Skip to main content

Kinetic Object Prototype

 This week I made a kinetic prototype using simple materials and mechanical mechanisms. I was initially inspired by kinetic art that can create optical illusions in their work. I wanted to use some of the movements commonly used in optical illusion objects in my prototype. Instead of creating an optical illusion, as I was building the object I thought it started looking like a crazy clock. I decided to lean into that and created a crazy cat clock!

Here is a video of the prototype:

Here are some photos:





If I continue to make an object with this type of motion I would like to explore how I could turn this motion, or even the cats specifically, into an optical illusion. I would also want to use a similar shape to the clock body that I have now, but I would want to make that shape all the way around, so it would look more like one solid object. Lastly, this kind of object could quite easily be controlled with a motor, which I would want to be continuously circling, with variable speed.

Thanks for a great semester!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Interactive Object Proposal

I want to create an object that is able to generate 6-word stories with the help of user interaction. It is based on a combination of a few ideas. Those machines in arcades with the circling lights that you need to press at the right time to get a lot of tickets. Combining this with ‘story’ creation is my way to make fun of AI-generated text, which I am not a fan of. The idea of the 6-word story comes from two things: Wired magazine, where people are prompted to create a new 6-word story each month, and an AU Arts class called Words at Work. We had a warm-up activity called Proverb where we stood in a circle and each said a word until someone declared that it was a proverb, then we wrote down the sentence and started again. Here is the arcade game I was talking about: The object will be a circular or square box with a 'spin-the-wheel' set up with words in a circle. The words will be chosen from the inner-most circle to the outer-most circle. Each layer of words will be part of ...

Milestone Project 1: Stupid Pet Trick

Over the past two weeks, I have been working towards creating a 'stupid pet trick' using relays to control a household electronic device. I chose to use a fan as the manipulated item because fans interact with the viewer both through motion and the creation of wind. When I heard the name of the project I immediately thought of optical illusions, as for the most part, they are just a 'stupid' visual trick. I had a collection of spinning optical illusions (meant for a spinning top) and I chose the best one and put it inside the fan. It became even more silly when I added a rainbow 'wig' and stem to the fan. I am using an ultrasonic sensor to turn on the fan, and after two seconds it turns back off. A light is on the other side of the motor relay, so the light can turn back on as the fan is slowing down, which is when the illusion looks the best. Here is a photo of my stupid pet trick: Here is a video of my stupid pet trick: Here are two photos of the circuit: Here...

Blink - Arduino Tutorial

This week I did a refresher on Arduino by using the 'Blink Tutorial' to make sure everything was set up. I also was able to refresh my memory of basic Arduino. I completed the tutorial, but once I got home I realized I had forgotten a resistor, so I couldn't do the tutorial as planned. Instead in the videos, you can see that it is indeed working, but it is working on the indicator light on the breadboard instead. Below is a photo of the setup, minus the resistor. Here is the video of the indicator light blinking ( CLICK HERE  for the video if the preview isn't working): Here is the code altered for the light to blink faster: Here it is blinking faster ( CLICK HERE  for the video if the preview isn't working): This wasn't exactly how this was supposed to work, but I know it would have worked properly if I had the resistor, so I am ready to learn more about Arduino next week.