My FMP will be based around gestures and micro movements in love relationships, looking at how technology has changed these gestures, and how future gestures will be like. In relation to the study of mobile gestures invented since the touch screen, Research questions: Does technology change the pace of our movements? What are the links between movements of the body and attraction? Are there signature gestures designed by each online dating app? How are gestures in modern dating changed by technology? How will gestures change in the next era where apps are no longer used to find people and how… More

I have been thinking about the ways of showing this project at Ars Electronica. I need to work out the materials and structure of the final installation and how it will be experienced best. I am thinking about having it in a dark room so that people feel more free to move around it. Equipments: speakers (2) laptop to run MAX/MSP (with lockbox if in reach, without if placed up high) platform attached to top of room to put laptop on wire and crimp to hang ball spot lights if room is really dark Arduino with USB wire MPR121… More

Now that I have the main sensors that I want to use setup, I’ve been playing with sounds and what kinds of sounds to use. I also added a stretch sensor to control volume and could replace the volume touch sensor with this one. It would also be nice to control speed with stretch as well. I need to curate the sounds a bit more in MAX so that they can sound melodic together. This is where I move from sounds to creating music hopefully. More

Through this unit, I’ve been researching more into sound and music making. I found Suzanne Ciani’s work on spacial sounds and 3d listening which led me to learning about and hearing binaural recordings. The most famous example of this is the virtual haircut. Binaural recording is a method of recording sound that uses two microphones, arranged with the intent to create a 3-D stereo sound sensation for the listener of actually being in the room with the performers or instruments. Although… More

I’m still testing some different things I can do with the MPR121, with 3 weeks left, I’ve decided to stick with that and possibly make changes for Ars Electronica. But with the limitations of bringing this project to Ars Electronica, I have to think about size, weight, material, and how to wire it all up. So today, I’ve been thinking about a final structure for the floating sphere. It needs to have an opening and small holes much like my paper mache version but also sturdy because people will be interacting with it. Below are a few options I looked… More

I have been working in MAX/MSP with the 12 soundtracks of rain. 8 of them from Hildegard Westerkamp and 4 from soundtracks that Nicolas sent me from Vande Gorne’s album This screenshot is the first MAX patch that I worked in. I first got a sound to play through pressing a specific button, then I linked the Arduino ultrasonic sensor and capacitative sensors. Then I also added 2 record and loop patches to add voice interaction into the object.   The second patch focused more on interactions through capacitative sensor. By receiving serial numbers, this number from 0… More

After the last prototype and talking to Chase from MA Sound today, I decided it’s a good idea to go back to designing the interaction a bit more around the object. The only thing you can do right now is touch a point and turn on/off the sound or use the proximity sensor to control volume. But I want to design bigger and more variety of movements. Chase mentioned that in instrument playing, the musician often acts like a dancer in they way they move to make sound. Something that requires a bang or a soft sliding motion can create… More

The video is self-explanatory but basically I’m trying to combine a couple of things that I’ve been playing with. In this video, I’m talking about the idea of the 2 person music box that I could create and how it could work. After I spoke to Jacob from the Media and Arts Technology program at Queen Mary University of London, he suggested that I could put conductive material on both sides so that when certain parts touch, they create different sounds. I like this idea very much and am going to continue with it.   This video shows… More

Topic: Digital archiving Online dating Why do I care? I’m curious about archiving the online content of popular culture, I think it is important to document the media that dominated the generation Y and predict the outcome of future media or online entertainment for future generations. I am interested in how the behaviour and norms of dating has been shifted by hookup apps. (relate to point 3) I am interested in human gestures and postures relating to my personal background in dance. The big questions: How did hookup apps change socializing behaviour & gestures? How do we archive digital content to tell the… More

This week, I attended PoL # 34 How Does the Future Sound? A workshop to imagine the sounds of the future operated by Mark Peter Wright. When he asked what we thought the future sounds like, I said “echo” because I think the future is going to be an echo of the present.  In our workshop, we thought about 3 main themes of home, environment, and body and discussed through making of a collage in small groups. But how DOES the future sound? This is a question I have to think about on the Mars One mission. In my prototyping process, I… More