Ephemeral Existence started as a simple investigation into the nostalgic world of analog audio recording.  As investigation continued, it became apparent that there is a powerful relationship between humanity and unique physical objects that share the same vulnerabilities.  Something becomes more treasured when it is not immediately replaceable.  This observation became the central concept of this project, and sought to discover what the temporary nature of our existence reflected in our behaviors.

Epemeral Existence from Dan Russo on Vimeo.

Edison wax cylinders became the focus due to their delicate construction and specific frequency ranges.  If tuned properly, it would be able to become a piece of hardware very specific to the content it was to record.

The hardware deploys the use of modern electronics and foil recording technology together, to manifest the experience of our present with our past.

The physical form of the sound waves can be seen as a visual pattern on the surface of the foil above.

“Kim vs. Comet” is a real-time comparison of the volume of data created via social media about Kim Kardashian and the Rosetta comet landing.

How do online interactions differ from real world interactions? People often create digital personalities for themselves. These alternate selves make it easier to disassociate the physical self from their digital interactions. This mental distance can lead to uncharacteristic behavior in the digital world.

How does media influence public perception? Kim’s “internet breaking” magazine cover was published about the same time as scientists landed on the Rosetta comet. However, Kim seemed to get most of the media attention. Does that mean people care less about human’s landing on a comet? Or does the media only allow the public to see what it will get the most views and publicity off of?

This piece physicalizes the digital interaction of tweeting thereby forcing people to confront theirs and other’s digital interactions in the real world.

Inside the sculpture, there are two thermal printers, two arduinos and, a laptop running two processing sketches. The processing sketches scrape the most recent tweet from twitter matching the search query for either @KimKardashian or @ESA_Rosetta. The new tweets scraped are then compared to the previous tweet. If it is different it is printed out of one of the thermal printers. If it is the same as the previous tweet the sketch waits a few seconds (to avoid exceeding rate limits) and scrapes again for the most recent tweet of either query. The printed sheets are allowed to hang from the printers as a visual comparison of the volume of data created about either topic.

In the future I would like to improve the piece by consolidating the electronics and code into one processing sketch and a raspberry pi.

Haptics 3D is a wearable bracelet and Unity Application.The bracelet syncs with Unity to give haptic feedback when a users hand picks up an object in 3D space and connects the object to another part in 3D space. The demo has 3 cars each needing 2 car tires to be connected to the axels.  The tool is meant to be a starting point for better understanding virtual reality of 3D objects and 3D space through haptic feedback.

This project uses Leap Motion to detect hand location in 3D space, Unity to 3D model the scene, imports to connect to the Leap Motion, and Uniduino to connect to the Arduino for Haptic Feedback.

Future developments would allow low cost learning to easily access complex systems and how to build them through virtual reality. Students would learn to build mechanical objects with their hands, when they don’t have access to physical components of a mechanical systems because it doesn’t exist anymore or it is too expensive to gain access to.

rehab touch from Meng Shi on Vimeo.

The idea of the final project is to explore some possible way to detect people’s gesture when they touch something.

Background:

Stroke affects the majority survivors’ abilities to live independently and their quality of life.

The rehabilitation in hospital is extremly expensive and cannot be covered by medical insurance.

What we are doing is to provide them possible low cost solution, which is a home-based rehabilitation system.

Touche:

www.disneyresearch.com/project/touche-touch-and-gesture-sensing-for-the-real-world/

Touch and activate:

dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2501989

These two are using different way to realize gesture detection, touche is using capacitor change in the circuit while Touch and Activate is using frequency to detect frequency change.

My explore of these two based on two instructions:

Instructable: www.instructables.com/id/Touche-for-Arduino-Advanced-touch-sensing/

Ali: http://artfab.art.cmu.edu/touch-and-activate/

At first I explored “Touche”, and show it in critique,  after final critique, move to “touch and activate”.

In order to realize feedback, I connect Max and Processing to do visualization in processing, since it seems Max is not very good at data visualization part. (I didn’t find good lib to do data visualization in Max, maybe also because my limitation knowledge of Max.)

Limitation of system:

“Touch and Activate” seems not work very well in noising environment even it just use high frequency (like the final demo environment).

The connection between Max and Processing is not very strong. So if I want to do some complicated pattern, the signal is too weak to do that.

In a dark room, words, motions, and even thoughts are amplified.

Echo Chamber places its audience inside a room where the only sound is the sound that they make, cycled through a audio feedback loop; and the only light is light that follows this sound’s pitch and volume.

The piece places its audience unexpectedly in control of this room, and explores how they react. Do they explore its sounds and lights? Do they try to find order in the feedback? Or do they shrink back, afraid that the feedback will grow out of control?

What happens if I look inside?

Curiosity is a powerful force. Look Inside! explores how people react when presented with a non-descript box and an offer to look inside.

If people choose to peer inside the box, they find a mechanical drum set, which begins to play a simple but incessant beat. The beat grows in speed and intensity, and the box begins to shake!

At this point, people interacting with the piece have a choice: back away and attempt to dissociate themselves from the commotion they’ve caused, or keep watching. When Look Inside! was displayed, some people ran, and some stayed. Some even came back to play again.

Look Inside! explores curiosity, responsibility, and control. Would you look inside?

The tank’s water level reflects the water level on the coast of San Juan, PR.

By being susceptible to tsunami waves, Marea exposes Puerto Rico’s risky disregard for potential disaster.

Quake utilizes csv files reom the USGS website, to simulate the magnitude of earthquakes occurring throughout the past 7 days. The USGS updates its systems every 5-15 minutes to map earthquakes that have happened recently and over the past few months, and further past. Quake brings awareness to the common occurrence of earthquakes, and acknowledges the 10 levels of magnitude of an earthquake. Some quakes occur and no one feels them, but they happened and it occurs more often around the world than one is aware of.

Using a solenoid and dividing

USGS Magnitude Scale of Earthquakes

CSV file can be found USGS Spreadsheet Applications