Pressure Project 2 – Kenny Olson

For project 2, I made a Randomized Nicki Minaj Meme Generator Hydration Station System. The system set up is: a water glass reseting on a metal tray, and when the glass is picked up off the try, a random Nicki Minaj Meme audio clip is played. The mechanics of the system involve a Makey Makey. With one set of alligator clips connected to the metal try and the earth (or grounding) connection on the Makey Makey (the green wire shown below). With another alligator clip, one end is connected to the space button on the Makey Makey with the other alligator clip end taped to a water glass (the yellow wire shown below) with a metal conduction string in the alligator clips mouth. The sting goes under the glass and is secured on the adjacent side with more tape. When the water glass is placed on the metal tray, the string on the bottom of the glass makes contact with the tray, sending a signal to the Makey Makey telling it to trigger the space bar.

Inside of Isadora, a “keyboard watcher actor” (with direction set to: UP) triggers an “envelop generator++ actor” with a one second rate with a starting rate of 0 and an ending rate of 100. When the “envelop generator++ actor” ends, the end trigger goes in two directions. Direction one triggers and displays a number, counting the times the system is triggered. The second direction triggers a random audio sound from a preselected list of ten sound. Direction one works by, the “ADD” on a “counter actor” with a min value of 1 and max value of 101, and mode set to wrap. The output number is then fed into the line “Text/ure actor”. The text document connected to the “Text/ure actor” (accessible when the actor is double clicked) has a list of numbers from 0-100 displayed vertically. Finally the video out of the “Text/ure actor” is fed into a “projector actor”. Direction two works by, the “envelop generator++ actor” triggering a “random actor” the “random actor” produces a random rational number between the values of 1 and 100. The value from the “random actor” is then fed into a “float to integer actor” to get a natural number. This number is then sent to ten deferent “inside range actors”. each “inside range actors” is set to only trigger if the number given is between the predetermined values. Each of the ten “inside range actors” are set incumbently to only accept 10 numbers. So the first “inside range actors” only accepts numbers “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10” and the next “inside range actors” only accepts numbers ” 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20″ so on and so forth until 100. Next each of the “inside range actors” is fed to its own “envelop generator++” from the “inside range actors” enter to the “envelop generator++” trigger. The “envelop generator++” output is then connected to the play length of a “movie player actor”. The result is, when the “random number actor” is triggered, and formatted correctly, each “inside range actors” will read said number and determine whether or not trigger the “envelop generator++” to then play the audio.

In the end, the system will run something like this: a person picks up the water glass from the tray, with a one second delay, a random audio sound will play (in my case a Nicki Minaj meme), and a number will be displayed, counting the number of times the glass is lifted or “drank from”.

Reflections:

Originally I wanted a sound to play after I opened my desk drawer and also count the times said door was opened, however, I found trying to make a button with the Makey Makey difficult with the limited arts and crafts tools I have. Inside of Isadora, Changing the direction of the “keyboard watcher” from down to up was a crucial and important revelation. Also, finding a way to visualize the automated counting system was the hardest part of this project. Once I found the “Text/ure actor” everything became much smoother.

Crutique:

During the critique, an interesting discussion about culture came about. “what if instead of a meme sound played, a video of someone needing water was projected, when someone picked up the water glass?” in the right setting or context a simple gesture with relatively simple tech could have astronomical cassations and implications.

Pressure Project 2

For this project, I wanted to use the makey-makey in order to trigger photos from a webcam to be taken. After a certain number of photos were taken, I wanted them to be displayed on a computer monitor.

I glued a couple of pieces of foil to a piece of cardboard and put a cloth mat over it and ran wires back to the makey makey in order to trigger a space bar press. One of my initial issues was the taking of several photos very quickly when the makey makey was pressed. I used an envelope generator between the keyboard watcher and the capture stage to picture actor in order to make it so one photo at a time was taken.

The next challenge was recalling the file names that had not been created yet. I discovered Isadora did not like referencing files which did not yet exist, so I needed to load in the values after the pictures were taken.

I built a user actor to display each image in a random way and nested it inside of another user actor.

Inside of this actor, I used random value actors in order to randomly generate where the image would appear on the screen. The images would then fly over to the opposite side of the screen.

Ultimately I feel this project gave me a good grasp of manipulating a photo library in Isadora as well as a more sophisticated understanding of some of the logic and math functions.

Pressure Project 2

I learned from the last project and started with a written brainstorm of ideas before doing any actual work on this. Then I narrowed it down to what I actually wanted and drew a design, specified my goals, and the basic logic of the program. I decided to create a Spontaneous Dance Party Machine for my staircase. The goal was to randomly surprise someone coming down the stairs with an experience that would inspire them to dance and be in the moment. So while they might have been on their way to get food before trudging back up the stairs for more hours of Zoom, this gives them a chance to let loose for a minute of their day.

The resources I used for this were the Makey-Makey attached to aluminum for the trigger. I designed the aluminum on the staircase to be triggered by the normal way that someone might put their hand on the railing when descending.

Then the Makey-Makey plugged into my computer which ran the Isadora program.

Then I had to get the stage from Isadora into my projector. I did not have the right kind of cable to plug the projector directly into my computer but it would plug into my phone. So I used an app called ApowerMirror which was installed on both my phone and computer in order to mirror my computer screen onto my phone. This allowed me to transfer what was on my full screen stage on my computer into the projector that would serenade the person who triggered the stairs.

I used two scenes to manage this experience. The first one counted the triggers as well as determining how many times someone had to trigger the stairs before the projection and music would start. It randomly generated a new number from 5-10 for each round.

It would then activate the next scene which contained a colorful projection and started a random fun song to dance to. After one minute the scene would be slowly deactivated.

Overall I was really satisfied with this project. It took me a lot less time than the previous one I think because I took the time to plan at the beginning. It was also super fun to leave up in my house and spontaneously be able to jam out to a good song!

A few things to note for the future would be 1) I couldn’t projection map because I was just mirroring my computer screen; 2) my phone battery was used up very quickly my mirroring and projecting. So I would want to look for an app that could act as a second monitor or even better, get an HDMI to USB-A cord that would connect my projector directly to my computer.

Tara Burns – The Pressure is on (PP1)

Goals:
To use the Live Drawing actor
To deepen my understanding of user actors and macros.

Challenges:
Finessing transitions between patches
Occasional re-setting glitches (it sometimes has a different outcome than the first 10x)
Making things random in the way you want them to be random is difficult.

Pressure Project 1

For Pressure Project 1 I created a narrative of a ship crashing on an island. A person is stranded and is eventually saved by a plane. I achieved this by using multiple shapes to create the different animations and envelope generators to move them across the screen. I also created a rain effect that slowly grew in intensity.

This project was a fun challenge. In trying to find a way to keep the audience guessing at what is going to happen next, I thought telling a story would be the best way. This wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be.

I ran into a few problems with layering of shapes/colors and keeping shapes together in a group as they moved across the screen. In the future, I would create virtual stages and create compositions that way first then manipulate the boat.

Pressure Project 1

Kenny Olson

This video was what I used as inspiration for this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVkdfJ9PkRQ

I wanted to create a looping and evolving “vaporwave aesthetic” visualization in Isadora. I found a video (linked above) of different length pendulums swinging and I wanted to try and recreate it. Once the Math was figured out the overall pattern was very simple. I added A black frame and a grid for aesthetic purposes (the ‘Nodes’ pictured above). The main chunk of the magic lives inside of the ‘User Actors’.

Inside each ‘User Actor’ Is a ‘Wave Generator’ feeding into the ‘Hue’ of a ‘Colorize Node’ (the min and max of the ‘Colorize Hue’ are min:80 max:95) and the ‘horizontal position’ of the ‘Shapes Node’. The ‘Shape Node’ ‘scale value’ is 10. Then the ‘Shapes Node’ ‘video out’ feeds into the ‘Colorize Node’ ‘texture in’. Next the ‘Colorize Node’ goes into the ‘texture in’ of a ‘shift Glitch Node’ (this is for looks and adds a fun glitching effect). I should also note the values of: ‘frequency’, ‘vertical’, ‘horizontal’, and ‘size’ on the ‘Shift Glitch Node’ are all set at 1. Then the ‘texture out’ of the ‘Shift Glitch’ goes into the ‘video in’ of a ‘Motion Blur Node’ with ‘accumulation amount’ set to 100 and ‘decay amount’ set to 70. Next the ‘video out’ of the Motion Blur Node’ goes into the ‘video’ of a ‘Projector Node’. Finally I added a ‘User Input Node’ into the ‘vertical position’ of the ‘Shapes Node’ and another ‘User Input’ into the ‘frequency’ of the ‘Wave Generator Node’. When completed the result should look like something similar to the above image. (you can now ‘save and update all’ and leave the ‘User Actor Window’ )

Now this is when the Fun starts. Back in the main composition window of Isadora you should have a newly created ‘User Actor’ with 2 adjustable values (‘frequency’ and ‘vertical position’). To get started adjust the ‘frequency’ to 0.28 Hz and the ‘vertical position’ to 45. You can then duplicate the ‘User Actor’ as many times as you please. The trick is to subtract 0.01Hz from the ‘frequency’ and subtract 5 from the ‘vertical position’ in a descending pattern with every additional ‘User Actor’ (My 1st ‘User Actor’ starts with a ‘frequency’ of 0.28 Hz and a ‘vertical position’ of 45 ending with my 19th ‘User Actor’ with a ‘frequency’ of 0.1 Hz and a ‘vertical position’ of -45)

To reset the program simply reenter the current scene from a previous scene (with a “Keyboard Watcher Node” and a “Jump++ Node” or by using the ‘space bar’)

I should also note: as long as all the ‘User Actors’ are separated by a constant ‘frequency’ and ‘vertical position’ (or ‘horizontal position’) value from each other (in either a positive or negative direction) the pattern will continue on forever in said direction.

A fun thing about creating this mathematical visualization digitally is there is no friction involved (as shown in the video example, eventually the balls will stop swinging) meaning this pattern will repeat and never stop until Isadora is closed.

Pressure Project #1

Working on this project, I wanted to play around with scenes as well as find a way to incorporate some randomly generated elements. I knew that I wanted to get away from a black background, so I found an image with several different colored blocks and zoomed in on it and then set it to move around the screen as a background.

I originally thought my project would consist of rectangular shapes, so I generated one to move in the layer above the background. However, then I started to think about drawing lines in front of the moving block. My first idea was to see if it would be possible to record a mouse movement and then play it back inside of the mouse watcher. After a little playing, I used a random actor to generate lines. This led me to the idea of more and more lines being generated before the project loops back to the beginning.

I began to explore ways of going to different scenes so that the lines would begin to draw on top of each other. As we discussed in class, I could have accomplished this more efficiently by using the jump actor.

One of the best parts about this project to me was seeing different ways people laid out their workspace as well as getting ideas for new actors. Through this project I feel much more confident about basic kinds of actors as well as working with scenes.

Link to Isadora file:

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ai2N4YhYaKTvgY9sbl-j6aDoPcdJMg?e=9McCvN

Project Bump

https://dems.asc.ohio-state.edu/wp-admin/post.php?post=1761&action=edit

The pictures of this project immediately got my attention. With a group of people standing in a space together with, what looks like, a projection on the floor and a wall with several dots. I love the idea of creating an experience that was playful, interactive, tricky, and physically engaging. Modernizing a board game like Candy Land with projections and body movement. so cool!