So, as the title of this post indicates, we had a hard time deciding on a final name for this project. I think in the end I like News Organ the best. Here is some looooooong-overdue video of the completed project. Unfortunately the audio really doesn’t do justice to the quality of the sound that you get in person, which is kind of ghostly and hypnotic and subtle.
The topic in last week’s pcomp class was analog output. Doing things like controlling motors or dimming LEDs requires a varying voltage. But, since you can’t actually generate a changing voltage directly from digital microcontrollers like the Arduino, it’s necessary to use “fake” an analog voltage. As Tom Igoe notes in his page on analog output, this is accomplished by producing a series of voltage pulses at regular intervals, and varying the width of the pulses. This is called pulse width modulation (PWM) (Note that this is only possible on analog pins labeled ‘PWM’ on the Arduino Diecimilla). The resulting average voltage is sometimes called a pseudo-analog voltage.
I was inspired with an idea for my project while thinking about how we are culturally obsessed with the newness of technology, and how that novelty is in many ways always just beyond our reach. As soon as we acquire the newest device or learn how to use the latest platform or language, something comes along to replace or improve upon it. I tried to literalize that condition with this little installation I set up in the workshop:
Yesterday was the last day at my full-time job at Method, and today I’m starting a two-week workshop at Eyebeam. Interactivos? was initiated two years ago by the Medialab-Prado, which describes the event as “a hybrid between a production workshop, a seminar and a showcase.” Eyebeam has selected nine projects to be realized over the two-week workshop, through collaboration between the artists, Eyebeam fellows and a group of volunteer artists, engineers, musicians, programmers, designers, and hackers selected as collaborators. Eyebeam’s main space will be transformed into a production lab for the next two weeks, and then subsequently into an exhibition space for the projects completed there. The entire process is open to the public, so if you’re in NYC, feel free to stop by anytime over the next two weeks. On July 12 there will be an opening for the work we’re creating, which will then run through August 9.
Last night Eyebeam hosted an Upgrade! event to launch the Interactivos? workshop, whose theme, “Better than the real thing,” investigates the blurry line between the real and the fake. Appropriately enough, Andy Bichlbaum of the Yes Men presented documentation of some of their latest performance-hoax-interventions.
I don’t know yet which project I’ll be assigned to assist on, but I’ll post the details when I find out later today. I’m sure there will be some kind of project site or blog, which I will point to, but I hope to document much of the process here as well. Stay tuned!