Workshop Session 31/07

The tutorial on Tuesday 31/07 was devoted to deconstructing devices that we had brought from home, and trying to scavenge components to use with the Arduino board. Our group teamed up with another in the workshop in order to share our understanding of the task and also our resources, as not all of us brought an object to work with.

Whilst we did not manage to make a complete interactive model combining the input/output parts we gathered from deconstruction phase of the exercise, we managed to gain a valuable insight into the types of parts commonly found in an interactive system. We plan to spend the time leading up to the next tutorial better familiarising ourselves with the Arduino board, and further testing the interactions we can make with it. 

Understanding Arduino

We have been given our Arduino Board by Yasu, however it is as yet unclear what we can do with it. The notes on Yasu's Wiki look like they will be useful once we start attempting the tutorials, but in the mean time Youtube and Vimeo are proving inspirational. This video in particular makes for excellent viewing: Arduino The Documentary (2010)

DNB 601 Begins

With the introduction of subject, tutors and assessment, DNB601 began. Teams were formed for the main assignment - I joined a team with Ann-Maree Saver (http://dnb601annmareesaver.blogspot.com.au/), Sophie O'Rourke (http://sophieorourken7208669.blogspot.com.au/) and Felicity Kammholz (http://n7160119.blogspot.com.au/). 

In the kinetic interaction model workshop, our team came up with the idea of a system of signalling whether a gate was shut, or if it had been left open. To achieve this, we built a model fence with a gate using dowel and timber slats. To this we added a small cardboard flag that would rotate up when the gate was shut and fall out of sight when it was open, as shown in the photographs below.  

Flag signaling the gate being shut

Flag signaling an open gate