SoapBox: Lonely dog up for adoption from Priya Ganadas on Vimeo.
SoapBox is a puppy who likes pretending he goes on adventures though really he just likes to sit on his couch. SoapBox is lonely and looking for love, however, if you hit him he will like you less and less. He is forgiving though, of course, and if you hold your hand out to him gently and wait to pet him, you might win him over and he’ll reach back out for your love. He gets confused when you disappear out of view, and he gets bummed when he’s alone. Voice reactions indicate his mood, and he moves when he’s reaching out for you to pet him. SoapBox wants to learn to love!
Alone Soap sits, waiting for someone to love
Could it be? Will somebody take me?
Alas, no. I continue to sit here sobbing on my SoapBox.
It used to be that clocks were these semi-magical objects. They were by far the most complex pieces of machinery that people owned, and winding and caring for a clock properly was part of the duties of ownership. Now we live in a world where almost everyone has a clock in their pocket, and can just check time on their phone/microwave/car radio. We took the idea of an antique clock, and we gave it personality! This clock just want to be loved and respected! If you don’t show it any affection, it will purposely tell you the wrong time. You can show it affection by petting it, and if you show it enough affection, it will feel loved and tell you the right time.
Process:
We began by looking at objects we could embue with emotion. Clocks are great for this because they have parts (hands) that already are “supposed” to move, and they have a sentimental quality about them. While looking on craigslist for potential clocks, we found this amazing ad for “New LARGE Clock – Great for a Gift or an Older Person – $25”. It was a perfect example of why our project exists. We ended up purchasing a mantle clock from craigslist, gutting the internals, and wiring a hand to a continuous servo. Copper tape placed on the exterior of the clock let us discretely add a capacitive touch sensor while integrating into the antique aesthetic of our clock.
Reflection:
In hindsight, we should have researched our components a bit more. We ended up with not quite enough time to calibrate the servo motor correctly, which led to the clock not quite working as intended. The decision to include LED light ending up being the wrong one, as was exposed in our critique, as it broke the aesthetic of the clock. Still, our concept was strong and the clock project could be a good portfolio piece with a little more time.
BETRAYAL BOT! takes trust as its input, and returns betrayal as a result. The robot will ask for your phone under the pretense of charging it — all will appear as normal until you try to take your phone back. That’s when BETRAYAL BOT! springs into action: he’ll immediately drive away as fast as he can, taking your phone with him while leaving all sense of safety behind. BETRAYAL BOT! is your best friend and your worst nightmare.
To live an impulse
I would stretch my pulse
Extent my hand
To any length
To the length that grows,
Which keeps me sick
And feeds me poison
Between doses
Of sweet relief
That which destroys
Is best left alone
Spinning the crank on Impulse Box provides a release from its incessant, cacophonous noise, but with each rotation, you charge the battery keeping it running.
The object looks much like a simple set of old fashioned chimes. But there are no chimes, only strings. In complete stillness, it hums contentedly; but when the strings move and let light into its insides, it intones like a set of chimes. Light chimes.
Light sensors in its cap send information to a brain in the striker. At intervals, it picks a pitch which corresponds to the number of sensors exposed to light. The resulting sound is hollow and electronic, and changes abruptly.
Comments Off on Enchanted Object: “Light Chimes” by Connor Brem, Emma Steuer (2014)
In order to add extra functionality to max, you can download and install “3rd party externals”. These are binaries that you download, unzip and place within your MAX SEARCH PATH (i.e. in Max, go to Options > File Preferences… and add the folder where you’ll put your 3rd party extensions; I recommend a folder called “_for-Max” in your “Documents” folder).
Some helpful examples:
- Physical Computing: Maxuino
- how to connect motors/lights/solenoids/leds to Max with Maxuino
- Machine Vision: OpenCV for Max (cv.jit)
- Audio Analsyis for Max: Zsa Objects (Emmanuel Jourdain) and analyzer~ (Trista Jehan)
