It's been a little quiet on the blog-front because we've been going nuts getting ready for the big festival with illutron - KulturSYDhavn (Culture in the South Harbor). It's the second year we're working in collaboration with the 10-years running Kulturhavn (Culture harbor), an amazing festival with tons of performances.
This year we decided on the theme "Remixing the Physical" and playing with some new 'elements': Sound, Fire, Water, Light, and Robots.
In this photo, we're experimenting with fire under water and throwing in some electricity for fun.
To read about some of the ongoing projects, check out: www.kultursydhavn.dk or http://illutron.dk/posts/322
Happy Geeking!
Jul 31, 2011
Playing with fire, again
Jul 16, 2011
The Touching Booth
As part of LABtoLAB in Nantes, France, we created the Touch Chair installation, part photo booth, part kissing booth, where two people sit across from each other and touch to take a photo.
Each time the photo is taken, half the screen changes so as to allow strange combinations of strangers or friends - or even two instances of the same person occur.
When one person touches the other, the camera takes a photo of one side of the scene - when another touch is 'felt' the other side of the photo is taken.
In this way, two photos make up the scene and people had fun playing with the possibilities, creating some amusing photos and finding some interesting ways to 'connect'.
May 21, 2011
Giant Printer in Rio de Janeiro!
GeekPhysical is in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil! We're using the giant printer, re-designed, and multiplied (we now have 3!) to print the hand prints of 1923 fans of Vasco da Gama, the Brazilian football team. We're at the São Januário stadium, where the football team "Club de Regatas Vasco da Gama" was founded on August 21, 1898 as a rowing club first, and a football later, in 1915. The team has 20.5 million supporters!
We're working with fantastic people from Espalhe, the Guerilla Marketing Company from São Paulo (http://www.blogdeguerrilha.com.br/) to create this project. Fans submit their handprints online via a Facebook app (http://www.facebook.com/PenaltyBR) where they hold their hand up to the webcam and their handprint is converted to a vector file which our printer can read. 1923 fan's hands will be chosen to be printed on the wall, and for a very significant reason. 1923 was the year of the team that was subject to racism, and in 1924, the president of the Vasco da Gama football team said NO to racism, holding up his hand, and turning down a championship game after he was asked to remove all black and poor players from his team. This was a huge movement for Brazil as shortly afterwards, the racist barriers set by the other teams were dropped. Story below. Penalty, the company sponsoring Vasco da Gama and the creator of sportswear has put out the newest shirt, featuring the hand from 1923. (http://www.football-shirts.co.uk/fans/vasco-da-gama-third-shirt-2011_10390)
We've been working for two months to prepare for this project, and will be covering it in a series of blog posts, photos and videos as we complete the project. More after the story...
The Story of Vasco da Gama and 1923:
In the 1920's Vasco da Gama was asked to ban players from the league that didn't comply with their aristocratic standards, primarily those who were black or poor. The high brow teams of the time, namely Fluminense, Flamengo and Botafogo had all done so and Vasco da Gama was pressured to do the same. The other teams even went so far as to disguise black players (in whom they recognized extraordinary talent) with rice powder, to hide their skin colour. Of course, this was sweated off during the match and players received the name “Pó de Arroz” (rice powder). The team of the year 1923 was subject to this racism and in 1924, the president of Vasco, José Augusto Prestes sent an answer to the Metropolitan Athletic Association who was pressuring him to ban black and poor players, in the form of "The Historic Answer", stating that he would rather not play the championship than comply with their racist rules. This letter was accompanied with the open hand symbol, saying no to racism. In a few years, the racism rules died out, and all players were invited once again. (As told to us by Espalhe and read from various parts of the internet and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CR_Vasco_da_Gama)
Building the printer:
We wrote a lot about building the printer here: http://geekphysical.blogspot.com/2011/02/giant-printer.html but this time the printer was re-designed, specifically to match the needs of our Brazil project, and in doing so, advancing the printer significantly. You can see the re-designed printer here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/geekphysical/sets/72157625827981787/with/5638276261/
In answering the question, "how is this technologically innovative?" for a press release, we came with the following answer, which may give some insight into the printer:
There are two parts to this answer: 1)The design of the printer itself and 2)The purpose of the printer.
1)The design of the printer:
The printer was designed considering that we would be travelling with it and that we might have to build more parts or repair parts so we only used cheap, readily available materials that could be easily purchased in any supply store, worldwide. We used plywood, wires, and spray paint guns that we knew we could find anywhere so we would save the trouble of having highly specialized, irreplaceable parts.
Also, the printer was designed using an iterative design process. Many prototypes were built, and with each new prototype, it was tested, problems were found, the prototype was re-built, re-printed on the CNC machine, re-assembled and re-tested. We went through many of these phases to find the best design that solved all the problems we encountered.
Software wise, each time the printer moves, there is a lot of math involved to predict where the printer needs to go next based on its ever-changing position. Furthermore, the software takes vector files and converts it to something the printer can understand. The reason we made this is a)there is nothing available to solve this problem, and b)this gives us more control over the printer and we can make our own special features such as timing or spraying and we can change it to be exactly what we need. This is also a prototype in development, and one we have worked hard to get good usability from.
2)The purpose of the printer:
The original idea was to use the printer to print very large areas like buildings, dams, or stadiums with a minimum hardware cost. We decided to use wires to limit the amount of hardware needed and it makes the printer lighter to transport. It's also more flexible to use since it is not an industrial component. In the old version, the motors needed to be in a specific spot and now the motors can be in a convenient location and the wires can run from suspension points and this should make the entire set up more flexible.
The idea behind the giant part of it is that we can write messages or images on walls using cheap paint, with an easy set up, and using readily available materials, moving directly from the design on the computer to the wall without having a print shore in between, and with a much lower cost since it can be any paint in the spray can.
More to come as we begin printing in Brazil! While you're waiting, check out some of the press coverage we've received (with Penalty and Espalhe), just hit "translate" if you're using Google Chrome, or use translate.google.com and translate the site.
http://www.ypsilon2.com/blog/publicidade/eu-abro-mao-penalty-vasco-e-a-luta-contra-o-racismo-que-teve-inicio-em-1924/
http://www.portaldapropaganda.com.br/portal/propaganda/24772-torcedores-sao-convocados-a-celebrar-marco-historico-do-futebol-brasileiro-na-fachada-do-estadio-de-sao-januario
http://ccsp.com.br/ultimas/noticia.php?id=52534
http://www.voxnews.com.br/dados_noticias.asp?CodNot=74702
http://www.institutotavola.com.br/author/admin/
http://marcabrasil.terra.com.br/vasco/html/2011/5/vasco_faz_campanha_para_lembrar_time_multirracial_de_1923_16279.html
Apr 9, 2011
Visiting STPLN in Malmo
We went to visit the new Stapelbäddsparken cultural space in Malmo - and to see 1scale1's new diggs there! http://www.stapelbaddsparken.se/
The place is fantastic with a huge upstairs dedicated to hosting events such as parties, performance, exhibition, or the like. Then downstairs is the mecca of geekhappiness, with a giant yet undecided room (although rumours of botwars have surfaced), a living room / cosy area, a projection space, a bike kitchen where people can fix, hack, or play with bikes which are either their own or some of the ones brought in by apartment owners when bikes are discarded; a workspace with tools, an office and a 'wet room'. It's a great space and we can't wait to see what happens with it!
Congrats to 1scale1 and STPLN! Looking forward to bring Everybody Knows Frank there to play!
Mar 13, 2011
Everybody Knows Frank
GeekPhysical, with Majken Overgaard, has created a network - a place for creative people who are inventors, thinkers, engineers, geeks, tinkerers, modders, conceptualists, designers, hackers, makers, artists, and all those creating experiences for others.
This network aims at bringing together all the people in the Öresund Region who work with technology in creative, innovative ways. We invite both creators and possible partners to participate.
The goal is to create discussions between creative, innovative people who can help each other, collaborate, form possible partnerships, introduce networks, and be introduced to the people they possibly want to partner up with.
We've had two events so far, our premier on the illutron barge, and our follow up event at Labitat, a great hackerspace with really fantastic people, thanks Labitat for a great time!
See a video of our first event here (also below):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ouo3yw6oIoY
Photos of both events here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/geekphysical/sets/72157626259337478/with/5524297722/
Read more at: www.everybodyknowsfrank.com/
Frank is on PODIO - Podio is really what we need to connect all these amazing creative people and get them collaborating on projects together. Check it out here: http://www.podio.com
Video from the last "Everybody Knows Frank":
Feb 17, 2011
Blow Tree by Fraser Ross
Okay, admittedly, I don't know if the name of the installation is blow-tree, I'm pretty sure it's not. (As it turns out, Breath of Life is the name, which is much nicer). But I found Fraser Ross' site (http://www.fraser-ross.com/) from another site about Icelandic design and a museum called Biologiska http://blog.icelanddesign.is/?p=581. Ross has made a tree that reminds me very much of our own Arbromorphic project, here, but his is fascinating in a beautiful way - you blow to activate the lights. Simple but charming, and we love it! Nice work Mr. Ross!
Feb 3, 2011
The Giant Printer
The Giant Printer was originally made in Komponent/LAB, a venue for electronic music and activity (http://komponent.dk/about.php) that Dzl was part of for 10 years. It was made for the Public Service Festival in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2006. (http://gallery.komponent.dk/albums/PUBLICSERVICE2004/DSCN2476.jpg). At the time, Komponent needed to print some large canvasses, 5 x 2.5 meters and had a limited budget. They needed a cheap printer with cheap ink. When they started to build the printer, their first idea was to build a giant X Y plotter (horizontal and vertical moving bar) but since there was very little time available they wanted to make the printer as simple as possible with as few mechanical parts as possible. They started to experiment and while measuring the length of the belts for the printer, realized they could raise and lower the print head by pulling on the belts. The hardware was simple, but the software proved to be a bit more difficult, they needed to solve the equation for the varying length of each belt as it moved.
After they made it, they were notified that it was similar to the Hektor printer which had been developed during the same time period. (http://www.hektor.ch/) They thought it was great that a common design solution was discovered by both parties, validating their own design choices.
Cue 2010 and 2011. We dug out the printer from storage to make the logo on the side of the illutron barge and then re-imagined it in 2011 for Venture Cup Software Final. Some of the updates included:
- Motors mounted on tripods so it's a portable system
- Machined wooden frame for motor and belt mounts on CNC
- Fresh wires
- Minor software updates
The software takes HPGL plotter file and allows you to scale the image so it fits on the printed area. The software also allows you to pause while printing, in case, for example, you need to refill the paint container. Finally, it also gives you the opportunity to start from where you left in case of fail, such was the case at Venture Cup where our compressor knocked off the USB port each time it started up. Luckily, the software remembered it's last point and was able to continue from there.
The original idea for the printer was a land art printer which could paint buildings, dams, or bridges, painting areas up to 100m x 50m large and the print head would be large enough to accommodate two people and barrels of paint (to fill up the paint container whenever it emptied). Perhaps we'll still pursue that - anyone have buildings that need funky designs?
The next upgrade is to update software so it is less 'wobbly' using acceleration and deceleration rather than abrupt stop and go which is currently employed.
Check out the video of the printer here:http://www.youtube.com/user/GeekPhysical#p/u/3/6C-wn3oKQr0 and the photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/29889578@N05/sets/72157625827981787/
The equation describing the lengths of the belts as a function of print head position. A and B are where the belts are anchored and P is the printer head. R0 and R1 indicate length of belts and can be determined by equations given. The length of the belt can be translated into how many steps a stepper motor has to turn by multiplying by a factor of Z.
After they made it, they were notified that it was similar to the Hektor printer which had been developed during the same time period. (http://www.hektor.ch/) They thought it was great that a common design solution was discovered by both parties, validating their own design choices.
Cue 2010 and 2011. We dug out the printer from storage to make the logo on the side of the illutron barge and then re-imagined it in 2011 for Venture Cup Software Final. Some of the updates included:
- Motors mounted on tripods so it's a portable system
- Machined wooden frame for motor and belt mounts on CNC
- Fresh wires
- Minor software updates
The software takes HPGL plotter file and allows you to scale the image so it fits on the printed area. The software also allows you to pause while printing, in case, for example, you need to refill the paint container. Finally, it also gives you the opportunity to start from where you left in case of fail, such was the case at Venture Cup where our compressor knocked off the USB port each time it started up. Luckily, the software remembered it's last point and was able to continue from there.
The original idea for the printer was a land art printer which could paint buildings, dams, or bridges, painting areas up to 100m x 50m large and the print head would be large enough to accommodate two people and barrels of paint (to fill up the paint container whenever it emptied). Perhaps we'll still pursue that - anyone have buildings that need funky designs?
The next upgrade is to update software so it is less 'wobbly' using acceleration and deceleration rather than abrupt stop and go which is currently employed.
Check out the video of the printer here:http://www.youtube.com/user/GeekPhysical#p/u/3/6C-wn3oKQr0 and the photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/29889578@N05/sets/72157625827981787/
The equation describing the lengths of the belts as a function of print head position. A and B are where the belts are anchored and P is the printer head. R0 and R1 indicate length of belts and can be determined by equations given. The length of the belt can be translated into how many steps a stepper motor has to turn by multiplying by a factor of Z.
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