Here is a recording Harlo and I made during our improvisation on Sunday. It is eight minutes long, so go ahead and do other things while the song is playing. This one is the first in our series of recordings with the following names:
THE BIG STORE
THE HYDROPHOBIA LIE
THE STREET MECHANIC
THE PIGEON DROP
THE FIDDLE GAME
STFO
Below is an image by Alex Hays—I really like it.
Well, it’s really coming down to the wire here with the flower project. For the next few days I may not be updating as frequently, but I’ll post a final write-up with lots of photos etc when the dust settles.
I have spent too much time working out the mechanics and not enough time planning for the circuitry side of this; I don’t even have a final behavior model yet, so tonight I’ll be hastily curing v2 of my prototype petals and trying to decide what the best operational flow will be, and whether or not that’s feasible. Last-choice scenario is using an Arduino or my flaky CUI board to detect events and actuate the flower.
Meanwhile, my good friend Thenji (a CuriousAV affiliate) has called me in on a film she’s making about South Africa - I’ll be making a small amount of prepared sound from samples she’s recorded. I listened to the first batch of folk instrument samples and they’re quite exciting—mbiras, little flutes, and hand drums are some of my favorite toys!
This weekend I had some encouraging results with Dragon Skin, a silicone molding compound from the pricey folks at Smooth On. Luckily, the silicone we had left over from PS04 was still usable, and it was much easier than I remembered. Some photos of the prototypes are available here.
What I’ll now need to figure out is exactly how to shape the nitinol I’ll be embedding, and how to ensure an electrical connection will always be made regardless of the bend-state of the wire. A journeyman friend is in town tonight but I’ll try to have a more detailed summary by tomorrow.
In the meantime, please have a look at the photos and tell me: how am I going to get the petals to shrivel/contract/close on command and what will have enough force to return the wire to its normal state?
