Beginnings

Diego and I had a hard time coming up with an idea and concept for 319 Physical Computing Final Project.

We brain stormed and talked about some mutual interests that we shared. We both knew we wanted to do something that was interactive, and would engage an audience in a way that was thoughtful and innovative.

We were inspired by the idea of art as a device to experiment with society. At first, we wanted to build a robot similar to tweenbots. However, we realized that although we loved the idea of the experiment, we couldn't find a way to make it our own idea.

We then brainstormed about how we could change the environment in which students inhabit daily. Our student union is a facility which sees a lot of traffic and we were interested in how people normally interact with it and what we could do to alter this environment and this reaction. We discussed many possibilities; rearranging furniture, re flowing traffic, etc.

With our proposal way past due, we were scrambled to find something we could both agree on. It seemed that our brains were drained of any creative juices. Bombarded by senior projects and graduation musings,  we agreed to take the weekend to think or not think , hoping an idea would come to us.

Inspired by RGB LEDs, Diego decided he wanted to create a motion sensor piece that would detect presence. Over the weekend, the only thing I really came up with was a random generator that would spit out ideas (as we had none... playing with the idea of how creativity is a mystical thing between creative people) By combining our two concepts, we decided upon a creation with LEDs that would be motion censored but also have an element of random-ability.

This work would be a Light Presence Painting, a stream of LEDs that would flicker and change color depending on the distance of the viewer. If the viewer was far, the LEDs would become "sad" and be colored cooler, the activity of the lights would be dim. As the viewer came closer to the LEDs the lights would become more vibrant, signaling an intense emotional reaction.  The LEDs would then be a hotter palette. Our main gesture that we would like to evoke is one of excitability and enticement.

We talked about the idea of this piece being more dimensional rather than a painting and the idea of creating an infinity environment. However this only seems to complicate our idea, and we have limited resources as well.

Our classmates suggested that if we are to stick with a painting, that we should treat this almost as an object. Using materials that could be transparent , translucent , to magnify or diffuse the light of the LEDS. We also discussed our options as far as sensors. At this point in time, we are thinking a omnidirectional motion sensor.

Diego began experimenting with the RGB LEDS trying to have three analog sensors, 2 knobs, and one touch pad to basically output different colors.