Spontaneously a random and talented French guy whos name has sadly escaped me from Aalborg University asked for testing help for his soundscape project. A couple of friends and I were totally game. So he drove us out to the to the Mediology department of Aalborg university and non of us really knew what to expect.
We went in individually and we told to interact first an inteface on a computer where depending on where and how you moved the mouse would create a different tone and pitched noise. The second was a more physical approach, where we were made to wear a very mario looking hat and told to move up down, left or right the sensors depening on how high or how low you were. So you could dance your own music. Great afternoon.
Starting at the drawing board-
the brains behind the project.
Summer 2012, lots of festivals, a trip to Sri Lanka and lots a great shit went down. The short amount of time I did spend in Aalborg was spent on a grass chair project. This brilliant idea to make Tivoli Park a little more interesting for all ages was decided by the amazing Lenka, an amazingly positive girl,who thought she would give Aalborg something back before she left for new ventures. And this is precisely what she did.
She gathered a bunch of people together to create a project which she had wanted to put together for a while. Grass Furniture! Fantastic concept and something I have seen on my visits in the past to Berlin.
A lot of time an effort went into this project and it involved many stages and some hardcore dirt shovelling. There was a lot of planning involved and models made and constructed. After 'coming accross' some cardboard boxes in the rubbish the final mould was put together. This was put out onto the desired location and the shovelling commenced. It is an understatement to say how shocked I was at the amount of earth needed to fill out one of these things. Our northern european bodies were weltering in the sun. And the trips back and forth with a wheelbarrow, one spade, and the dustpan from a dustpan & brush set was ridiculous.
rummage bins for cardboard
finished template
several hours later
Sadly, when we planted the grass seeds, the chairs decided to randomly grow in some places and not others. The soil (earth) we used also contain a high percentage of sand and made it difficult for the structure to remain stable and not crumble like a Tesco economy cracker. But, despite obstacles, we had such a good time, and the chairs are still standing, granted with random patches of grass. But, the best part about this is that we had a laugh trying. I am personally interested to see if the grass seed will spread to the bare areas. And if the construction itself will withstand the weather.
OK, so well today I am off to the TFM & A event and I pretty siked. TFM & A is the UK's largest Multimedia Advertising and technology event. I am off with the company I have my internship with, SEO Desk, who will be exhibiting there. I will spend the next 3 days, filming documenting attending seminars, mingling with the pro's and who knows what else. Registration is free so if you like the sound of it and have spare time sign up. HERE
From the looks of it, I am going to be immersed into the most up-to-date innovations and I have a pass to 3 other events at the same day which deal with some form of Marketing/Advertising and technology.
I am particularly excited about visiting the Augmented Reality Experience and the 3D Section. And also the talk that will be given by Google's Director, Richard Robinson who will be chatting about The future of Digital. How exciting! This event is going to be a great place to meet inspiring and like-minded people and a great place to meet prospect clients and an opportunity to give this networking malarkey a go. I hope the next 3 days will be as manic as I can imagine and I really look forward to sleeping on Thursday.
Below is a little SEO desk video before the event. Big up the I-phone quality.
And as the boys in the office were quite amusing I made one more.
Did you ever think fashion and technology would be two words you used in the same sentence? Well if your like me the idea of your clothes making a noise is a pretty paradox concept read on. It is possible and it is happening! I now have had a hands on approach at combining the two.
Courtesy of Platform4 and talented individuals known as Edit Viser along with her co-project-partner Christian Skjødt, I was lucky enough to participate in a Soft Circuit Workshop which the duo held in October 2012 at Platform 4.
What are soft circuits? Basically electronic circuit boards that run through textiles. The first day started with us preparing a circuit board which looked a bit like this :
Image Edit Vizer & Christian Skjødt
Schematic for the Mini Synth
The workshop lasted 2 days and we learnt a variety of new skills; such as an introduction into basic circuiting, what type of conductive materials there are out there to use, sewing, felting and this equaled to us making a noisey squeeky 'musical interface.'
I soon learn't that I was the only participant that did not study Art & Technology at Aalborg University, and in comparison to others I was totally clueless! And my sewing skills were beyond questionable. Perhaps my favourite part of this was when I didn't know even what a Breadboard was. But this didn't matter in the slightest and the complicated stuff that looked evil at the beginning soon became bearable. I quickly learn't that this so called breadboard was the white rectangle thing you stuck components and wires in and just hoped you wouldn't blow an LED or burst a resistor. But, I quite liked the circuit board challenge, very much like a 3D puzzle.
Shove that there, stick this in there...basic circuiting. The sound changed depending on what type of resistor we were using. So it was all about trying, testing and so forth. We created pressure sensors, which to be honest were tricky little fuckers. They consisted of felt, some black conductive material and plastic foam, which acted to break the circuit. When the pressure sensor is squashed then the conductive material touches, completing the circuit. I also got to experiment with conductive paint, and I created a different pressure sensor which was connected the circuit when you bent it.
So basically I learnt how to created noise. Below is a random video that I put together from bits and bobs on my phone. It was great fun to 'jam' with other peoples circuit boards when we finished the workshop. Below is a bunch of pictures, some links to useful websites if soft circuits tickle your fancy and you want to know more. You can see more pictures on Platform 4's website.
The people organising the workshop we're working towards a project called Farm. Check out their video. Read more about workshop here.
These links were passed on from the workshop by Edit and Christian and are extremely worthwhile checking out if your interested:
Urban Gardening...is one of my new favourite hobbies. And as spring is approaching I need to start thinking about this years garden. Last spring I decided to set myself a challenge, this challenge was to create my own garden in the city. The coined term for this now is 'Urban Gardening'. I am lucky enough to have a balcony so in the spring I decided to get planting. My inspiration for this idea was purely sparked by going into the local 'Tiger' shop (cheap £ shop type thing-Danish style) and seeing the seeds and gardening stuff. Which just made me want to try. Typically being a student this prevented me from buying actual gardening equipment so then I knew I would just have to use what I had around me. This made it a lot more fun, not only was the challenge to turn my not so green fingers green, but also use totally un-garden equipment to do it.
So basically every-time I saw some type of container with a depth, I would collect it. It just so happens there's a lot of random useful crap around. People throw away some truly brilliant stuff.
First things first, what to plant first, how to start... find some soil. I used egg cartons and the boxes you find in supermarkets for grapes and mushrooms to create little greenhouses to start the little seeds lives. I just simply filled the bottom with soil, water slightly and poked a seed in with my fingers. After either a few days or a week these seedling began to grow, I then moved them into more appropriate housing. (bigger pots)
Tip: Painting the bottom parts of see through containers, prevent the roots from being burnt
And then just basically watered them when I remembered and spent any free time I had just moving things from pot to pot and coming up with new contraptions to make the most out of my space, whilst still keeping a balcony to be able to enjoy without plants being everywhere. I learnt so much from this experimental experience. I saw seedlings I had planted at the same time grow at different rates due solely to where I placed them. I knew sunlight makes a difference, but I was shocked at just how much.
I would also like to share with you my mutant carrot army, who tasted absolutely amazing, despite spending ages washing the dirt out of their little legs. I grew them in old buckets I found outside a hotel. I know growing vegetables needs space, but this is one thing I did not have so I chucked a bunch of carrot seeds in a bucket loaded with soil and hoped for the best. (tip: don't forget to punch holes at the bottom of any hole-less container so the roots don't rot.)
So what did I end up growing, I can make two lists here: successful and not successful.
Lets start with successful;
Radishes- (You can actually call me radish queen I feel like a radish expert)
Tomatoes
Bell Peppers
Carrots (cute small and mutated army, just how I like them)
Parsley
Variety of Lettuces
Runner Beans
Strawberries
herbs (except basil and rosemary, epic fail)
Not so successful, but its the attempt that counts
Sunflower (not taking responsibiliy for this one)
Lemon cucumbers
Gooseberry tree
As a proud city garden mummy, here's my video of my first pick of the season enjoy and get gardening. (no space is too small, unless you don't even have a window):
Radishes getting ready
Salad anyone?
Radishes getting ready for the outside world
In case you didn't guess-Strawberries
Beans
New purpose for old bottles
Getting there
Sunflower
Tomatoes, took forever to redden
Tip: pick em and leave them in the window sill
Did you ever think fashion and technology would be two words you used in the same sentence? Well if your like me the idea of your clothes making a noise is a pretty paradox concept read on. It is possible and it is happening! I now have had a hands on approach at combining the two.
I soon learn't that I was the only participant that did not study Art & Technology at Aalborg University, and in comparison to others I was totally clueless! And my sewing skills were beyond questionable. Perhaps my favourite part of this was when I didn't know even what a Breadboard was. But this didn't matter in the slightest and the complicated stuff that looked evil at the beginning soon became bearable. I quickly learn't that this so called breadboard was the white rectangle thing you stuck components and wires in and just hoped you wouldn't blow an LED or burst a resistor. But, I quite liked the circuit board challenge, very much like a 3D puzzle.
Shove that there, stick this in there...basic circuiting. The sound changed depending on what type of resistor we were using. So it was all about trying, testing and so forth. We created pressure sensors, which to be honest were tricky little fuckers. They consisted of felt, some black conductive material and plastic foam, which acted to break the circuit. When the pressure sensor is squashed then the conductive material touches, completing the circuit. I also got to experiment with conductive paint, and I created a different pressure sensor which was connected the circuit when you bent it.
I am lucky enough to have a balcony so in the spring I decided to get planting. My inspiration for this idea was purely sparked by going into the local 'Tiger' shop (cheap £ shop type thing-Danish style) and seeing the seeds and gardening stuff. Which just made me want to try. Typically being a student this prevented me from buying actual gardening equipment so then I knew I would just have to use what I had around me. This made it a lot more fun, not only was the challenge to turn my not so green fingers green, but also use totally un-garden equipment to do it.
So basically every-time I saw some type of container with a depth, I would collect it. It just so happens there's a lot of random useful crap around. People throw away some truly brilliant stuff.
