Mona "Diva" Aftermath

So I was overall just relieved that this project WORKED. I had a bit of a bumpy road just trying to do that, but it worked- yay! The components I worked with were very simple- mostly because I didn't want to bite off more than I could chew with my experience level. I felt like a lot of the feedback from Crit were things I could have added to the piece to create more of a presence, or atmosphere. I thought the feedback was very helpful- it was also especially nice to have Michelle Tillander there, as she is my teacher for my education courses. I think with more time I could have definitely added to the project (isn't that what everyone says), The only thing that really bothered me was the speakers. I really wanted this piece to be wireless, I had all of my components encased in the frame and originally the speaker created sound like it was coming straight from Mona's mouth. The speakers on the floor were a last minute fix so that everyone would be able to hear the audio better.
I might have gotten a slightly bigger frame, had I been able to find it in time.
I'd love to do more of these, and maybe have them sing and talk to each other. That was a good suggestion.

I also feel the need to reflect on this project in terms of the entire class as well.
I'm just kind of proud of myself, I would not have been able to do anything like this 3 months ago- as it was, I was extremely confused and lost when I started this class. I've gradually figured out how things work and become comfortable with electronics.I think it might have taken me longer than others, but I feel good that I did learn a LOT. I chose digital media as my concentration because I enjoyed what I did know how to do, and wanted to learn more about things I didn't know much about. I want to take this knowledge and apply it to the classroom, with this knowledge I have something most other teachers do not.

P.S. I even used my knowledge to create some LED light up Christmas Ornaments. Extra Credit! (Just kidding) But it's proof of how I'm already applying that I've learned outside this class. :)

Here's the Youtube version of the song

Even More Videos!

Documentation of Dan Dan and Lu's piece

Documentation of Dan's piece

Documentation of Renate's piece

A huge chunk of classwork

Here's all of the leftover classwork that I haven't posted to to blog, UNTIL NOW.

A photo of the touch screen setup



Here's an image of the SD card Reader



and some videos

Putting Everything Together

So now that I got the mechanics of project working, I needed to work on the concept part. It has been very frustrating for me, I feel like my lack of experience with electronics makes simple obstacles a lot more difficult for me than someone else. Working on the song part of this was a nice break- At least I know how to do that. I've written songs before, and I usually can crank them out a a few hours. I knew that I really wanted to work with either the Mona Lisa for this project, for a while I was considering a self portrait of Van Gogh, in the end I stuck with Mona Lisa, I liked the iconic quality that she had, and also felt that I really wanted to sing from the perspective of the painting, being a female I thought my voice would mesh better with a female subject.

I approached what I wanted to say from the perspective of the painting, not just the subject in the painting in their own life, but the subject AS a painting that has been on the wall for 500 years, and what it must be like to go through so much. Sort of like the saying, "if walls could talk"...

I used my knowledge of the piece to reference historical bit of information, but all in all, this is not necessarily a history lesson. I really wanted to think about the Mona Lisa in terms of using art history to create a persona and a story for her. I though of her as a "Diva" , her image is plastered everywhere, possibly the most famous, talked about, referenced, and visited piece of art. How could she not be a Diva. Plus, she is an old piece, over 500 years- so there's that. I imagined she would be a bit peeved about her aging situation and such.

I wanted to create a song that was really electronic pop sounding- something catchy and upbeat. I wanted her sound to stand out against her age, and image as this classic work. Perhaps, someone at the time she was painted would have composed a classical song for her- but this is 2011 so that was important to me NOT match the sound with her image. Even with the way she speaks.

I had been developing lyrics over the course of the past weeks, but I wrote the music in just a few hours. Originally, I had sung most of the song- however I ran into some audio amplification issues. The sound from the speaker that came with the kit just wasn't loud enough and I was worried that people would not be able to hear the lyrics as well is I were signing them- so I changed the song to more of a rap. I figured what she has to say in the lyrics is more important than my vocal ability, and I'm happy with the last minute decision I made. I think it gives her character a bit more attitude. The original song can be heard in the video below when I tested it at home.






The Perfect Frame!





Attaching my components to the frame



Mona up on the wall

Joy to the world! My issues have been solved.

So today was rough in terms of trying to figure things out, but they got figured out in the end- so thats REALLY GOOD!
I needed to make progress so desperately here!

So I went into class today really needing help. Katerie and I spent a LOT of time in class trying to figure out my issues. Initially, i worked on soldering wires to my proximity sensor and pins into the Wave Shield for a better and more solid connection. That was looking nice and neat, but it didn't solve my code issues. Instead of trying to change/find code for the new library I wound up just downloading and using the old library (AF wave), despite Lady Ada's warnings not to. Oh well, It actually worked. So now I wasn't getting any error messages which was nice. Katerie really tried to help out, by even trying to write and combine some codes and looking at some of my classmates code, but in the end I was able to fix my problems rather simply.
Initially I had NO IDEA what I was looking at in the code, I wound up just deleting random things and seeing if it made a difference, and it actually worked...wow.

So my issues were solved by cleaning up the files on the SD card, getting ride of folders, and making sure the naming of the files was consistent.

Then, I deleted a bunch of "if then" statements regarding the proximity sensor. In the Pumpkin code they had it set up to play different audio files based on the distance registered from the sensor. In the case of my project I just needed to play one file- so the simpler the code the better.

Now That I have things working in the technical side I need to focus on developing my song, getting the print, frame and constructing all of this together into a cohesive piece.

Pumpkin Code Causing Frustration

So... My wave shield works, this is no longer a problem for me. I have my proximity sensor ready to go and I'm all ready to create my set-up. I have my code from the pumpkin project, I plug it in and nothing works! I keep getting all kinds of Errors. I'm looking through the code trying to figure out what's happening here. I know it has to be the code, because the Proximity sensor works. I checked the serial monitor and I am getting a readout of Data- but no sound.

I think it has something to do with the Library I'm using. When I built the wave shield, Lady Ada suggested that I download waveHC, a newer and better library. However- it seems that the code for the pumpkin project is using the older AF wave library. It appears that no one has updated the code in a a few years. I checked the forums for some help. There was a few people with the same problem as me, but no great suggestions as how to help. One person suggested just replacing the text wherever it said the old library with the new one, but that definitely didn't work. :(

I need to figure out how to change the code so it will work with the new library- I feel like I have no clue where to start. hopefully someone can help me out in class, I'm so frustrated that I can't make progress as fast as I'd like without hitting these impossible roadblocks. ugh!!!!

Wave Shield Success!

So now that I got the wave shield kit, I spent my class time soldering and assembling it together. I really took my time because I know all too well from the malfunctioning wave shields I was working with before that you NEED to solder everything perfectly!!!!

I even added a few extra things such as female headers for where the speakers attach so there's no permanent soldering necessary.





So the wave shield looks pretty, and best of all IT WORKS! I downloaded some sample audio files and it plays them beautifully, Now just have to work on adding the proximity sensor and getting my own audio in.

Troubleshooting with the Wave Shield

so after googling the error message I was getting, I found that specifically on a lot of forums and such that the error message usually pertains to a connectivity issue, such as bad soldering. I asked Lu about that and she told me that she also had issues with the wave shield- sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. She was kind enough to give me another one that she had lying around. It looked a lot neater so I had higher hopes for it... Unfortunately that one didn't work either :( I got the same error message.
all in all I troubleshooted with different SD cards, different computers, different USB cords, different speakers, different code/example sketches, and different wave shields. I tested Sam's wave shield and it worked fine. So I need a new wave shield.

Unfortunately I won't be able to work on it until after thanksgiving break, as the kits to make new ones had to be ordered.
This break I will work on the concept portion of the piece Until i can get my hands on the kit to solder it. I just hope my soldering skills will be good enough to do this ... :/

ugh! Just thought to check the Serial Monitor!

I just had the bright idea to check the serial monitor read out to point me in the direction of the specific error thats occurring.
Ugh! I can't believe I was struggling with this ALL weekend and wasn't smart enough to think of checking the serial monitor.
...goes to show how experienced I am with electronics :(

This is the message I get:


W
Wave test!
Free RAM: 688
Error: Card init. failed!
SD I/O error: 1, FF


Going to google this and see if it helps.

Disappointing Progress this Weekend

So I have all the materials I need to learn how the wave shield and proximity sensors work. I have the tutorials available to me via the Lady Ada website

How to make and use the wave shield
http://www.ladyada.net/make/waveshield/

Installing the wave shield libraries and running a practice sketch to play audio
http://www.ladyada.net/make/waveshield/libraryhc.html

and the proximity sensor halloween pumpkin example.
http://www.ladyada.net/make/pumpkin/pumpkin.html


I know other people class have gotten this to work, I have tried for hours and hours and I can't even get the wave shield to play audio. Therefore I couldn't even move on to getting the proximity sensor hooked up.

Initially, I was vey confused as how to get started. I was looking at the tutorial for how to make the wave shield to understand the different parts on it. I was lucky to get one already assembled from Lu and Dan Dan, but because it already had wires coming out of it, and the wave shield in the example did not I wasn't sure how exactly to attach it to the Arduino. I just tried to use common sense and plug the wires coming out of the wave shield into the corresponding pins on the Arduino.

Because it's not setup like it is in the examples I can't help but wonder if thats whats causing me problems???


For some time I was having a problem with the code, to test out the wave shield- the example I was doing was supposed to play all the wav audio files on the SD card in a loop. After a few hours i fixed the problem with the code, turns out I didn't install the necessary libraries properly. THEN the code worked just fine, but still there was no audio playing from the wave shield.

I don't have speakers right now so I was using my headphones plugged into the audio jack. I can hear some static like noise, confirming that the headphones are plugged in- however none of the audio files on the disk are being played back.



I'm just frustrated at this point, hopefully someone in class can help me see something that I'm not, so i can going on this.

Here's an image of what I have setup

Random Bubble of Thought!

So this idea just popped into me head (I wasn't in the bathroom this time, I was washing dishes and listening to Britney Spears)

After today's discussion I was thinking a lot about the Andrea Fraser piece, and how I kept saying that I'm not trying to say the same things as she is. BUT... maybe I am to some degree. She's commenting on the museum system. When she describes the "art" on her tour she blows the descriptions up until they sound ridiculous. she's getting this from somewhere...
I think some artwork can have this high and mighty reputation, like only people who are well educated in fine arts can have an appreciation for it. They use fancy art terminology that regular people don't understand. It's one thing to know art vocabulary and use it in context, but It's demeaning when people use it to show off their art knowledge to people who aren't familiar with it.

I can speak from experience, because this has happened to me, it still happens to me today. Sometimes it's nice to have a conversation about art and use the english language. It works, you can have meaningful conversations and exchanges of information about art without going above everyone's heads: I do it all the time with my students. Thats how you learn.

What if i used a Painting thats not well known, perhaps a painting that an art expert would talk about using lots of fancy art terminology, and what if I made it more accessible to people who are not familiar with it. I make it more accessible by eliminating the stuffy-ness and bringing in humor by having it sing this fun upbeat catchy song. NOT what you would expect to go with the work, NOT how you would expect to learn anything about it, BUT it works and as the viewer you DONT feel stupid for not knowing big fancy art words.

Make it sing...?

So I was thinking a lot about working on my concept a bit... I had a crazy thought this morning when i was brushing my teeth (I often come up with my best ideas when in the bathroom, why is that?)

What if I made the painting on the wall sing?

In keeping with the theme of education: I have written songs for kids about art. I might be itching to write a new one. I really want to look into this and work on it a bit.

Some examples of my songs:

Fun with RFIDs

3 Artists

First, let me say how extremely difficult it was to find artists who were specifically working with the idea of art history with proximity sensors. But I did find many who added sound to their original pieces with a proximity sensor.

http://www.heddier.com/electronic/d_load/html/kaufmann_en.html?XTCsid=loecwhyls
No an artist, but an example of how something very similar is being used in an actual museum. The museum is located in Germany and specializes in electronics based artwork. The link here is from the Heddier Electonics webpage as an example of how their technology has been used.
I couldn't find any information on the museum's webpage about the piece, or who exactly came up with the idea which is disappointing because it was the closest thing I would find to what I was doing.



http://www.anothersideofin.com/
This is is related project more than a related artist

"ANOTHER SIDE OF IN is an interactive multimedia art installation created by a collaboration of three artists.

Mike Gordon, musician and member of the band Phish, designed customized sounds extracted from his recent album, INSIDE IN. Marjorie Minkin, Mike’s mother and visual artist who has developed a unique process for making sculptural paintings with molded Lexan, created relief works for the looped sounds while listening to them. Jamie Robertson, creative technologist and musician, designed and built the innovative wireless electronics, enabling the viewer to interact with sound and light on each piece through proximity with the works."

http://www.driftingcity.com/main/featured/dreamgrove

" Dreamgrove is an ongoing participatory projects that connects a webpage (and iPhone App) to an interactive garden. It contains dreams. The app and webpage record them in a public, virtual field; the garden narrates them through an interactive soundscape.
There, through an array of motion and proximity sensors, visitors triggered a soundscape: zones of white noise, whispers, augmented sounds, and narrated dreams- connected to the database, spoken through trees. The layout, clusters and memory spaces of the virtual “field of points” mirror the structure and the sound intensities of the Interactive Garden."



UPDATE:
Thinking about the conversation I had with the class on monday about my project I wanted to add an additional artist.
When it was mentioned that I should think about how a museum tour can be "art" I immediately thought of the Andrea Fraser piece "Museum Highlights" in which she pretends to be a docent in a museum and leads unsuspecting museum visitors on a fake tour of the museum. She starts the tour, seemingly normal but eventually turns it into something ridiculous as she talks in detail about restrooms and water fountains. Here she uses the idea od a museum tour to make a commentary about the infrastructure.

http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/9446.aspx

I don't necessarily want to comment on the idea of the museum infrastructure myself, but I feel like this is a good idea of taking the idea of a museum tour and converting into art.

Final Project Idea

For this final project there are two things that are most important to me

1. Picking something I can actually work with. My knowledge of electronics is limited to what I've learned in this class, since I'm working by myself and I don't have as much time as I did for the mid-term project I need to choose something thats realistic towards my abilities and time frame.

2. I really want to take this opportunity to relate a project back to my major- Art Education. As an Art Ed major I chose Digital Media as my concentration, not only because it interests me, but because I want to learn how I can incorporate technology in the classroom in new and unique ways. With that goal in mind I want this project to become something that can be used in a classroom.

THE IDEA:
I want to use sensors to create some sort of interactive and educational experience for students and anyone else. I want to work with the idea of art history and famous works of art. I'm thinking of how a museum is set up with artworks, and a little blurb on the wall that you have to read. What if you didn't have to read the blurb to get information about the piece?

I want to create a system where proximity sensors track movement in front of a piece of art, signaling that someone is viewing the piece, and then attached speakers will play pre-recorded information about the piece, sort of like "fun-facts" the statements will be brief and interesting.

I can imagine that this system would be much more interesting and fun than just reading the statements, it also relates to ideas about assistive devices for people with vision impairments, and those cannot read well.

As far as the work I'm thinking about using, I'm considering something very well known visually but they may not know details about. I want this to appeal to people from elementary age and up. I'm thinking about the Mona Lisa (which has a very interesting history), or perhaps a Van Gogh or Picasso Piece. I'm really leaning towards the Mona Lisa though because I just learned a lot about it in my Renaissance art history course.

Now I have to figure out the mechanics of this thing.
I need to figure out :
How to use proximity sensors
How to make them activate speakers which will play my sounds
Where/How exactly is the proximity sensor triggered

Projects 31 and 32

Project 31- Pressure Sensor


Project 32- Digital Barograph

Projects 36, 21, and 22

Project 36- Temperature Sensor


Project 21- Scrolling LED


Project 22- Pong Game

sky-craft trip