1. Consultation

Andreas

This week, I will be presenting in the cohort sharing session. During my consultation with Andreas on the slides content, some tips he suggested was to keep in mind on how to keep the audience engaged. He noted based on the experience that the later parts of the slides should be image heavy so as to grab people's attention as they start to doze off.

Andri & Tito

For the artefacts, I consulted Andri & Tito to get suggestions on its qualities. I talked about my concerns regarding the form of the artefacts that are stiff compared to the drawing. Tito suggested to use a twist tie foam to act as an inner "spine". The twist tie foam is sort of like a pool noodle but with a meta wire in its centre that allows it to be malleable.The metal armature would still be used to give the artefacts its form. Another key concern I had for the artefact is that I was afraid it was leaning towards being quite "crafty" and that I wanted to be careful especially with the branding so that it doesn't look like an arts & craft project. They said the material themselves were alright and what I could do is to play around with the thickness of the artefact to achieve a result that I wanted. The branding is also something I have to experiment more on my own.

For the publication, they bought up the possibility of incorporating the plastic into he publication itself such as the packaging, sleeve, or as inserts for certain pages. Andri also suggested the idea of making the whole publication out of plastic and print the words unto the fabric. Both ideas actually had crossed my mind and I had put them inside my vision board for the publication. Something to be mindful of though, is to not overdue it with the plastic everything.

2. Graduation project — Artefact #2

Addressable LED + Ultrasonic sensor

Added blinking/ change in brightness.

Tried using gradients in light.

Lights turn completely off when object is close enough.

leds[i] = CRGB(100+ 30*i, 100 + 20*i, 100 - 20*i);

FastLED.setBrightness(8*i);

FastLED.show();

delay(30);

LED types

WS2811

(1) Needs 12 volts, so can manage larger number of LEDs in a strip.

(2) Can only be addressed in 3s.

WS2812B

(1) Needs only 5 volts, however voltage drops become more noticable in large number of LEDs.

(2)Individual LEDs can be controlled. The granularity of LED control is 1 LED.

Testing how the light looks through the black plastic

I wanted to see if the lights from the addressable LEDs would still show through layers of plastic. The first test (left) is one layer of plastic, and the second one (right) is around two layers of plastic. The light has no problem being seen through one layer as shown above. However, it changes as more layers are added on. As seen in the picture on the right, the leds are dimmer in some parts and brighter in others. This is because the layers of the plastic fabric is sometimes uneven due to the plastic being stacked on top of each other in order for the to stick. So parts where the LEDs are dimmer means that the layer in that area is thicker than the others.

3. Feedback from cohort presentation

(2) Overall Communication

Communication of project. How the different parts of my research all unites into a cohesive narative. What is the main information you want to highlight? That bit is still missing, Otherwise it would just look like another artefact that doesn't really point it towards being interactive.

(1) Artefact

Form & Material

The feedback I got regarding the forms of the artefact were similar with what I had discussed with Andreas last week. In terms of the details and likeness to the actual microbe I was referencing, there is still room to improve for the artefact. Gideon also suggested exploring different types of material for the inner skeleton of the artefacts to avoid it being too repetitive.

(3) Exhibition Design

Exhibition design can be explored to really show people the message of this project. The layout should be optimized to give people enough freedom to explore on their own yet also not too abstract that the narrative gets confusing.

3. Weekly Roundup

Reflecting on cohort presentation

Confidence issues

I think the cohort presentation was an important experience for me to have. I got to hear feedback from lecturers and students outside of my atelier and get a grasp of how an uninformed audience might look at my project. Although I wish I hadn't read the script on my phone that much during the speech because I was too nervous, I'm glad that I was still able to give clear answers to questions directed at me. Keeping viva voce in mind, I hope to improve my public speaking skills through this valuable learning experience.