This project is one I have been looking forward to and thinking about since the start of the year, with what project I have been planning on doing changing throughout the year. Initially I planned on doing Audio Visual for my work, however, the level of refinement I would have to do to make it work in a gallery space / installation vs the more performance style it is currently in wouldn’t lend itself well to the short time frame of the project. I also have to keep in mind the resources such as projectors and screens will be stretched thin this year as there are more people participating than last year. My initial thoughts were mixed, however after claiming my space and realising there was not enough for my AV project without interfering with those around me I decided to go with Expressive Data.
Coming off the back of Expressive data I already have an installation ready work that I could quickly implement into the space, all I have to do is figure out was how it needs to be powered then it will be ready to go. Initially going off of the same power source as Gina and Kiron we had to change and rejig the area, with help from Matthew and Gillian we managed to figure out exactly how to power our corner especially with the amount Matthew needed, most other people needed 2 or 3 plugs but because im just running the Arduino and neopixel I managed to fit in with just 1. I wanted to get my piece sorted and in place as soon as possible so on Tuesday afternoon with help from my course-mates I managed to lug everything downstairs into the garage space. I ended up settling with the space behind the second shutter that would stay down to give the lights their full effect.
However after getting my stuff downstairs and plugging it in for the first time, only 3 LED’s were lighting up with my code and a fourth was bright green. According to Adafruit forums this could range to be anything from a wiring error with varying voltages to a damaged LED strip.
I quickly ordered another strip of 90 using my strip of 60 to troubleshoot any changes I had to make, however it put me off messing around too much with it as I didn’t want to damage my last resort.
In terms of getting the space ready sadly there wasn’t as much involved as last year. The two weeks allowed us to fully paint the space and get it in a much better state than what it was previously, however the shorter time frame of this year meant that I only really had time to paint my plinth. It didn’t need much work but it was nice to get it cleaned up to aid with my presentation.
I mocked up some quick code to test flashing, I managed to get LED’s flashing one by one and all at once, however when there was only a couple of LED’s flashing it seemed to lose its effect, although it does convey the feeling of anxiety well especially when the majority of LED’s are flashing, when they all run at a reasonably high rate the effect seems to be too much. I feel like if it were just for a review it would be fine but since it is a semi open event this work will be displayed in I feel like the slower encroaching LEDs gradually lighting up work well in the exhibition space.
One thing that was also on my mind was the poster for the event. I worked with a few course-mates to combine elements and ideas shared for what we should include in the poster with its composition and content being experimented with throughout.
A sadly compressed version of the PDF I used to print but I decided to use Vogy Smog from swiss typefaces, with its stylised upper case as seen in the squiggles which is an upper case X for ixd, an element Rona wanted to include in the poster.
https://youtube.com/shorts/gZQ26192U78
I also made animated forms of the poster to use for social media but due to setup and walk around timings never managed to implement.
I was also aware of a bit of tension in the last few days of the project regarding power etc. However this was amended when everyone worked together towards a solution. After such we managed to get everything together
Stewart Marshall IxD 