Scotiabank Nuit Blanche

So after a great deal of work on both my project partner Alex Heidbuechel and myself, we will be attending Scotiabank Nuit Blanche with an interesting video installation work. The work is based on conceptions of self as related to our interactions with others. It uses a fun game created by surrealists known as the exquisite corpse as an avenue to explain our idea, although we have remediated the game through use of media technologies such as video and projections. The event will be ephemeral and no lasting tangible work is created, however to use our own theory and to borrow from that of Marcel Duchamp the viewer creates our work through their interactions with it.

We owe much to the myriad of people who made this project possible.

First and foremost I would like to thank Scotiabank for sponsoring the even.
Sarah you have been instrumental in making this all happen, as well the city of Toronto has done much to help the independent projects and without that support who knows where many of us would be.
We would like to thank the Niagara Artist Company, and In the Soil for their continued support.
We would like to thank organizations such as the Ontario Arts Counsel, and the Trillium Foundation for their support of artist throughout ontario, and Carfac for artist across Canada.
Thank you to the Rotary Club for the use of your events tent.
Marinko Jareb of The Disco Gallery.
I would like to personally thank artist Duncan McDonald for his continued support.
Additionally, thank you Brock University and the Visual Arts department.
We would like to thank our friends and family for their support.

And to anyone who we have forgot to mention, you have not been forgotten. For without all of you this project would not have been possible.

We hope to see you out on October 2nd, 2010.

Noise Maker Time

I will be teaching a small introduction to AVR / Arduino class at the Niagara Artist Company this summer during the first week of August (rescheduled from the 4th of July weekend).

I have decided to use this as the foundation to the lecture:

Tinker.It Arduino Synth

This device is fun to say the least. Although I found you need an op-amp to really make it shine. I have a surface mount board available for anyone who is interested, just send me an email and I can send you one for $2 + postage. The board uses SMT / SMD parts (surface mount) but it really makes the tinkerit board scream like it should using an OP275GSZ op-amp from Analog Devices. This device gives a clean amplification at 5v with no additional parts, talk about easy to use.

I think the thing most enjoyable about this project is the hack-ability. You can edit the code to make different sound grains, you can add distortion and other effects, as I am doing, look here for some easy single sided board projects TonePad FX.

Due Epoch

A thanks to everyone who made it to the Due Epoch show on November 24th, 2007. It was a good turn out especially considering the freezing temperature.

Textile Arduino

After being inspired by various Arduino projects I have decided to make a wearable LED based art piece, by incorporating traditional textiles used through antiquity, leather, AVR, and LED's. Leah Buechley's work with Textile based micro-controllers is a great inspiration to me. Her line of textile Arduino's called LillyPads have just been released through SparkFun Electronics.

Here are two images of my ATmega168 connected to leather. The horrible solder job is actually deliberate and is intended to act as a stop for the conductive threads attached to the pins of the integrated circuit. After stitching towards the IC come up with the needle from under the IC, wrap the conductive thread around the pin with the solder bead then make a knot. The hold is very secure. (I will post a drawing of how I tie my knots). I chose leather because of its thickness and rigidity. The likelihood of the leather folding over is also minimal which reduces short outs between traces. It is harder to work with and you need special needles, however, these are often inexpensive and readily available in most art supply stores (ie. Micheal's). The use of an IC socket is recommended for two reasons, first, you can remove your AVR from your project to reflash it using an ISP programmer. Second, you will need to bend some of the sockets pins and use the other unused pins to secure the IC socket to the leather. On the reverse side of the leather you will bend the remaining IC pins. Use an exacto knife to puncture holes through the leather, this will allow for easy socketing of the IC socket onto the leather.