Poetic Science Fair at Silent Barn = Bushwick Community Fun++

These Images are from the School for Poetic Computation's "Poetic Science Fair" at the Silent Barn in Bushwick, Brooklyn from Sunday November 12th. We put workshops together including: Code Poetry, Binary Card Games, LED Wearables, Drawing Robots, and Neighborhood Sound Mapping.  These free workshops engaged a variety of ages with hands on and conceptual learning about electronics and computing.  Below is the comic I made with Taeyoon Choi to support students in the Drawing Robots workshop.  Thanks to Alexandra and the whole crew at Silent Barn for facilitating this event. Thanks for Taeyoon Choi for being the head organizer from the sfpc end.

page 1 (by me)

page 2 by Taeyoon

The Internet of Demanding Things

This week's topic for the School For Poetic Computation's Critical Theory Class is the "Internet of Things" known affectionately as Iot.  I decided to focus on the idea that, in may unpredictable ways, the Internet of Things will make our lives more complicated by creating dependencies on certain telecommunication interactions with the devices in our homes. 

The device I've been working on requires the owner to tweet at it within a specified period of time or its health will slowly decline.  If its health reaches zero, a relay will deliver a lethal voltage to the control electronics.  When the lethal voltage is applied a red liquid will also be released indicating that the device is indeed dead.  

The owner will know how much life the device has remaining by locally watching the LED bar-graph mounted on its back, or by following the device on twitter to receive its hourly health tweets.

Each time the owner tweets the word FEED @resist_death, the device regains five bars of energy.  If the owner decides to punish the device, the word IGNORE can tweeted @resist_death and five bars of energy will be deducted.  The life of the device is calculated and updated every hour.

Progress: All basic communication structures and bar-graph working.
To do: Work out "death sequence".  Design and make "skin." Final Assembly.

Prototyped Electronics

Concept Drawing

@resist_death twitter feed

Working with Particle Systems

@sfpc we've been working with particle systems using openFrameworks.  Here's some short video documentation of my studies:

Test Copy of "SIT PLEASE" Graphic Novel Sent to Press!

Using Blurb for for test copy of Sit Please.  Should be in hand by November 3rd!  Progress!

Try My PuzzleScript Game

The first MATURE rated PuzzleScript game:
http://www.puzzlescript.net/play.html?p=91738939e15e393acd70

PG Version:
http://www.puzzlescript.net/play.html?p=e5ab4b2a6ffbb36db70c

OpenFrameworks Kinect V2 Workshop with Andrew McWilliams

Andrew McWilliams founder of the Hardware Hacklab led a super workshop @SFPC_school on how to get the Kinect V2 sensor to work on a Mac computer in OpenFrameworks.
All one needs to know is right here! : http://www.jahya.net/blog/

My learning tool for 8-bit binary numbers

Created this today in @ sfpc_school:

Each part of the stomach represents one of the 8 binary positions.  Each place starts as a 0.  Start with a number and follow the instructions to find out the binary value.

As you follow the path of digestion you determine where the ONES fall and place food in each stomach cavity.  Here is 175 in binary: 10101111.

As of Tomorrow: Back to School for 10 Weeks

http://sfpc.io/

Listen to this: Mike's Femur = Semi-Improvisational-Electronic-Guitar-Noisy-Ambient-Recordings

Mike Glenn and I are proud to finally share some recordings from our weekly rock, noise and drone sessions. These semi-improvisational live recordings from our practice space in the Tenderloin. Recorded between 2012 and 2014 and slightly mixed at Mike's place in the Sunset.  All tracks are free for download on soundcloud.

Mike Glenn: Bass, Keyboard, Drums 
Andrew Kleindolph: Keyboard, Guitars

Interactive Creative Code Bonanza @GAFFTA last night! Brilliant work @kildall @salvagione

Scott Kildall's 3D printed visualizations of San Francisco's unseen water projects.

Air quality visualization by Taurin Barrera, a recent Mills Grad.  I always have a soft spot for Mills Alumni!

Sounds in the Mission by Kirstin Henry

A great night and so cool to see the amazing new space that GAFFTA has for at least 10 years!!

Thanks @kildall for the AutoDesk Instructables residency tour!

A few images from my visit to the dream shops at AutoDesk Instructables!  My friend Scott Kildall is doing amazing work there!  

5 axis CNC router

Waterjet

Beautiful Lathe

Metal Laser Cutter

Horizontal Band Saw

A League of Laser Cutters and 3D printers

Nice Organization System!

Controllable Giant Eyes

11-Axis Milling Machine?

It was a home for cars, now it's full of beautiful...

A former Tesla dealership in Menlo Park is now full of beautiful pieces by Tara Donovan.  Nice work @PaceGallery

Another Great Summer Class: Digital Fabrication!

In the 2nd week of CCA's summer formations program, a small group of students from CCA and beyond worked on generative architectural studies using Rhino and Grasshopper.  Each project was designed to tile together to create a larger collaborative pattern.  Each tile used a different digital fabrication process including: laser cutting, CNC routing and 3D printing. Thanks to Adam Marcus for all the guidance.

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Keith and Kiki lay out the group's piece on Friday afternoon.

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Cutting curved paths with the CNC router.

Breaking a solid form into 100 or more laser-cut slotted pieces.

My end of the week project collection.NCC

Parametric Modeling at CCA

I just finished a exciting parametric modeling class through CCA's summer formations program. In just 5 days, the whole group produced some amazing parametric studies using Rhino and Grasshopper.  Thanks to Adam Marcus for all the guidance.

Drawing using boolean methods.

Study on contours and line divisions.

Various student works presented on the final day.

Grasshopper code

The Playground in Santhiou Mame Gor is Complete!

Final Day celebration outside the school

Thank you to all the hard work of the LWHS and Drew students for helping to design and build this playground for Santhiou Mame Gor.  Extra special thank you @Youssou Fall for doing so much design and prep work.  The playground is a hit!

Second Solar Suitcase Installation

I worked with Katarina Cusin and LWHS student Cameron Rosen to install a 2nd WeCareSolar suitcase in the remote village of Nguniene, Senegal.  Cameron and I performed the install, and Katarina delivered the training.  During the training, the staff informed us that they deliver babies for a whopping 25 villages!  As with the previous install, we were unable to drill into the roof so we had to get inventive. The hospital gave us an old steel bed frame and we used metal zip ties to attach the panels to the frame.  Let's hope this device makes for many happy babies!

Patient Check-in

The hospital keeps all sorts of friends on campus.

They had a ladder!

Katarina explains the features of the suitcase

The installation crew

Successful First Solar Suitcase Installation

We installed our first WeCareSolar suitcase at the Poste de Sante Dediender, about 10 minutes from the village of Santhiou Mame Gor, Senegal.  This clinic is heavily used and sometimes has doctors delivering babies by candlelight!  They were very excited to have the included super-bright LED lights and rechargeable headlamps for upcoming deliveries. 

Four students (Zack, Kyle, Long-Long, and August) helped with the installation.  Katarina Cusin and I worked together on training the staff how to use the unit.  Daouda Camara helped to translate the instructions to Wolof.  We couldn't drill into the roof due to suspected asbestos so we built a wood framework for the solar panels and attached everything to cinder blocks (which were already on the roof).  

Check out the candle in the window!

A Saturday Afternoon with "We Care Solar"

A generous donation, from LWHS Parent Brad Rock, has connected the Lick/Drew Senegal Trip with the Berkeley-based NGO, We Care Solar.  On Saturday afternoon students learned about the solar suitcase's lighting and charging abilities, as well as how to install the units and properly train local health workers.  We'll be installing 3 of these units on the upcoming trip! 

Trying out the LED lights.  Very bright at only about 2 watts each.

Installation exercise.

Hal Aronson and Laura Stachel have an amazingly well designed and engineered system.  It's very exciting to make this connection and to be able to work with such a high quality device. Find out more about We Care Solar.  We'll post updates on the installation from the field.  Look for them on the LWHS/Drew trip blog.