Finished sensor assembly

After multiple rewritings of the code, I think I have a solution to the color sensor that reports the correct colors and luminance. I have also (PURPOSEFULLY!) shorted the LED on the breakout board so as to read the ambient light. This has allowed me to close up the assembly and I am prepared to attach this to the buoy body now.

We have a boat chartered for Monday and so tomorrow I need to construct a camera dolly, get the microcontroller and sensor wires installed in the buoy body, and check the NIR sensor so we are ready for the trip.

Getting after it: the data buoy project

An early design for the buoy.

I am currently Researcher-in-Residence at Signal Culture in Owego, NY with my collaborator Sara Gevurtz. We are developing a sculptural installation that monitors the Susquehanna River. The artwork is a two-part system made up by a buoy with sensors in the Susquehanna River and a sculpture located in a public venue. This prototype will be able to record the luminance and color of the water in the river. The buoy transmits this information using IOT methods and the sculpture mirrors the color and light changes.

I have been working on this idea in rough terms for about 3 years. The Signal Culture residency period will give me the space to make some real headway on the idea.

During the first day, I was able to make some significant progress on the coding. I put together a rough prototype that allowed me to test out the sensor assembly I constructed with the Adafruit TCS34725 Color Sensor. Here's a video showing my first night's progress: Data Buoy 01

Residency in NY at Signal Culture

Data buoy development parts

Sara Gevurtz and I have been selected to participate in concurrent residencies at Signal Culture in Owego, NY. My individual focus is to tackle a data buoy project as Researcher-in-Residence. Sara's individual project will be working with the analog video production gear to databend our images as the Artist-in-Residence.

We applied to Signal Culture as collaborators as an extension of our long-standing Turbidity Paintings project. At the residency, we will also perform fieldwork on the Susquehanna River. We have chartered a boat to take us on a cruise where we will be recording data, collecting samples, and testing new equipment.

Workin' hard!

sleepless in HK

Three necessary survival items for 1AM in Hong
Kong: a guidebook, ibuprofen, and cheap snacks.

i crashed hard tonight way too early. when i woke around 1030PM, i decided to go for a walk around the Wan Chai district.

the Hong Kong lifestyle starts late in the day in comparison to my American routine. it is really common for a business not to open until after 10AM, but the place is alive until late, late.  after 11PM while wandering the alleys and streets it is not uncommon to discover a popup market splayed unto the roadway that would normally be unforgivingly ruled Hong Kong's red taxi cabs during the daylight hours. i see all manner of produce, fish, and other wares exotic.

during the late mornings and afternoons the street bustle is extreme and you either get in line of get out of the way, but after 10PM the attitude eases. the night is still overly warm and sticky, but a tad more pleasant now that the sun has been abolished; and with it, the human
flow slows to a stroll, there is time for you to indulge, taste, read. main streets have many little late night food stalls with all the many variations of chimeric asian cuisines. the night becomes bejeweled with neon and led lighting and a hot dirty day is erased.  one more stop for me into the local ubiquitous 'circular initial' convenience store for a cheap sticky cold treat to snack on, while i sit in the apartment shared space to handle emails and communications from my Western world.

field trip

this morning, i talked with Jhave Johnston, poet, filmmaker, and Assistant Professor at the School of Creative Media at City University of Hong Kong. He is the author the recent release,  Aesthetic Animism (MIT Press).

Jahve has generously offered to meet with us at Mo Tat fishing village on Lamma Island just south of Hong Kong primarily for a training expedition with the sub. he has also offered to give us a little tour. i can't express enough how lucky i feel and how generous the CUHK CMC community is being.

there is a pier we can set up on. we will be headed out on Saturday morning. we will ride a ferry out to his place, practice the procedures of running the ROV snapping pictures, and water sample analysis. looks like it is going to be a rainy one, but at least it is warm.