design like you give a damn

Here is a slew of videos from the TED talks that seems to really closely intersect the interests of this group.

link

Arduino show and tell at ACTLab

Last night I went to the Arduino night at ACTLab in the 4th floor of the communications building. ACTLab is an amazing resource I knew nothing about! I am looking forward to getting more involved...
(http://www.actlab.utexas.edu/)


"What is Arduino?"
(from http://www.arduino.cc/)
Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.

Arduino can sense the environment by receiving input from a variety of sensors and can affect its surroundings by controlling lights, motors, and other actuators. The microcontroller on the board is programmed using the Arduino programming language (based on Wiring) and the Arduino development environment (based on Processing). Arduino projects can be stand-alone or they can communicate with software on running on a computer (e.g. Flash, Processing, MaxMSP).

The boards can be built by hand or purchased preassembled; the software can be downloaded for free. The hardware reference designs (CAD files) are available under an open-source license, you are free to adapt them to your needs. "

A lot of the focus of the evening was on this "LillyPad" board.
http://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardLilyPad

"The LilyPad Arduino is a microcontroller board designed for wearables and e-textiles. It can be sewn to fabric and similarly mounted power supplies, sensors and actuators with conductive thread." You can see the thread in a photo above.

A number of the people there have used these to make clothes that light-up or sense objects. Of course I was thinking about how this could be used in conjunction with Roxanna's intricate halloween costume idea! They are wired with conductive thread.

There was even a video about an artist who used conductive body paint to create a human synthesizer.

There are apparently tons of various sensors that you can hook up to the Arduino. Ultrasound, hygrometer, GPS, etc. An ultrasound sensor is in one of the photos above.

One member made a gift for a friend. It's a locked box that will only unlock itself when it is placed in a specific GPS location. (in his case a small island off the coast of France) Another lady is working on making a bunch of small robots of a cellular automate art project.

These boards can be "easily" programmed using free opensource languages such as Processing. (www.processing.org)

I sighed up to be notified the next time they hold an event. The ACTlab also teaches classes in that kind of thing which anyone can audit or take for a grade if you want.

Everyone was really knowledgeable, friendly and enthused. If any of you have ideas what you would like to do I think that their community would help us with the realization. So if you have a few minutes you might want to daydream about what awesome thing you would like to see exist. Chances are it can be made!

Halloween!

I'm getting pretty excited about Halloween this year. It was always a big deal for me as a kid: Dad would find the biggest pumpkin he could, and he'd always carve the same face in it every year (two big ovals for the eyes, above a giant oval for a screaming mouth). My brother and I would dress up in whatever ridiculous idea we'd had that Mom was willing to make for us. My brother went as a can of diet coke for a few years.

College was pretty busy, but I'd usually start thinking about my Halloween costume around December the year before. I'd fill a notebook or two with ideas and blueprints, figuring out if I should go for chicken wire or papier mache, if I "really needed to make the eyes faceted" (I did), or ways to "design the joints so the six legs move realistically" or "breathe" or "see". You know, details like that.

Unfortunately, most of my great ideas were far too elaborate to make once I finished daydreaming up such ambitious plans, given that I had perfected them (procrastinated) until the middle of October and also had a chemistry exam coming up.

Grad school is different, though! I'd like to think that I've had some experience with materials, power tools and construction designs by now, so some of my ambitious designs may actually be possible. Also I have garage space (and a driveway, and an excellent patio!!) now that I've moved, so I don't have to piss off a roommate by leaving PVC pipe bits all over the dining room table.

I'm sure there are at least a few like-minded people following this blog. I'd like to propose an "Ambitious, Elaborate or Oversized Halloween Costume Contest 2009." I guess we could give out prizes in categories like "biologically accurate," "obscure theme," "wtf," and "can you really drink in that?" Or we could all get together and just roam around, crashing other people's parties. That would actually be pretty awesome.

I'd like to hear what some of your ideas are for Halloween! What's the best costume you've made? What's the most technically-advanced project you've worn? What was your biggest oversight (mine had to have been not being able to walk in last year's robot)?

I've got a few big ideas sketched out for this year. Hopefully I'll pick one and get started soon.

If you need inspiration, try:
Cockeyed.com
Trigger Happy TV (there are many more on YouTube!)
Instructables
Someone's LED jellyfish costume
Maker Faire (and Make Magazine)
LED Throwies

From ART and SCIENCE Austin

Most Wanted Art (as determined by scientist)

In the late 90's, a team of research scientist conducted a survey in order to determine what the "most wanted song & painting, most unwanted song & painting" is. After the results came in, musicians and artists were contracted to create pieces that would reflect the findings. I can't really say anything about the validity of their study, but there's no denying that some fascinating/hilarious results ensued.  In my opinion, the results from the "most unwanted song" really stand out. Here's a synopsis of the most unwanted... 

---------

The most unwanted music is over 25 minutes long, veers wildly between loud and quiet sections, between fast and slow tempos, and features timbres of extremely high and low pitch, with each dichotomy presented in abrupt transition. The most unwanted orchestra was determined to be large, and features the accordion and bagpipe (which tie at 13% as the most unwanted instrument), banjo, flute, tuba, harp, organ, synthesizer (the only instrument that appears in both the most wanted and most unwanted ensembles). An operatic soprano raps and sings atonal music, advertising jingles, political slogans, and "elevator" music, and a children's choir sings jingles and holiday songs. The most unwanted subjects for lyrics are cowboys and holidays, and the most unwanted listening circumstances are involuntary exposure to commercials and elevator music. Therefore, it can be shown that if there is no covariance--someone who dislikes bagpipes is as likely to hate elevator music as someone who despises the organ, for example--fewer than 200 individuals of the world's total population would enjoy this piece.

---------

Also, don't forget to check out the most wanted music! It's  great for a laugh. 

Most Wanted Song: 

http://ubu.artmob.ca/sound/komar_melamid/KomarMelamid_The-Most-Wanted-Song.mp3

Most Unwanted Song:

http://ubu.artmob.ca/sound/komar_melamid/KomarMelamid_The-Most-UnwantedSong.mp3

Most Wanted & Unwanted Paintings:

http://www.diacenter.org/km/painting.html

and finally, a big thanks to Mala Kumar, who introduced me to the genius of "Most Unwanted Song" our freshman year. & also, my hope that our desire to recreate and perform  the "most unwanted song" will be reignited. 

Yes.

Design with earth in mind

Recently I've become infatuated with the world of biomimetics. For those of you who don't know, biomimetics (or biomimicry) is the process of modeling nature to produce human technologies. But for the most part biomimetics is fantastically undefined; and is open to the seemingly unrelated fields of design, architecture and economics.

The potential of biomimicry is inexhaustible. As nature has already solved many of the energy/mechanical problems we face today, it is befitting that we look to her for direction in solving these issues. This doesn't even cover the "inspiration" factor. Nature is not only functional, but beautiful, and the design world has certainly embraced that fact in recent years.

Why don't you asknature: the ultimate biomimetics website, featuring a "biomimicry taxonomy" where you can identify a problem and the site will show you how nature has already solved it.

Also, Inhabitat is an architecture blog that highlights some of the most innovative contemporary building.

090730 Meeting minutes [rough and vague]

2-4pm
Welch 2.256
Members in attendance: 13

Theme for 09-10 school year – “Mapping”
We will try to put together a symposium with natural sciences/Design/Fine Arts professors

Misc.
Emily Royall is writing for the Daily Texan!
Robert Durci can help promote groups visibility at his Biosci store.
Cymetics video (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymatics) was enjoyed by all
If anyone sees something cool they want to videotape Josh has a HD video camera
If you are a Natural Sciences student you can check out HD video and digital SLR camera from Robert
It is more difficult to lift a human with helium balloons then one may at first think

Speakers
Heard from Barrett Klien about his upcoming talk. : )
Robert Durci is going to contact Vincent Mariani about a talk
Still room for more speakers

Group projects
SEM training is next week [Thursday the 6th at noon. Room TBA]
Please keep following micrograph contest in mind - artsci.uchsc.edu/
We discussed several other possible group projects
Point of Collision – meh…
Photo-email-chain – some interest
Radio controlled balloon with speakers spitting origami viruses and seeds – Robert will advise
Micro-fabrication…for Art – Josh will talk to Dr. Shear about this on Monday

Diversifying
Print publication to present projects, etc – maybe Emily Royall could head this?
Journal Club – Ayham Ghraowi offered to head this
Gallery showing – very early Spring semester – Kate Nichols offered to head this
Blog – each of us took a sacred vow to blog once in the next 7 days – Bartam Smith offered to head this
Rodney, Roxanna, and Lindsey offered to blog also
“Anecdotal Evidence” professor lecture series – sure give it a shot – Josh Russell will attempt this
Real website – still waiting for this one

Connecting
Look into finding connections with Dorkbot – Rodney Kincaid will check – Yes still active!
Look into ACT lab – Josh will check
Upcoming in August
1. SEM training – Thursday the 6th at noon – 3.
2. We may be able to take a field trip to see the bee field-station with Barrett and Karen in mid August
3. Journal club meeting #1 - TBA
4. Working meeting at end of August