by flattening the breasts that we were already blessed with.

Blending Model Magic created by Crayola in order to create a mass of medium of which people can create our breasts from

It's taking a lot... something around 86 oz of the modeling compound

We keep mixing and mixing... we end up using a lot of white and some of the earth tones Crayola provides

Carolina showing off some of the beautiful mixes that were created while we were combining colors

One half of the mass volume we decided we would need for the final product

It took a lot of kneading to mix the whole mass into one lump

A whole lot of synthetic flesh

Sizing it up in relation to the body

Angela Chen approached and engaged us, she ended up being our first test run while we were still constructing the wearable

Angela sculpting

Carolina getting sculpted breasts thru the eyes of Angela from lara grant on Vimeo.

Carolina's finished breasts through the eyes of Angela

Another POV

The start of creating a blank canvas of which to have people create on

Creating a blank canvas from lara grant on Vimeo.

Wearing the second iteration of the wearable with bound breasts

Side view

Blurry close-up

We have decided that the block you see above is too big to ask people to create from. We will down size it and have extra material on the side, detached from the block that people can either choose to add with or take away from the existing smaller block.

Material

Assignment this week is to make a material.

I was interested in weaving and creating a material that facilitated the acceptance of exposure to the elements and the embracement of deterioration.
This is a textile that begs to be weathered by the elements. Take enjoyment in the deterioration of your clothes and the new compositions that emerge from the wearing of time.

I found a great low tech weaving tutorial online needing only a cardboard box!

I had time to weave one piece, this textile is woven from 100% cotton and water soluble thread.

The warp strung onto my box loom

My header woven in, ready to start passing in my soluble thread

Made my own shuttle out of cardboard too in order to pass the thread through the small space provided by the wooden paintbrush handle

Passing through some black cotton yarn I was striping in with the white soluble thread

Finished piece. This took a little over 4 hours to make.

Getting ready to wet it with water from the sink facet

I did not allow the thread to completely dissolve. Here, you can see the gel-like substance it turned into.

Disappearing textile from lara grant on Vimeo.

Notice the movement that is created by the dissolving of the thread. This was a pleasant surprise! I can’t wait to make a bigger piece.
Also, I apologize for all the movement and poor focusing, I really need to get a tripod…

In the future…
I would like to experiment with different weaves, such as double cloth which is a textile that is woven with two warps and two or two wefts, the wefts are interchanged to connect the two layers.
Or a brocade, which takes one warp and two wefts on each passsage, one making up a foundation cloth and the other creating the design. I see using the soluble thread as one of the wefts, once dissolved, the color of the foundation cloth being revealed.

Another version of this would be to use wide silk ribbon that I have hand dyed with natural dyes. I would then like to introduce iron powder. So, when the material is introduced to water, the thread dissolves and the iron rusts, which will effect the natural dyes and turn them a different color which is called a modifier.
Iron after baths can take any yellow or gold and turn it to a soft green. Reds become burgundies, pinks become plums.

sustainable project

My relation to energy

This week our class was assigned two assignments, one was to create a project reflecting my relationship and/or thoughts regarding energy and sustainability. Second, to create a log of of the waste I produce through out the week and come up with some possible solutions to reduce it. This was a good project, it catapulted me into a mode of regular awareness, reflection and resolution. You can find that post here.

My project was one that came in a flash, one of those ideas that didn’t come out of much examination of beliefs or contemplation of moral ideals. I have been taking these ideas more and more, I have lately been embracing these intuitive interests, for I have concluded that I have put myself through many a head ache and cyclical process that tends to bring me back to these initial kernels from once I started. I simply am choosing to bring them into relevance a lot sooner nowadays.

So this is a very simple narrative. I accidentally knocked a mug off my window sill about a week ago, and when I finally got to sweeping it up this week, I felt like I wanted to save it and use the parts for another project. I often get this feeling, but rarely act on it, also, there is always a draw to me from slick primary colored pieces of material, such as this bright red slick ceramic mug. It occurred to me that to patch it back together using glue would be inelegant and clumsy. Instead, I instantly thought of embedding the pieces into wool felt. Previously I had made some jewelry this way from a broken ring I wanted to hang onto. Hanging onto an object by preserving it in my favorite medium is always a good idea.

Broken mug

Wet wool wrapped around mug

Doing my best to form the wool around while keeping the pieces all together

Close-up of broken pieces hanging on for dear life

There is no photo of the final product, because unfortunately this project failed. The pieces could not be held together properly while the wool needed to be shrunk around the object. I would need to fix the pieces of the mug together prior to felting around it, which would then take the point of the project away entirely. Or, I think I could pre-felt a mug without the pieces, and then cut into that wool mug and embed the pieces one by one.
Or, maybe I will turn these pieces into red jewels embedded into newly designed wool jewelry… hmmmm…

waste management

I took note of the trash I produced for a week. I did so by taking photos and listing things in a .txt doc as I was discarding them. The “waste” chart is calculated by either instances of the event, such as toilet paper is calculated by how many times I went to the bathroom. Some items were more calculable such as the cans of cat food I end up recycling each week, I always feed my meows one can per cat…. soooometimes more, but not often. So, I know that I use 21 cans per week. Others were even estimated, such as paper towels, one of my cats, Koshka, has been throwing up a lot, and I have needed to clean up very large and wet messes involving lots of paper towels. I was not able to count, nor can I remember how many were used, especially when I am doing so freshly ripped from bed at 5 in the morning.
So the data isn’t highly accurate, but using my comparative judgement and hard numbers

These were the majority of items that passed through m hands and into either a trash bin or recycling container. Even though I labeled the chart “waste”, I did recycle a lot of the items. From the values I plugged into the above the chart, I made another by figuring out how many of those items or instances of them went into the recycling bin.

Based on the figures and items listed throughout the week, there are some things that come out as clear solutions to the waste problem.

Let’s look at the top three contenders:
Toilet paper – I go pee a lot. I admit the small nature of my bladder, plus I constantly have a beverage/water in hand. Plus I am also willing to admit that I menstruated this week, which automatically heightens the number of trips to the bathroom. The only solution I see to this problem is if I do like Indonesians do, use water, not toilet paper. I found this method clean and incredibly tolerable right off the bat. Just need to get a bucket!

Cat food cans – I use the 5.5 oz cans, perhaps buying the 12 oz cans will reduce the amount of packaging and metal waste, even if I do recycle them, the process still takes energy.

Plastic bags – Ok, clearly I need to become more diligent with carrying my own bag and make sure that the person who is bagging my goods does not unnecessarily double bag.

It seems that most of these items can be swapped with reusable alternatives.
tampons/pads – they have washable cloth pads
beverage container – thermos
paper towels – washable rags

Duck system

This week in Softness of Things, we are focusing on systems. Split into groups, we are to design a system.
My group: Milena Silkerk, Jelani John and Elie Zananiri.

We ended up designing a game. Having 12 people in the class not including us, we will divide people into 3 groups of 4. Each one of those 4 people will pick a role from the list and stick with it throughout that task. There are three tasks, all of which will be completed in sequential order. In the beginning of each task, each member of the team will be able to pick a new role.
Each team gets one sheet of paper with text on it and the supplies in order to perform the roles from us.
Each team gets 3 minutes to finish the task.

rules:
-Once a role is chosen, each person has to participate towards the creation of each task.
-You get 3 minutes to get to the end of the task.
-If manager, you must direct and order you teammates, they can not operate unless you say so.
-If you choose to take a break, it must be for the entire duration of the task and can not help your teammate. Not even verbal suggestions!

goal:
To strategically and creatively complete your task to the best of your abilities with the constraints you are given.

roles:
colorer    (black out/colorist),
change words    (change any word on a sheet of paper)
manage (teammates have to follow your instructions),
cutter    (cut/shred/destroy),
printer    (prints paper with whatever they want on it)
attacher (paper clips, glue, stapler),
take a break/gofer (go fetch whatever a teammate wants, or choose to take a break and do nothing)
fold        (fold paper)

materials needed for roles:
scissors
tape
stapler
black and colored markers
paper clips
glue sticks
pens/pencils

tasks:
1) make a duck
2) create a story/poem about your duck
3) exhibit your poem and duck

Parts of the system:
-Input- one piece of paper with printed text
- Goal/Output- specific goals that have a blur once put through the relative, interpretive mind of the human. We are inviting the mind as a process itself. How many ways can u think of representing our goals with the items that are given to you?
-Rules- everyone must pick a role. each person must perform their role once before the end of the task. Everyone must stick to their role. complete the task.

What makes this interesting-
We are inviting the mind as a process itself. How many ways can u think of representing our goals with the items that are given to you?
A closed system verging on emergent. has a start and finish, yet the flexibility to give different results overtime. Such as the possible combinations of roles that can exist in each group. This way the team can have different capabilities which will result in different outcomes.

Lamp Project – testing conductive inks

Testing conductive pigments on paper. Purchased here

Lamp Project – hooking modules to LED

For class this week, we needed to focus on connections. It made sense for Mike and I to continue with our lamp project. We had been talking about what medium to use to make the modules conductive through out the whole process and graphite, inks, leaf, and fabric came up. Graphite is highly resistive, so we decided against that, plus we needed something to that would cover a large area easily. Fabric and leafing were the two most accessible, so we tried leafing first and ordered some inks online here.

While we waited for the inks to arrive, we mixed up some of our own with graphite powder and textile pigment. What we discovered was that I hadn’t applied the leafing correctly doh! so there was a thin line that needed to connect the inside panel with the outside panels that we made conductive.
We also realized that the copper leafing was not secure and eventually fell away. This couldn’t be good for consistent readings later on, but decided to go on and try to patch up the modules in order to get a proof of concept ready.

Getting ready to mix graphite powder with textile pigments

Testing a square inch of graphite pigment for resistance with a module thrown in for scale

We mixed 2 level spoonfuls of graphite powder with one even spoonful of pigment. Painted a 1″ square and tested the resistance, putting our multimeter leads on the outer sides of the square. The reading was about 155 ohms.
Going back to the folding party, we finished our model lampshade.

Finished the mini lamp shade form, total of 105 modules.

Stepping away from our modules and pigments, we needed to figure out the range of resistance we needed in order to change the color of our LED. Mike hooked up the LED to a 10K pot and found that 1K was where it peaked. We checked every pot we had, hoping to find 3 1Ks to hook up and play with. We then found a nifty way to change the resistance of the 10K pots we had. All thanks to Eric Rosenthal. Solder a resistor between the power and ground pin straight on the pot!

Mike testing the resistance of our pots

A great way to change the resistance of a pot. Thank you to Eric Rosenthal for showing us the way!

Close-up of 1.5K resistor

Another example of changing resistance

Our pots hooked up to RGB LED and labeled appropriately

Touch up job given to each conductive module with graphite pigment

The crazy range of resistance coming from our collection of conductive modules. All values in Ohms

In conclusion, we could not get any consistency from our modules. We were able to make 1″ square tests from the inks we finally received, but while painting them on, realized this was not going to be our solution either. Not unless we could come up with a way to evenly apply the ink the same every time. Same thickness of coat, same size of area covered and so on. This could be achieved, but by the ways we came up with, we decided that fabric would probably be the next material that would work.
Next week calls for another focus which we can not include in the project.
This project will be continued!!! So pleace check back later, or shoot me an email with any questions.

Check out the test of the inks here

Here are some videos we took of the led changing color with the pots and one that shows the conductive modules working as a connection, even if it’s a faulty one for now.

Potentiometers hooked up to a RGB LED from lara grant on Vimeo.

Testing modules with RGB LED from lara grant on Vimeo.

Testing modules with RGB LED Part 2 from lara grant on Vimeo.