processing study group

i have decided to study up on Processing again in anticipation for the Fall semesters classes. i will be doing a study group on Thursday nights at the Emerald Coast Community of Makers. tonight, i was able to get an install on the machine at the Makerspace running Ubuntu 12. we will start this week with a screening of Hello World! Processing, a 41 minute documentary about the platform. and then i will demonstrate some simple hello world exercises.

here comes the sun

i want to introduce two new autonomous circuits i have built and added to my e-beastiary. the circuits are variations based on the solarsoundmodul by Ralf Schreiber. the critters are photovoric singers that employ a Schmitt Hex Inverter IC, resistors, capacitors, piezo buzzers, and a photovoltaic cell. the modulation is slightly different on each output pin from the varied combination of capacitance and resistance. they range from creacking to screaming, lilting to terse. the lovely thing is that they change as the environment changes, of course chief is the angle of the sun to the solar cell, but unexpectedly and pleasing are other variables like movement, wind, fluttering leaves and branches which all effect the output. this produces a direct response to the environment reinforcing the autonomy of the critter.

my next goal is to embed them into the landscape. i have a fortunate opportunity that my current employment site is in the middle of a nature preserve. to be continued...

802.11 planar antennae paintings

is a project in non-optimal aesthetic design. the straightforward premise is to use fractal/self-similar lines as a formal pictorial element and as a planar antennae packaged as the form of a painting. the 'dragon curve' is the drawing element that represents this merged idea. each segment is tuned to a quarter wavelength of a particular channel of the 802.11 standard and allows the work to merge with the local network and become part of the delivery of the network.

i continue to make new associations between all the concepts of this project. the latest are the implicit connection between circuit design and drawing. the linear form is integral in this and an any circuit trace. the trace could be directly thought of as an art making process. such as etching; leaving a trace or to make a printmaking plate. etching is also reductive process of removing material to reveal something else largely akin to carving as a sculptural process. the technique in these pieces is a direct (additive method) application of the conductive material to establish mark-making or a drawing.


circuit design is a field concerned with optimization spatial and electrical relationships of the formal plane. the pictorial space of these planar antennae paintings is less concerned with optimization of the engineered space and is an attempt to create an aesthetic experience through self similarity algorithms and in the transmission of the network. certainly, there are specifications that are peculiar to the design which must be maintained in order to serve some functionality (such as the segment length/channel ratio) but, this design in decidedly non-engineered as to the optimal utility of the spectrum. these device-object-tool-fetishes seek an optimization of aesthetics and functionality in engineering.

i maintain a ustream channel in which you may see me constructing these devices. there is documentary footage available for 'off-air' periods. please follow this link to the channel. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/painting-happy-fractals

maybe i should start this post with that lame line such as: "wow it has been so long..." i will divert from that right now.

i have started working on my antenna painting project in a very real way today. i spent the last few weeks trying to find a good way to render the dragon curve (or any recursive folding system) in a vector like form so i can scale the lengths of the arms to the right wavelength(λ).



i found a nice script written in PostScript that renders the fractal beautifully posted on Dr. Charpentier's page about L-Systems. Gratefully this made my life very easy for the transfer to the image surface. i would like to improve on this so the curve never rolls on itself in the line. Guess i will need to learn some PostScript.

i decided to try to match channel 6 wavelength . This is of course the most overused channel partly because it is default. The λ of channel 6 will also allow me be sloppy as i am truly hand drawing this antenna; thus, a quarter millimeter here or there will not sink the ship.