Home Final Project Project Tracker
week0: CAD & Project Concept week1: Parametric Design & Laser Cutting week2: 3D Scanning & Printing week3: Large Format CNC week4: Molding & Casting week5: Clank & Electronics week6: Electronics Design week7: Embedded Programming week8: Input Devices week9: Project progress week10: Output Devices week11: Networking & Communication week12: Interface & Application Programming
week 0

Week 0: Create a design for a potential final project

The brief is pretty broad, but the summary that seems most apt is this: make something that does something




PHASE 1: Project Brainstorming. What to make?

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An interactive lamp or light source that responds to blockages. Basically moves if you get in the way.

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Taking inspiration from chinese "spouting bowls," I'm interested in how I could create a vessel holding a liquid or maybe sand that creates predicatable patterns with some sort of input.

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Physical data vis. A responsive topographical map.



PHASE 2: Project Selection, Concept Sketching and Sourcing Reference Material

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Cymatics are very much not new. We have records of old white guys were tinkering around with these concepts dating back to Da Vinci (likley farther back), but the main man we all know and love is Ernst Chladni, the source of the eponymous Chladni Plate.

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While the experiment is old, I've never tried my hand at it, so I'm interested. I think that the Chladni plate lends itself to this project pretty well. And I've seen examples that can allow me to scope up and scope down the concept as the project demands.

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Some artists have created some really interesting versions of this simple experiment. Nigel Stanford, a musician, specifically created a music video to demonstrate the use of calibrated cymatics as a method of artistic expression. I found it really inspiring.

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So pulling from those sources of insprition, I went back to the drawing board.


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And started to mess around in CAD to start anchoring this concept in reality.

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Some sketches for posterity.