Evaluation 

My degree Project ‘478’ is an installation I have purposely, made for viewers to be gradually distracted from their present anxious thoughts and feelings, as mentioned before I would prefer to have my audience be adults since they may be coming in after a stressful working day. I have created an environment, with soft moving sounds generated from the spinning disk and the wind chimes working alongside each other and swirly fluorescent colours that luminate the chimes as well. I do hope for the viewers to feel immersed. I also have the playful furry push buttons that could awaken the audience’s childlike nature’s and encourage them to further explore the art around; and if children are around too it is also inclusive for them to view. The name of my artwork is ‘478’ to give recognition to a famous breathing method used to regulate levels of high stress (Lin et al Kunze, 2020). I did not want to place too much detail in the name in the hopes that people are intrigued and ask questions about the name and in turn I would relay suggestive knowledge on the subject; this could aid making the show more talkative and in hand more interactive. Moreover, I hope my indirect approach does have a positive impact towards the viewers, this indirect approach as mentioned in my design proposal was also inspired from Commandeur and Starmach’s work on their vending machine installation, which in the end was intended to push more positive reinforcement for the local’s mental health (Commandeur et al Starmach, 2018). I have distributed my artwork online on YouTube alongside a tutorial with step-by-step instructions on how to create the installation, I will also have a physical exhibition and I will just need to consider my risks on my risk assessment form to make sure I create little to no hazards for the safety of everyone. Since I have mixed media to assemble.

 Overall, this project was very challenging for me, I did not experiment a lot with Arduinos prior to this project, but nevertheless I was motivated to create something interactive in a newer medium, I did initially plan on using conductive paint as a touch sensor but that failed, although I do wish to further practice with conductive paint for future projects since learning the process was fun and educative. I eventually, moved on to work with motors and I’ve also learnt more how to align code properly and understand why different sections like ‘functions and headers are so important.

 Even though I had a rough beginning, If I remain consistent and keep experimenting and learning from others in the same field of interest, I will create some great further projects in the future.

 

1)      Lin, Kunze , 2020 AromaCue - A Scent Toolkit To Cope with Stress using the 4-7-8 Breathing Method

2)      Commandeur , S 2020 Commandeur,Elizabeth. Starmach, Mark: Intangible Goods. 2018.Sydney

My final outcome,

The link below shows a tutorial of my process as I finished the installation by creating a spinning disk using a servo motor and arduino which spins the wind chime continuously.

https://youtu.be/BcIwfSHgwqs 

 

I did some more playing around of lights , I bought a few different types of LED's and experimented how they dispersed light in different fabrics and materials,

overall I preferred how the glass dome illuminated the blue light, which I created by placing fabric inside and I stitched the rest of the lights around the painting.

 SAATCHI gallery visit

I recently went to the saatchi gallery over the Easter holidays and saw this unstallation by

Anthony James named 'Square Roots,

I loved how the light was illuminated and the use of squares as a symbol. It was a confined but great piece of artwork, even my younger brother was interacting around it a lot and It inspired me to make something that can evoke that same reaction.

 Since I did say I want to create a calming environment , I thought placing a wind chime indoors would be interesting. So I did some research and discovered online a similar attempt using an arduino to move a wind chime in the absence of great wind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs_0LAAL6Rs&t=498s

House of Hacks ,2014. Hanging Wind Chimes Indoors - A simple Arduino project

 Halfway point regulation

Unfortunately, halfway through the project, I begun having difficulties with the relay, and as a result, I had to change most of my plan for the project.

Therefore, I will be using push LED's instead of conductive paint and will begin experimenting with the Arduino in a different way.

Alternatively I could use this method below with the paint although, I may not have enough time to assemble everything together.

The extra components needed are a 1kOhm resistor and a 0.01uF capacitor.  The circuit is powered by a single 9V battery, connected at the ground and 9V pins.

 From my last tutorial -needs expanding

It has been advised that I perhaps gather the A0 size medium, with plans on the arrangements of the 3D object. 

I later bought a canvas with estimated A0 measurements. Moreover, I have started making stockings and creating 3D elements on top, I have chosen materials that allow liquid to sink through easily like cotton, since I want the paint to sink through.

Also the canvas allows me to stitch wool inside more easily.

I plan on getting more permeable materials and mould more shapes with them.