Light Hum

Light Hum is a AC sequencer console that allows the musician to control the brightness and sequence of 8 light bulbs. Each bulb has a photocell theremin attached to it to convert the light frequency into audio frequency. I am using different photocells/phototransitors, resistors and capacitors to generate different tones. The heart of the AC sequencer is a board designed by Mark Kleback and Ezer Lichtenstein. Check it out, its pretty freaking awesome, kleebtronics.com/sequencer. This project is completely analog, no computers were used for the audio or the visuals. The above performance was shot at Glasslands in Brooklyn on December 9th, 2012.

AC Sequencer (On/off switch, dimmer switches for lights, potentiometers for speed and steps of sequence, pause button and switch, reset button and 8 outlets for AC power):

box01
box03
box04
box02

One of Eight Light Theremins (Two Photocells):

light02

Light Theremin Container (One/off switch, indicator light and 1/8 inch audio out):

light01

Light Theremin Circuit Board:

altoid01

AC Sequencer Interior (Mark and Ezers Sequencer connected to 8 solid state relays):

interior

PCBs for Relays:

relay_boards

Performance at Glasslands:

nime_show_02
nime_show_01
performance_gif

360 Flip Scientific Protocol

Ingredients:
7 Ply Skateboard Deck
Grip Tape
2 Trucks
4 Polyurethane Wheels
8 Ball Bearings
8 Screws and Nuts

Instructions:
1. Place your front foot in kick flip stance, at a 45 degree angle about two or more inches from the front bolts.
2. Put the ball of your back foot in the curvature of the tail otherwise known as the concave point.
3. Tilt your back foot up a little bit; this will help get the spin.
4. Pop and spin at the same time, then just kick your front foot forward and out like a kick flip.
5. Pop and SCOOP the board. The key to this trick is the scoop. Just try to get underneath the board, but not too much.
6. After you scoop the board up, at the same time, flick the board with your foot like you would when doing a kickflip.
7. Jump higher than the board by at least two inches.
8. Watch carefully and wait for the right moment to land. Wait for the board to come around to the grip tape.
9. Land with your knees bent and rollaway that much cooler.

Bioluminescent House Plant

This summer I spent some time on a small island of the coast of Vancouver Island and was lucky enough to witness bioluminescent algae glowing in the waves crashing on the shore. Ever since then I have been interested in this beautiful phenomenon. Over the weekend my interest was fueled by seeing the Creatures of Light exhibit at the Natural History Museum. I would love to try and bring this into the modern home and find a way to either use bioluminescence to accompany or replace our household electronics. Would it be possible to use red, green and blue toned organisms to replace the TV screen? Is that cruel? Maybe its better to start small, so how about a house plant that is genetically modified to glow in the dark to act as a night light.

Bio-Light, by Dutch electronics company Philips
Glows green when fed with Methane gas

Bioluminescent Fungi in Brazil

Light Hum

For NIME I am putting together an instrument that takes the buzz that is produced from lightbulbs and enhancing them to create music. I will be experimenting with photocells and piezo discs to amplify the sound from the bulbs and will be playing with fluorescent and neon tubes.

Basic design/mockup:

Test with piezo discs:

Test with photocell theremin:

Neon test with photocells:

Project Schedule:

Project Inspiration:
Dan Flavin Dia Beacon Installation
Atsuhiro Ito and his Optron
AC Light Sequencer

Project Resources:
Pocket Theremin
http://www.popsci.com/diy/article/2008-04/build-pocket-theremin-cheap
www.iballast.com
www.lettherebeneon.com

designx23

Designx23 is a design production software program created for Jer Thorp’s Data Representation class to automate the production process of charts and graphs for the graphic design industry. For the last 3 years I have been designing and producing huge 400+ paged data and statistics books, each book contained about 4 main chart styles and each style has between 50-150 different data sets attached to it. In the past I created all 250+ charts manually using Adobe Illustrator which took between 4 to 8 weeks to complete, needed multiple people producing, checking and editing them, and ultimately because it took so long and required so many people the production cost for the client was insanely high. I have been trying to find a better, more automated solution to this but have been unsuccessful in my search for the “holy grail” of custom chart production. So rather than wait for a solution I decided to make my own.

I decided to focus on the most challenging chart style that I designed in the past first, a state level chart for the College Boards College Completion Agenda. This bar chart included data for all 50 states (as well as DC), state name and percentage, the United States average, a map showing the states that are above and below the US average, chart ID number, chart title, chart source, and section color. I redesigned the chart in code using Processing thus making the entire thing dynamic and updatable. There is a CSV spread sheet attached to it containing the state name, percentage, average, ID, title, source, section color, etc. When a new CSV gets uploaded all the content changes to reflect the new data. I also included a GUI interface for minor design edits, i.e. height, width, location, line weight, etc. Once you have something that you like the user hits “shift P” to print a vector editable PDF which can be placed into a InDesign document or edited in Illustrator. This program will in the end cut the production time down from 4-8 weeks to just a few hours, it is more accurate and much cheaper.

The software is very much in a beta version right now and ideally I would like the program to be able to upload SVG designs and translate those into dynamic updatable templates, right now I have to hand code the designs which is a little time consuming but still much faster and cheaper. I would also like to be able to output a print and web version, have more ability to adjust the design, do batch PDF creation, and much more. It would also be great to have this online for anyone to use and for people to share templates with the rest of the data visualization community.

Code: design23