Mini Project 2

For the second mini project I went back to a sketch I made earlier this semester that was an idea for the final project. For this piece, I wanted to play a sound clip from home videos I have. The sound would emit from inside the form. After learning about wave shields, I finally had a way to do it.

 I used chicken wire to get the basic form and found a heavier gage aluminum foil that is used for embossing to wrap it in (really cool stuff).

 There is a pocket in the upper right hand corner that contains the Arduino, wave shield, speaker, and IR sensor. It has two sound bites of my dad, "Faster, Erica, Faster!" and "Run, Erica, Run!" that will go off randomly when the piece is alone, but will also be triggered again as someone approaches.

I was thinking about bottle trees while making this piece. Bottle trees are something in southern culture I find really interesting, where a person will hang glass bottles  from trees. these bottles trap evil, ghosts, and sins-- depending on color and who you talk to. What I've been told is that the ghosts/or sins are attracted to the shiny reflection and become trapped inside. These sort of beliefs exist in other cultures, but I find the southern one that exists in the bible belt fascinating. So I took this idea and started to think about how one could trap a memory, if they acted the same way.

I don't think this piece is finished, It definitely has some glitches and needs more work. I view it as more of a maquette,  I think it has some potential and I am considering working with it more. 

Please let me know what you think!

:) Erica