Cycle 3 – Solo 2: Electric Boogaloo
Posted: May 3, 2026 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »Hello! Welcome to the official successor of Solo: Paper Plate DJ.
I won’t go into much detail on the pre-production and programming for this iteration, as not much has changed on that end; refer to the first post for that. The most important update to the project is in the controller; we are no longer using a paper plate (woohoo). We used a bucket (2 of them to be exact).
There were 9 inputs wired into the two buckets: 3 based on taps and 5 on holds. Originally, the player was to wear my watch with the conductive alligator clip attached, which worked pretty well for me, but stressfully, during the presentation, it was not working for Zarmeen. Michael came in with a save by lending me a bracelet designed to do exactly what my jimmy-rigged watch was meant to do (be a bracelet that makes the user conductive). The user finger-tapped their way through the visuals, each labeled with a lyric from the song (what the visuals were connected to).
While this controller was a big upgrade over a plate and closer to my vision of evoking a sense of musicality and rhythm in the user, it had its flaws:
Flaw #1. Nobody could remember the lyrical labels, nor did they look at them during their performance.
SO yeah, turns out it’s hard to read and hit buttons that make visuals appear at the same time. I was not shocked at this feedback, as I found myself not reading them as I played, but I also know the song, so I wanted to test it anyway. I’ve decided to incorporate the lyrics in another way that will hopefully be more effective (check my final post for that reveal).
Flaw #2. The buckets are janky
The buckets are janky. They are a bit ugly and easily disconnect from their inputs (the Makey Makey)… I will try my best to make this less the case in the next cycle.
Flaw #3. The meaning of the song did not matter to the users/was not clear.
Because no one remembered the lyrics and felt they were mostly preoccupied with making the coolest visual combos possible. I hope that by incorporating the lyrics into the visuals, the user will take heed of them.
Okay, time to be more positive.
My classmates reported feeling immersed in the process and as if they were performing or learning an instrument; some even expressed nervousness when in the “spotlight”. This accomplished one of my goals: to simulate the feeling of, well, performing a solo. I really enjoyed watching the unique interactions as people took turns. My classmates were oohing and aahing, and trying out different techniques to garner different visual combinations. I am lucky there are so many actual musicians in the bunch. Now I just need to accomplish some sort of meaning-making process in this experience.