Documentation and Process - Project 1

At the beginning of this project, I only knew that I wanted to work with pressure sensing and LEDs. I was initially seduced by the cabinet space on the 3rd floor of FAC where all of the A+T people would sit around, as it seemed like a surreal idea -- we napped and ate in a display case, without consideration for what it is actually built for, as art is rarely displayed there. Thankfully, Caitlyn and Shanna managed to pull off a sensors project in there :) But I was destined for a different direction this semester...

After the first Skycraft trip, and a subsequent visit (which was really awesome), I ended up with some large, rough acrylic chunks that reminded me of crystals. Going off of my work with digital crystals in Jack's 3d modeling class, some of the concepts I developed there being:

- Crystals as products of growth over time, light, and energy

- Geometric and sharp-edged forms, created by nature in the case of real crystals, but more easily made and common to the aesthetic of man-made objects, or mathematical/digital models

- Subversion or re-framing of the idea of crystals as a healing object - can they have a different kind of healing energy or even induce a placebo healing by relation when shown brightening up an inhospitable, man-made "cave" (dusty basement with graffiti), or in the case of this course -- made into soothing interactive installations.

I also remained interested in the interaction possible with FSRs, they were very fun to squeeze and see what kind of value range i could get out of them (pretty large!):

This is the first build of my project, simplified to one pressure sensor and LED. As you can see i was super hyped to get it working! :)

After talking with Katerie at Artbash, and doing a little brainstorming, I decided to have two gloves, allowing people to connect with one another by hi-fiving, holding hands, or making fists, or slapping each other -- really any kind of human interaction would activate the crystal's energy, suggesting the flow of energy from person to crystal and crystal to person that is purported by crystal healing enthusiasts.

Here's the initial sketch I came up with.

I spent a long time polishing the crystal with sandpaper, as the surface was gashed and uneven from whatever cutting process it went through before it ended up at Skycraft. I wanted to emphasize the artificiality and abstract it a little, so I wasn't trying to emulate something nature has already perfected, haha.

I doubled the electronics and code, and added plenty of LEDs, red being controlled by one glove, and blue being controlled by the other, so the crystal would indicate who was putting off a stronger energy: 

And then I laser cut a base for the crystal, so the electronics could be out of sight a little, at least:

And here's the finished effect, I need to borrow a nice camera to take some really cool documentation of this, but at least you can see the general effect of the lights within the crystal:

Some ideas people brought up during critique are:

- Differentiating the gloves, two gloves the same color suggests it's for one person to interact with. But the intimate table and two chairs was good for suggesting interaction and to sit down and spend time with the crystal for two people.

- More gloves, so many people could interact at the same time (I love this idea)

- Many more crystals

- Reminiscent of Ouija board, feels ceremonial