Oct
26
2007
26
2007
Apr
29
2007
29
2007
Apr
11
2007
11
2007
Mar
25
2007
25
2007
Motion and Rest #2 –Jim Campbell
This past weekend (March 16th-19th) my program department at Ryerson University went on a group tip to NYC to look at art, have fun and gallivant about the city. A few of my friends and I went to The Met to see a new media exhibit that we had heard was on at the time. Overall we were disappointed with the quality and amount of work that was on display except for one work that impressed all of us. The piece is entitled Motion and Rest #2 by Jim Campbell (American, born 1956) which featured a simple 24 x 32 white LED grid board. On the board was the silhouette of a man walking and then stopping but what was really fascinating was the illusion that the sparsely placed LEDs gave of a full silhouette.
I tried staring at it from all angles convinced that the black board behind it was also some kind of display that was filling in the gaps between the lights only to discover my eyes were tricking me. The sign beside the piece stated that it was done using motion capture techniques. The piece also reminded me of Julian Opie’s work here in Toronto in both the AGO and on Bloor street featuring silhouettes of people walking along the street. For me out of the ten or so pieces there at Closed Circuit: Video and New Media exhibit this was the work that stood out from the rest. It has sparked an interest in me to explore the basic concept of light in art and light as art.
Perhaps it was the minimalism that Campbell achieved through the piece in which he was able to strip the human motion of walking down to the most basic possible visualization. No clothes, no hairstyles, no eye contact with the subject but yet the way in which they walk communicates a large amount of information about the person. Campbell even emphasized this minimalist subject matter even further by parring his medium down to as little as possible consisting of a few hundred white LEDs.
Mar
03
2007
03
2007
My Improv LED Necklace
For my physical computing class we were given 2 weeks to make a device that took an input action, gave it a context and then produced an output. We had a list of possible inputs, contexts and outputs and I chose to have dancing as my input, a necklace as my context and colour as my output. I made an necklace of flashing LEDs that turned on and off as the person wearing it danced back and forth. So using the two circuits previously posted (the reindeer antlers and the christmas bulb necklace) I took components and knowledge I learned by ripping the apart and applied it to this project.
I started by sketching out my circuit in a very informal way.
Jan
31
2007
31
2007
DIY GPS Device
This is what I really want to do for my geo-spatial class final project (or my Physical Computer) but right now the likely hood of it happening is mighty low b/c ebay auctions can sometimes be tough to win. So what it is a GPS device that normally hooks up to your computer but what you can do to it is mod it so that it doesn’t need a laptop to function. So essentially it becomes an independent tracking device that you can eventually off load the data onto a computer and using the XML files put it into google earth or any mapping software you like. I can dream…
Jan
27
2007
27
2007
LED Necklace
So I’m currently working on a short “improv assignment” for my physical computing class and for a long time there’s always been this really cheesy LED christmas light necklace around my house that we’ve always worn for jokes around christmas time. As part of the assignment we have to choose an action, an object and a result from a list we’ve been given and one of the objects we can work with is a necklace. Since the christmas light necklace died this past christmas I thought I’d take it apart and see how it functions so that I could incorporate it into the assignment. I’m thinking I want to try and add more LEDs to it and in a few more colours as well.
The most difficult part of the assignment is going to be the power supply. We haven’t really learned how to do battery power supplies yet, I’ve had a fair amount of experience growing up however with using batteries and what not on homemade devices. I might also try and merge the blinking reindeer antlers I took apart earlier as well.
The necklace itself is made of two thin black wires and a piece of black string spun together. Some of the light bulbs don’t flash and are just plastic while about five are bulbs with LEDs inside of them. Now what makes this wearable is the size of the housing for the components. It’s just a small silver cylinder housing the three 392 silver oxide cell batteries, a small switching device and the controlling circuit board.
The circuit board is a small circle board with the switch and LEDs soldered on. There’s also a black blob of some kind which I’m guessing holds the oscillator which makes the necklace flash. I think I’m going to try and use the circuit board in my improv assignment or maybe use the controller device from the flashing reindeer antlers.
Jan
20
2007
20
2007