Brainstorming for the Brain Project

Since our mini-grant project for An Art Affair was so well received, we decided to carry on with an an even bigger interactive mind-control exhibit for Party on the Edge. Last time, we used an EEG set that could measure concentration level, which we basically used as one input. Now, we'll have a more sophisticated pair of headsets which can measure focus/concentration, meditation (which is characteristically composed of different waves than focusing), and blinking (myoelectric activity). We will also be using the developer's kit, so instead of just hacking into a toy, this time we'll have access to a lot of raw brain wave data...which has the potential for all sorts of interesting art!

Soon, we will have narrowed down on a concept. For now, here are some ideas we're throwing around:

- Mindcontrol fireworks. (Perhaps will use an LED display to mimic the pyrotechnics).

- Orbs with changing light intensities (focus), that levitate (meditation), and move in circles (blinking).

- Environmental vibrations based on brain wave patterns.

- Large platforms which move the participants: closer to each other, levitating, around each other.
- Old school TV with static which clears as the users focus (revealing a surprise).
An image from this site relates to the first two ideas (3D LED display): http://www.vimeo.com/1762821

Basically, we want to go for something engaging on a large scale. Here are some sketches of more ideas:

Lublin Project Gateway

http://lublinprojectgateway.blogspot.com

I was interested in the new Arizona Immigration Law, so I found some information on the topic that I'd like to share:

One from fox news (arguably pretty conservative):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLGtShVY0dg

and the article from the New York Times about the new law (pretty informative):
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/24/us/politics/24immig.html

Hopefully these give us a little background info on the topic!

Ariel Mazel-Gee

I guess the whole project has come to an end. A good ending. It was a lot of sleepless nights, scanning, sketching, inking, photoshoping, etc. But I'm happy the book turned out well. Here's the link to my artworks.

Enjoy!

ComicBookProject

1000 ships made out of manila folder

http://manilathousandships.wordpress.com


-C. Paula de los Angeles

Noise Machining

Over the weekend, we collected a lot of parts and did most of the physical building. Also hacked the Jedi Force Trainer toy. Last night, debugged the code and setup the noise machine. Here's an update from Greg:

Drivetrain

• Added a plastic spool to hold the string in place on the broom.
• The spool is held in place on the broom by bicycle grip tape.
• The string is wrapped around rubber bands on the spool and motor, for friction.
• It works!

Code

• We did some debugging and found that we were reading noisy signal between 0-300 (approx.) when the LED was off (into the analog input). When it was on, we were reading all 0's.
• We switched the polarity of the LED leads to the analog in so we could read a positive signal. Now we are reading the same when it is off (0-300 noisy) and about 410 when it is on.
• The threshold in the code is set at >= 405, which seems to be working.
• It seems to be too easy to concentrate at level 3, so we tried switching the leads, but I guess the voltage threshold would be different for LEDs 4 or 5... we don't know what those values are.
• We had some problems with the headset/base station, either getting stuck or losing signal, or just generally being wonky. Might need new batteries? Might need to try Akshay's?
  

Music elements

• We had some happy accidents with the way we arranged things... worked and looked great! We still need:
• Ways to affix/stand the pots on the table
• To fix the hanging objects to the dowels
• More objects hanging and on table, another dowel, possibly more table space?

And now, for the fun stuff, breaking news from Joel... videos of the prototype!

Ones that shows the kinetic glory in action :

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwiAbIq7w7E)

another that shows the EEG action:

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsY8rfbXpiY)

these are not the droids you are looking for...

Driving a Motor with Arduino

Last Thursday Jakob & I broke out the Arduino to see if we could drive a motor with it. The issue - we're running a high torque motor that draws around 40mA, and the Arduino can only handle 20mA. It's also a Duemilanove model, so the maximum power output is 5V--not enough for the motor if we wanted it to move with any speed, it was enough h0wever, to drive the gate of a MOSFET and separate the control board and motor circuit. Got some tips from my friend Matt, a mechtraonics TA, and borrowed a MOSFET and pull-down resistor to do the job. Initially used a 9V battery to drive the motor and turned it ON and OFF with a button switch (later to be replaced by the EEG input).

I used two digital pins, one as an output to drive the gate and another as an input from the button switch. Here is a photo of the setup, and it worked!
Only a few more things before we get mind control going...

The Purge

Finally, the quarter is drawing to a close and I am nearly done with regurgitating my half digested thoughts into some kind of communicable form. This is my first experience of the academic quarter system (we don't have such a thing in Australia) and so far I have decided that it is something akin to being a goose stuffed for academic pâté.

Which segues neatly into the work that I have produced for my art project. Entitled The Purge, the work consists of a toasting oven that spews out white foaming soap. Placed on a pedestal that has been clad in kitchen flooring vinyl and accompanied by a video of a the same burnt out toasting oven smoking against a lush backdrop of leaves, The Purge, is designed to reference the dometsic space of consumption and cleanliness and the aesthetic of 'the end' that is so central to American cultural mythology, particularly in this time of economic collapse.

The making of the installation involved getting on top of a host of things that I had never done before in a fairly short period of time. It was a crazy couple of weeks over the summer break leading up to the Devil-May-Care exhibition that opened on the 12th of January, where the work was premiered. One of the things that I found the hardest to figure out was a good system for restocking the soap (hidden in the pedestal) and how to get the consistency right so that it didn't just run everywhere. I ended up adding large amounts of laxative powder (a readily available source of polyethylene glycol) to make the soap foam, which I thought was appropriate given the subject and title of the show.

I am looking forward to have an opportunity to fix it up a little for the next run. Below are some images of the work installed in the Devil-May-Care exhibition.

update

Hey Blog,

Sorry to be out of action for a while. I've been working on a lot of things involving art/writing, and attempting to bridge the gap between the two in different ways. One way is through comics/graphic noveling, so I have a one-page strip here that's an autobiography of sorts. Each panel is a haiku.

I am working on a few larger things, one of which is also below. I am putting a lot of focus into my sketchbooks because that's where I feel I have been able to unify words and images most successfully and with the most interesting results. I have included some samples from my sketchbooks here.

Oglesby Progress 2/23

We (Jason, Jimmy and Kiran) have been spending the past month ramping up production on our of our exhibits, Twinkly Lights. Below are some pictures of us splicing and soldering wires, resistors, LEDs and magnet switches for the light array we're planning on building.

12 piece fashion collection

Here are just some pics of my collection so far:

Photos from Chile and California

While I was abroad in Chile, I was inspired by the diverse, beautiful landscapes in front of me and it made me wonder if Chile is unique in this regard, or if I have just come to overlook the natural beauty that is in front of me everyday. When you are abroad, you are taken out of your element and everything you do and everything you see is isolated in your mind as something extraordinary and unique. However, while I was in Chile, I kept being told that Chile and California are much more similar that I realize. So I decided to find out for myself. Since I have been back, I have been traveling around California and exploring the many landscapes that exist right here that up until now I never really took the time to absorb. Everyone has seen the Golden Gate Bridge, but how often do you sit there, look out on to the bay, close your eyes and feel the breeze hit your skin, open your eyes and see the monumental structure in front of you, and finally allow yourself to feel connected to this moment in some sort of way.

Especially at Stanford, we do not allow ourselves to take the time to stop, breathe, and open our eyes and just simply allow ourselves to be consumed by the beauty around us. This beauty comes in all forms, from deserts, to cities, to graffiti, to oceans, to mountain ranges and so forth. It is everywhere and it has been a life changing process, learning how to slow down in order to discover something magical.

Mirror Mirror

Our project entitled Mirror Mirror is going very well. We collected more than 20 monologues from the community about body image. We have cast more than 30 actors (some are double-cast) and have 6 directors rehearsing the monologues with our performers. Tickets have gone “on sale” although tickets are free and they can be reserved by e-mailing stanfordmirrormirror@gmail.com. We are already reserving lots of tickets so we are very excited. Performances are Friday February 26th 7pm and 9pm and Saturday February 27^th 7pm and 9pm at the Nitery Theatre. We also plan to perform in more than a dozen dorms the week leading up to the project, during National Eating Disorder Awareness Week, and we are currently scheduling performances with PHEs in dorms.

Right now the things we are working on are:

1. Getting financial co-sponsorships from campus organizations so that we have enough funding to print our posters.

2. Collecting information for the program

3. Designating our House Manager and Front of House Staff

4. Getting ready for our first all-cast rehearsal on February 20^th, with costumes

5. Publicizing the show

6. Selecting and contacting people to appear on our post-show discussion panels

We’re so grateful and excited to have an Arts Grant!!

Amanda

Salut,

I've been experimenting with many aspects of my

project in the last month or two in Paris. It's been fascinating tracking down the exact street corners and angles that Eugène Atget stood almost 100 years ago. I'm learning so much about Paris, let alone this photographer.

As I lack a digital camera and can't really find one where I'm staying, I will try to illustrate my progress with a few thoughts. I have completed one of my photo/painting/multimedia projects and experimented with a few others. I have decided to make frames for all of my pieces with "found objects" that I collect from each Parisian site - tickets, records, posters, or just ideas for colors and shapes and lines. I will most likely build the frames for each over spring break, as transporting rigid pieces is a problem.

To visualize one of my pieces: imagine a combination of the below two elements, with the pen and ink drawn directly into the photograph, and lots of other randomness occurring in the sky behind the tower of the church (St. Etienne du Mont).

I am hopeful about how creative my project is getting. I have never worked in anything but pure oil paint, and this is a challenging and refreshing change. Warm wishes from where I'm sitting, in a tiny café sipping a café crème in the heart of Montmartre!

Bisouxxx

Sasha

Painting Photographs

An update:

I've been photographing a storm and making large fiber-based prints. All is progressing smoothly, and my main challenge at the moment is to develop all the film I've shot. Luckily the days aren't too nice yet so I don't mind spending 4 hours at a time in the dark room. I'm working mostly with large images (so large in fact that most can't be fully scanned in on this scanner), and I've had the privilege of shooting with a view camera in addition to my 35mm, so some of the prints are deliciously detailed. Here's an example of a view-camera negative:


The process of adding color to black and white is really interesting because I'm finding that each time it's really difficult to break the simplicity of the b&w image, but the added layers of tones, accents, and textures are well worth it. Here are some examples of colored prints.



























Looking forward to making more!

Prototyping

Our team is in the midst of prototyping our exhibits before we shift into full-blown building mode. Below are pictures of prototype pastes/gels for our Squeeze Tube piece, and a miniature array of our Twinkly lights experience.

We've been playing around with a variety of materials and construction styles, and we currently have proof-of-concepts for 5 of our pieces.

Last weekend we also got two HUGE boxes of used disposable cameras which we'll use in our Flash Explosion exhibit. We'll be spending some time with the camera circuit boards, and keep you all updated (provided we don't shock ourselves too badly).

"Undone": Progress on our Film

Hey guys. Nicole here. Yun and I are in pre-production, trying to secure the different aspects of our film that need to fall into place before we actually start shooting, which will hopefully take place in a week. Things seem to be slowly but promisingly coming together. Thanks to some back-and-forth skyping between China and NY we managed to write our script over winter vacation. We've since finalized it, and have been devoting our energies to casting, storyboarding, figuring out crew and shooting locations, etc. As far as the visual arts element of our project is concerned, I've been working on some sculptures that will be incorporated into the film as props.

As we move forward, Yun has been sharing many film-experience pearls of wisdom with me, a film-making neophyte (it's so incredible to collaborate with someone whose artistic vision you really trust!). So far I've found the process of getting this thing off the ground totally all-consuming/rewarding/terrifying. Both Yun and I are excited to move on to the filming stage to remind ourselves what all of this planning and preparation has been for.

As you can see, I've included some images of the sculpture-props I've made.

G-mail chatting it up

Hi!

My project has been quite the process! I didn't expect it so time-consuming, but nor so fulfilling. I'm reaching over 100 pages on my novella, which is in gmail-chat format. I still have to add more stuff, but I'm hoping to minimize it so it won't be such a challenge to bind...

But overall, my project is tracking two Asian American high school seniors in Southern California (2008-09) through their college application process and their navigation of senior year--you know, that year with the drama, activities, and anticipation of where one would be going to school next year.

To get more perspectives on the college application process, particularly with a emphasis on Asian Americans, I send Facebook/ e-mail/ and one-on-one interviews with Asian American high school seniors or those recently graduated (college freshman/ sophomores). There was an impressive response and interest in the subject. I noticed that there was a significant disparity between perspectives of the college application among different backgrounds, but a unifying connection was--stress!

I hope I do the stories justice! Here's a small excerpt (formatting changed from the copy and paste...)

from:
Amy Nguyen xXaznprinxessXx@gmail.com to Gabrielle Chen gwchaing@gmail.com
date:
Wed, Nov 5, 2008 at 7:42 PM
subject:
Chat with Gabrielle
mailed-by:
gmail.com


7:26 PM Gabrielle: :I
me: oh math crap.
7:27 PM Gabrielle: ?
me: i suck at calc
Garbrielle: i just cracked open the book. The tutor is like blah blah blah. Don’t understand shit.
________________________________________ 5 minutes
7:33 PM me: ughh
7:37 PM Gabrielle: garble garble
me: mumble mumble
natasha bedingfield - the one that got away <3
me: youtubingngnggg
7:38 PM me: :) the chorus
7:40 PM my dad is being a dickhead.
he blocked youtube on my computer
Gabrielle: ....
why? College app season? x)
me: 'cause he's an ass ?
he thinks he's a god by controlling what i can and can't see
7:41 PM or whether or not i can even use the net
7:42 PM Gabrielle: D:
7:43 PM me: i'm actually trying to do the online quiz for calc like a good little kid. XD
Gabrielle: ah!
i should do that
okay, i'm going to let us all go
hm
me: you reminded me by doing im-ing me
Gabrielle: the mix is better, i think, than the original?
me: yeah dancy one right ? cya later….at math.

Comic book- brainstorming, panelling, sketching.

Hello!

Here are some of the finished drawings of my comic book which I'd done last quarter. I've finished writing the story during winter break, when I was in UK. Currently, most of my stuff are still in sketches and panels; yet to be inked. I need to get more work done by this weekend!　がんばつて! By the way, my style is pretty manga-ish =)



Rainforest


Beginning


Classroom scene

Now that I've shown a preview of my work, I'll write a little bit about how this project first surfaced. It all started in Fall 09-10 (last semester). I took the class ARTSTU 14A: Drawing Comics for Non-Majors with Juan. I've always liked reading manga since I was young and I do draw some fan arts and bits of sketches every now and then. However, I've never really found the time to produce a proper comic book. I've been reading a lot of "drawing manga books" but until I took this class, I've never done any inking, paneling, character design, story boarding, etc. Juan was simply amazing, allowing us the freedom to produce whatever comics that we want for the class's assignment (yes even abstract comics!).

And with this grant (which I'm very grateful for as materials and printing are very expensive), I am planning to expand my comic book to 20-30 pages. Most of it will be in black and white but there will be some pages which will be colored. I'll be using mixed media: markers, pens, water color pencils, acrylics. All of my work will be hand drawn and I'll only be using Photoshop for touch ups and maybe some effects.

Till next time,

Cheers!

Mei Yueh

Beginnings

I had the opportunity to break-in the soles of my feet and dance during the winter break while I was home in Boston. (nice way to stay warm!) I took classes in Flamenco, Ethno-Hatian dance, American Tribal Style belly dance, Tribal Fusion belly dance, and Middle Eastern dance. Unfortunately I was never able to take classes in Kathak nor Tahitian dance as I had planned; it was really difficult to get in touch with dance instructors and schedule classes during the winter holiday.

Through my experience thus far I have had the opportunity to reassess and reignite my creative development as a dancer. There were many more moments than I expected where I found myself hitting some walls: Are there limitations that came with a dance’s expectations, rules, and etiquette? Will different aspects of dances contradict each other? Can a fusion/collaboration be created while keeping intact the integrity and authenticity of the individual dances?


I attended a lecture at the beginning of my break in Boston titled: “The History of Belly Dance: From the Sacred to the Profane.” It was presented by Naraya of Vadalna Tribal Dance Co. based in Boston. Naraya is absolutely amazing, she is not only the founder and artistic director of Vadalna but she is also a wife, mother, and Ph.D candidate at Brandeis in the field of Anthropology. Her lecture peeled away layers of hidden history. Belly dance is a product of creative imagination and it continually changes with what the dancer want to take away from it and give of it. But the beginning of “belly dance” is not exactly clean and clear cut. Its origins derive from profane paintings of women in which explorers claimed danced for men in North African and Middle Eastern countries in which they had explored and eventually colonized. The idea of belly dancers were further explored at Chicago’s world’s fair where Middle Eastern culture was exploited, misrepresented. Colonialism, exploitation, male dominated sexual desires drove the thoughts that began the ideas behind “belly dance.” Even today belly dance does not get the respect it deserves from general audiences despite the evolution it has seen. As much as dancing has been an outlet for artistic expression it has also been a means to speak my mind and demonstrate my power as a being and as a woman.

I’m in the process right now searching for music and creating the troupe and solo choreographies for Arts Affair in the spring. I talked to the ladies I teach on the weekends and we may do a rehearsal performance for Stern Hall in a common space in front of the dining hall if we can get permission to do so before spring break.

progress!

Hey ho. Here's some paintings I've finished.... trying to get more focused on exactly what I'm doing, I think I'm going to include my whole moleskine sketchbook since I just finished one and have begun another. Grappling with subject matter since I want to move away from portraiture, or at least direct my work with some kind of bent. I have enjoyed shifting styles, which wasn't entirely intentional for any of these, but it just turns out that I get restless doing one thing for too long. Undecided as to whether any of these is particularly more successful than the others. Though they do look cool sort of hanging out together, like a painting party. Not really a lively one, however.

Overall it appears that I am sort of groping around. But I am getting things done... I have a lot of smaller digital pieces and sketches that I'm not sure what to do with. Here are a few..

Cheers!