NIME update - conceptual work

This week we took a step back from our lovely NIME to work on our concept a little. We're pretty happy with the physical structure as of right now, although of course there's room for improvement. The big challenge we've been trying to tackle is the "game" aspect that we hope will increase the appeal of the performance. We also want to incorporate feedback from showing our prototype in class and add some different sounds to the piece.

The current plan is to build four receptacles out of plexi with different percussive surfaces/objects in them -- which we're salvaging from our personal trash. Then we can use a Twister-esque spinner to add a goal to the madness -- try to get a certain type of balls into the selected container. In addition, the spinner opens up the possibility of more interaction with others - someone else (perhaps an audience member) could spin it - or maybe we'll elect to retain control. This also adds some organization and the possibility for score-keeping if we want to make it a competition - unsure yet. The "winner" may get to inflict something on the "loser" like spray her with silly string or whip cream or something else messy. We'll keep fleshing this out as we write our performance plan over the next week.

In another attempt to increase the complexity of the piece, we're also playing around with adding tubing of some sort to add to the amount of time the balls are "in play" and making sound as well as contribute to the visual effects. We've had people mention Rube Goldberg machines to us over and over again, and although we continually explain that we're not building one, we may end up incorporating that in some way - perhaps having various balls run different "courses" or set off subsequent actions. I've had flashbacks to my childhood of playing with Marble Works -- an awesome toy from the 80s, which I've asked my parents to attempt to locate in the depths of the attic -- so something along those lines maybe? It may seem that we have a lot of loose ends at this point, but we feel like we have so much of the actual building work done that we can afford to spend some time trying out various ideas.

In the next week, our goal is to build the receptacles out of plexi and outfit them with different percussive surfaces as well as try adding tubing. We still need to work on the mechanics of the release mechanisms, so that's near the top of the list. Other than that, we need to put in some quality play time with it to get a better feel for what's fun - both to do and to watch. Look for us in the shop a lot over the next week or so and watch out for balls going everywhere!

"working" prototype

This week we made huge progress building our NIME. The lazy susan came in and turned out to be amazing. It's strong enough to spin a person (as evidenced by the pictures of Meredith spinning me). We drilled holes in the lazy susan and mounted the plumbing structure on it, only for the whole thing to come apart again. Luckily John Duane helped us find better screws, and the second time turned out to be the charm. We'll probably still need to add some weight to the base to make it more stable, but it does actually spin now, at least at relatively low speeds.

The biggest obstacle we had to overcome (and are still overcoming) was creating a release mechanism for the balls. After extensive trials and failures, we finally found a method that we think will eventually work. We drilled a tiny hole in the top of each funnel and attached a spring in the hole. The spring was then connected to string and then to a ping-pong ball that blocks the hole from which the balls come. For the wooden balls and the ping-pong balls we had to attach two ping-pong balls together to block the hole. Ideally, when someone pulls on the string, the ping-pong ball moves out of the way and the balls are able to fall. To some degree, this system worked; however, we discovered that the tees and funnels are a little too large for the various balls. As a consequence, multiple balls can get stuck in the tees and then not come out at all. Our main goal for this week is to work on the mechanics to make this more effective. As suggested, I think our plan is to make the holes smaller with some sort of smooth material to allow only ball at a time to go down the tee. Our other goal is to further develop the game aspect and to increase variety in the sounds. I think we're going to check out some kind of plastic tubing to increase the length of time the balls are in movement and thus increase the duration of the sound.

ipod + big green switch

Tonight I was able to connect the big green switch Tracy lent me to a mono-jack and use it to control my ipod. The whole process was amazingly simple. I just replaced one of the switches I was already using with the female end of the mono-jack, plugged in the switch, and watched it work. Unfortunately, neither the ipod that Tracy had nor the one that Alex found will work with the remote and tx/rx protocol I'm currently using. I'm hoping that I can find someone who has a new ipod nano that I can use for testing purposes and then either a new ipod nano or the older version (that I'm currently using) can be purchased for the project. As soon as I know which version (and thus which size) ipod I'll be using, I can start building an enclosure for the whole thing. I'm still unsure what that will look like, but it's going to be pretty minimal - just needs to house an arduino, two mono-jacks, a small piece of perf board, and the remote cord.

Swiss Plexi

We met on Saturday night to work on our prototype. Our goal for the night was to complete the construction of the sorter.

We finished drilling the holes for the sorter and glued all the pieces together. We stacked them up and beheld our monster. And then for the moment of truth: we poured in a bunch of balls to test it. It was very loud and visually exciting. But the results were mixed: some of the second-smallest balls were sneaking through the holes into the bin for the smallest balls. We're going to work on that last level of sorting to make sure only the smallest balls pass through. We're also going to find some kind of strap to tighten around the entire sorter contraption – that will allow us to lift it and shake it as a unit.

So, we've got a little work left to do on the sorter, but it's a working prototype.

We determined the dimensions and cut the plexi pieces for our resonant ball receptacle. It's going to make a gorgeous trash can some day for some lucky person.

We attached the funnels to the pipes using hot glue and tape. They're solidly attached and working great.

And finally, we came up with a solution for the ball release mechanism. Pulling a string connected to each funnel will stretch a spring that will allow a piece of plexi to slide sideways, revealing a hole that balls can pass through. Releasing the string will cause the plexi to slide back into place as a barrier.

We plan to meet up on Tuesday night to go spring shopping, to build our resonant receptacle, and to put the release mechanism in place.

We're still waiting for the lazy susan to arrive, and when it does we can build a base. We've talked about how to incorporate a game mechanism into the play, and we're thinking of attaching a big old pink feather to the kitchen timer to add visual drama to the countdown. We don't have rules for gameplay yet, but we'll work that out when we come up with our performance plan.