andy doro thesis blog

Yesterday I presented my thesis idea in class. Even though I was nervous I felt like I got some great feedback from the guest critics. I was especially fortunate to have Usman Haque as a guest critic via Skype from London, although I made a mistake in misrepresenting one of his projects, which was pretty embarrassing.

I included this quote at the end of my presentation:

Electronic objects are not only “smart”, they “dream” – in the sense that they leak radiation into the space and objects surrounding them, including our bodies. Despite the images of control and efficiency conveyed through a beige visual language of intelligibility and smartness, electronic objects… are irrational – or at least allow their thoughts to wander. Thinking of them in terms of dreaminess rather than smartness opens them to more interesting interpretations.

- Anthony Dunne,
Hertzian Tales

I had mentioned something about the necessity of self-shielding in order to prevent feedback from the sensor and amplifier circuit. Usman felt that this could actually be an interesting element, and once he pointed this out I found it very appealing. It could add an "irrational" element to the table. It has to do with the physical properties of the amplifier, even a misuse of circuitry. There are two ways which this could be introduced: (1) the sensor near the amplifier circuit could create feedback, or (2) it is possible by incorrectly configuring an amplifier circuit to create distortion or junk, or by attaching two amplifers in series.

There needs to be a balance with the chaos though; too much chaos and it becomes meaningless. Just enough chaos to make it interesting.

If it is an irrational table, another thing to consider is how it should look. Should it still be a standard, rectangular desk table? But the fact that it has electronics might make it strange enough without an odd shape.

Considering the material, my brother suggested creating it with a somewhat soft surface, possibly something like silicone. This makes sense because (1) the table is for electronics... perhaps now you could drop you cellphone, laptop on it less gingerly than on a hard table, with less fear of damaging them. (2) with this metaphor from Dunne about how electronic devices "dream", the table could be their soft bed. My working title for the project is now Table for Electronic Dreams.

I am a bit worried that there are only 7 weeks left in the semester! I think my next priority should be to finalize a circuit and create a small prototype, with 4-6 lights and start trying to figure out materials and construction details.

Other reference projects which have been pointed out to me recently:

Energy Fluxion Band
Sort of my idea as a wearable. They seem to be using LED bar graph drivers... I hadn't thought of this, but I could have each coil attached to multiple LEDs, possibly for greater contrast in displaying field strength. I actually bought some of these from digikey for some reason, and I think I might try this out.

Field, Richard Box
1,301 florescent tube lights under high power lines drawing powering wirelessly! I would like to be able to recapture some of the lost energy. I need to check how much AC voltage comes along the induction coil- it is probably not very much at all. But if I run it thorough a bridge rectifier, that would be a way to store some energy.

The Bubbles of Radio
This doesn't have much to do with my project directly, but I love it! Different hertzian frequencies imagined as Haeckel type organisms, with fake latin names. She made a beautiful old book with medical style drawings.

Posted by Andy at 07:00 PM | Permalink

Despina asked me to do some use studies of how people use tables. so i took some photographs around my apartment.

table studies:

laptop, wireless mouse, external harddrives, alarm clock, desk lamp, cellphone.

lamp, alarm clock, cellphone.

I really like the looks of the History Tablecloth. Apparently this is "electroluminescent material printed onto a flexible substrate." I need to figure out how to do this. The hexagon/honeycomb pattern references both the cellular phone system and beehives. Also, the description applies partially to this project:

When items are left on the table for more than a few minutes, the cloth starts to glow beneath them, creating a halo that expands over a period of days. When items are removed, the glow fades quickly. That’s all it does.

The History Tablecloth makes visible a significant aspect of home life—the history and movement of objects on domestic surfaces, emphasized by ethnographers as an important resource for domestic coordination. Rather than bringing new content into the home, the History Tablecloth embodies a suggestion that domestic technologies may make powerful effects simply by pointing out the richness of existing phenomena.

By visualizing an important aspect of the home, the Tablecloth is designed to provoke people to think about how they use their homes. The system doesn’t imply a value judgment about moving objects or leaving them still, however. People might be reminded to tidy up more often, but equally they might simply enjoy the patterns that emerge when things are left on the table over time. The Tablecloth doesn’t dictate peoples’ reactions or suggest what activities they might pursue. It isn’t for anything, and that’s the point. It simply creates a situation that is novel and potentially significant, and leaves people to find their own meaning within it.

like sand, or snow. the table recoups a time when we lived in the jforests or deserts, our actions left marks which fade over time.

my requirements:

• a simple desk, rectangular
• white lights - simpler, prettier
• diffuse light. light through frosted acrylic.
• it will need electricity, the table will need to be plugged into an AC outlet but this can be turned into an advantage, since with desks these days you want some outlets at the bottom anyway.

other possibilities:

• printed lights
• somehow recouping lost electrical energy ? probably not efficient

Posted by Andy at 10:30 PM | Permalink

I have decided after some discussions to build a table containing electronic sensor. The table surface will act as an informational display of recent exposure to electromagnetic radiation.

The table solves the problem of needing very sensitive hanging sensors. It also seems more appealing, to create an industrial product rather than an installation.

It is similar to Dunne & Raby's brilliant Compass Table. also Ingo Maurer's benches with LEDs, perhaps.

I want to use magnetic pickups which convert EMF into AC voltage along audio cable (1/8"). I like the richness of the information, but I don't plan to have a table which creates sound- too distracting. I can take the sound however and use RC filtering to get high, medium, and low band filters. Using this information I can create colors based on the sound- e.g. mapping high, medium and low to red, green and blue values of the lights.

Round table, 4 feet in diameter. Could buy a table and add electronics.

I want the table to use analog circuitry but I may have to use a micro-controller. I want it to record electronic usage over time. really big capacitors? I would prefer not to use a microcontroller but it might be the easiest route to go.

also, any way to use electronic inductance to generate some energy- stealing energy from objects ?

Posted by Andy at 12:46 AM | Permalink