InnerFUZZ - Spring 2001

Todd Blair: Fabrication and Kinetics

todd@blacksunday.org
todd@anselinc.com

Don Day: Electronics and Sensors

• home e-mail: ddigor@well.com
• day job e-mail: don@rgb.com
• day job phone: 510 814 7000
• home phone: 510 547 1260
• beeper: 510 720 6210

• Current projects
• webcam on a kite
• Kite Aerial Photography
• prop stabilized kite
• Monsieur Biot
• EL wire
• robot kite flier
• Lightning Field
• Recommended books
• Art of Electronics, Horowitz and Hill
• Forrest M. Mims III books at Radio Shack
• Getting Started in Electronics
• various Engineer's mini Notebooks

slab@pacbell.net
 

• The Symbiont
• www.ultrafuzz.net
 

Wed. 1/17: Introduction to the class

• Delineation of the 3 areas of concentration / departure
• Expectations: Assignments and show
• Possible strategies and models

Research Assignment part 1: Pick an artist
Steve Wilson's Massive Artist List
Classical Kinetic Artists

• Hero of Alexandria
• Jacques de Vaucanson
• Marcel Duchamp
• Thomas Wilfred
• Jean Tinguely
• Nam June Paik
• Len Lye
• Pol Bury
• Nicolas Schöffer
• James Seawright
• Otto Piene
• Fletcher Benton
• Billy Klüver
• Robert Whitman
• Charles Frazier

• USCO
• EAT (Experiments in Art and Technology)
• ZERO
• GRAV
• PULSA

• Tool and Key check out
• Computer Lab (tools & procedures)
• Software
• Authoring Software: Max/MSP and nato+0.55
• Hardware
• ADB/IO
• MIDI Interfaces
• EZIO

• Hazards of the disposable flash camera

powered by an innocent AA battery
• Sources of power

Sun, nuclear power plants (PG&E), chemicals, lemons and potatoes
• Too much energy getting loose

Circuit Breakers, Fuses (flash bulb in socket)
• Toxics

Soldering, lead with the Romans, smoking the flux
• Heat

a LITTLE too much energy getting loose
liquid metal on the flesh makes for a nasty burn
• Tiny objects close to your eyes
• Shock causes you to lose motor control
• Current through your heart can kill you

Planing your design, sourcing your materials, researching and fabricating

• Some Links
• Machine Design
• Cal Tech Library
• Reference Help Desk
• Engineering Zone
• Welding Info

Monday 1/22

Don:

• Electronic components, subassemblies and systems
• Their physical corporeal nature
• Exercise: Connect a circuit and make it go or glow or growl or grow.
• Power sources
• Solar Cells
• Chemical cells and batteries
• Power supplies (from wall AC to stable DC)
• AC (from the wall, or transformed to lower voltage)
• Connection methods
• Wire nuts
• Solder
• Heat shrink tubing
• Measurement
• Multimeter (volts and ohms)
• Oscilloscope (volts in time)

• Intro to Max /MSP and nato.0+55+ modular
• Anatomy of Simple Patch: Objects, Message Boxes, Number Boxes, User Interfaces and Parameters

 

Todd:

• Major Mechanical Components in Kinetic Art
• Exercise: Make a flimsy articulated mechanism.

(Please bring cardboard, pushpins and utility knives OR wood scraps and nails)

• Bangs, Metros, Toggles, Passing Messages
•  Objects of the Day
• Cannibalizing Patches

 

Monday 1/29

Don: Control elements and amplifiers

• Their physical corporeal nature
• Exercise: Connect a circuit and make it go or glow or growl or grow.

• Connecting MIDI Devices with Max
• Max and MIDI
• MIDI related objects
• Exercise: Make a patch controlling a light strip with a drum machine

Todd: Fabrication and Materials

• Introduction the shop
• Materials and Fabrication Strategies
• Exercise: Fastening and Joining with drills and taps

• Processing Input
• Changing Parameters of objects
• Right to left order
• Get Info
• Sub-patches and Encapsulation
• Objects of the day

Monday 2/5

1st Max Assignment Due:
Create a Patch that strobes a light

    Video Showing

Wednesday 2/7

    Random motion assignment due.

Week 5

Monday 2/12

Don: Systems

• Integrating power and control

Exercise: Connect an informationally full sensor-control element-actuator circuit and try to make it work

• Connecting the Outputs
• ADB/IO EZIO Objects
• Drunks and Uzis
• Exercise: Controlling relays with Max

 

1st Group Presentations

Todd: Power transmission I

• Mechanical movement
• Major components in power transmission

Barney: Integrating Max with the ADB/IO, and the EZIO cont.

• Connecting sensors and switches to the IO
• Polling and related issues
• Counters and Conditionals
• Range Finders
• Exercise: Connecting and processing light sensors

Saturday 2/17: Sources Field Trip

• Retail
• Al Lashers
• Electronics Plus
• Rat Shack
• Pseudo-surplus, Local and Mail Order
• Halted
• Weird Stuff
• Alltronics
• Jameco
• Pseudo-surplus, Purely Mail Order
• Timeline, Inc.
• Marlin P. Jones & Associates
• Retail, Purely Mail Order
• Solarbotics, part of the BEAM cult

Good for solar cells
• Digikey
• Mouser Electronics
• Heavy Stuff
• Quinns
• Allen Steel
• RA
• Triangle Machinery & Tool Co (408) 452-8666

1051 Commercial Ct San Jose, CA 95112

Monday 2/19

2nd Group Presentations

Don: Debugging Physical Systems

• Measurement

How to see the invisible properties of the components
• When do the components become something else

Synergy vs. Entropy
• Cartesian decomposition

Exercise: make the circuits from week for actually work

    Project Proposal Presentation: Description, Drawing or Model

Week 7
2nd Max Assignment:
Build a patch that processes a range of input data and controls
a motors direction.

Barney: nato.0+55+ modular

• Modular Structures
• 242.film. 242image objects,242ekran

Barney: nato.0+55+ modular

• Integrating Max and nato
• building generative patches
• Sensors and Video control

3rd Group Presentations

Video Showing

Wednesday 2/28

    Feasibility Analysis

Week 8

Monday 3/5
Individual Meetings with Don: Problem Solving and Implementation Issues

Barney: nato.0+55+ modular

• Collage objects and layering
• Matrix stuff skewing and slipping
• 242.firewire ultralux

 

Wednesday 3/7

4th Group Presentations

Todd: Power Transmission II
 

• Motor Exercise: Build a temporary components to transform rotary motion

• Basic Patches
• Audio alternatives
• Audio Analysis
• more Cannibalizing

 

Week 9

Monday 3/19
 

5th Group Presentations

Don: Black boxes containing computer crap
 

Barney: MSP & Sequencing

• detonate

    Alpha Prototype Due

Week 10

Monday 3/26

Variant Paths and Consultations

Wednesday 3/28

6th Group Presentations

Todd: Motion Lab I

Barney: MSP
 

Week 11

Monday 4/2

Barney: MSP

Wednesday 4/4

Todd: Motion Lab II

Week 12

Monday 4/9

    Beta Prototype Due

Wednesday 4/11

Individual Meetings with Don and Todd: Problem Solving and Implementation Issues

Barney: Integration and Conclusion of MAX, nato 0.55 & MSP

Week 13

Monday 4/16

Lab + Problem Solving

Wednesday 4/18

Lab + Problem Solving

Week 14

Monday  4/23

Lab + Problem Solving

Wednesday 4/25

    Final Critique Group 1

Week 15

Monday 4/30

    Final Critique Group 2

Wednesday 5/2

    FINAL SHOW

Grade Break Down

Attendance: Miss 3 classes lose 1 grade point, miss 4 you will not pass

Active participation in class exercises and mini assignments and punctuality 20%

Week 3-12 Presentation Artist of choice 5%

Week 4 2/7 Random Motion Assignment 10%

Week 6 2/21 Project Proposal Presentation: Description, Drawing or Model 15%

Week 7 2/28 Individual Meetings: Feasibility Analysis

Week 9 3/21 Alpha Prototype 15%

Week 12 4/9 Beta Prototype 15%

Week 12 4/11 Individual Meetings: Problem Solving and Implementation Issues

Week 14 TBD Final show 20%

Missed or late assignments will result in the loss of associated percentage