A Film By Steve Aquillano, Saul Kessler, Christine Nguyen, Mindy Tchieu, and Cindy Wong. ITP Fall 2009.
PhysComp Final Sketchbook
To chronicle ongoing efforts on my physical computing final I’ve decided to make a dedicated page.
Posted in ITP, Physical Computing Leave a comment
Intellectual Property and Copyright
Copyright is a form of intellectual property that gives the author of an original work exclusive right for a certain time period in relation to that work, including its publication, distribution and adaptation, after which time the work is said to enter the public domain. Copyright applies to any expressible form of an idea or information that is substantive and discrete and fixed in a medium.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright
Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man is a book written in 1964 by Marshall McLuhan. The name of the first two chapters are really direct and sum up their respective content. (1) The Medium is the Message and (2) Media Hot and Cold. In Chapter 1 McLuhan argues that despite the content of the message, the medium used to convey this message is the real or actual message perceived by the audience. I am fascinated with this idea, and while I’ve already known this (maybe learned subconsciously) McLuhan artfully explains his research in a very succinct and precise way — a way I would never be able to express myself. I think marketing firms across the world have known this for a long time, maybe learned from McLuhan. For any given message desired to be conveyed, ample consideration should be given to the medium which supports this message the best. The other thinking is to transfer the message through all mediums since members of the audience may be more susceptible to one medium over another. “Media Hot or Cold” goes on to define mediums as more or less participatory. For example, watching a movie would be hot media, emotionally involving the audience, while watching TV would be regarded as a cool media. Again, things that presently seems second nature had to be discovered and articulated at some point in history. McLuhan was on to something.
MODERN CASE STUDIES:
- Ecstasy of Influence: A plagiarism by Jonathan Lethem
- On the rights of Molotov Man: Appropriation and the art of context by Susan Meiselas and Joy Garnet
- Artist Admits Using Other Photo for ‘Hope’ Poster by Liz Robbins, The New York Times
FURTHER READING:
The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World by Lewis Hyde
Posted in Communications Lab, ITP Leave a comment
Graphing Analog Sensors
I am still a little bit confused about the proper code to use when you want Arduino to send ASCII vs. binary as well as when I want Processing to read ASCII vs. binary. The Arduino Serial.print library reference has become my best friend. This is a very useful program to keep around to test future analog inputs and understand the mapping of their actions to the analog values they produce.
Arduino Code:
int analogPin = 0;
int analogValue = 0;
void setup()
{
// start serial port at 9600 bps:
Serial.begin(9600);
}
void loop()
{
// read analog input, divide by 4 to make the range 0-255:
analogValue = analogRead(analogPin);
//analogValue = analogValue / 4;
Serial.print(analogValue,BYTE);
// pause for 10 milliseconds:
delay(10);
}
Processing Code:
import processing.serial.*;
Serial myPort; // The serial port
int graphXPos = 1; // The horizontal position of the graph
void setup() {
size(400,300); // Window size
// List all the available serial ports
println(Serial.list());
myPort = new Serial(this,Serial.list()[0],9600); // Pick serial port
background(48,31,65);
}
void draw() {
// Nothing happens in draw. It all happens in SerialEvent()
}
void serialEvent(Serial myPort) {
// Get the byte
int inByte = myPort.read();
// Print it
//println(inByte);
// Set the drawing color
stroke(123,128,158);
// Draw the line
line(graphXPos,height,graphXPos,height-inByte);
// At the edge of the screen, go back to the beginning
if(graphXPos >= width) {
graphXPos = 0;
// Clear the screen
background(48,31,65);
}
else {
// Increment the horizontal position for the next reading
graphXPos++;
}
}
Black Hole
An animation made using Adobe After Effects, Adobe Photoshop.