User:Jeanine Verloop/minor sensor

behavioural stretching

PEOPLE

VERA CASTELIJNS
Major // graphic design
PAGE VERA

THARIM CORNELISSE
Major // illustration
PAGE THARIM

JEANINE VERLOOP
Major // illustration
PAGE JEANINE

STARTING POINT

sensor jeanine

DEVELOPMENT

We picked vera's way of making conductive material, French knitting with woold and conductive thread. To make this work we attached the cord to the arduino. One end would be attached to the 5v pin of the arduino and the other side would be connected to the A0 pin and the ground pin. In between the ground pin and the cord we placed a 680 Ω resistor. The cord is now acting as a potmeter. When you pull the cord the resistance of the cord becomes smaller. The arduino measures the difference in voltage of the A0 pin and the ground pin and it translates this to serial data.

We programmed the arduino so that it translated the serial data to frequencies. For example, when the cord is in resting position the arduino monitor would read 520 and when we pull the string it would read 960. We would map the arduino to output a frequency of 0hz when it reads 520 and 1000hz when it reads 960.

The serial data received from the arduino could be used in many ways. We also experimented with other sounds and samples by connecting the serial port (where the arduino was attached to) to Ableton live. The sensor could trigger all sorts of instruments, effects, and automation. We didn’t use this way of working in the end because you always had to be near a computer to use the sensor.

Making our own French knitting tool

PRESENTATION

For our presentation, we wanted to connect the result of pulling the string to the action that was needed to pull the string. The group of third-year students had made some videos that inspired us. In their video, they exaggerated the movement the body makes while stretching.

It gets interesting when you can make people do stuff without necessary commanding them to. We wanted to make people stretch without them being aware that that was our purpose. To achieve this we placed several chords on different heights in the staircase. By curiosity or simply because they were confronted with a strange object in the -semi-public space people would pull or touch -accidentally- the cord. When noticing there was a sound coming out of it, they would reach higher and higher for the other cords.

You could say that in the end it the artifact was not the cord, but the people stretching to pull the card.

NEXT

On numerous occasions, we discussed how we could place this cord in our everyday life. The cord is strange, yet pulling it and hearing the sound feels so familiar and normal at the same time. We wanted to give this cord in some way a place in daily life.

Inspiration for exeqution was the well known movie: The Phantom of Liberty

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