steph bailis

preparing for crits coming up

stephbailis11 — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 23:17:05 +0000

Finally getting things to come together. Things still need to be changed, but as suggested I have got the basic functioning of my piece going. All the “inside” as I like to call it is working smoothly. Just a few changes to the code and next figuring out the final aesthetics of the piece. I need to get more pieces glass-blown by Kent and I have finally found the solution to my conductive surface problem! CONDUCTIVE COPPER PAINT!! It was sitting behind the counter at active surplus and its used to fix guitars or something like that but its conductive, it’s paint and it’s exactly what I need. For now I’ll be using just regular glass jars/aluminum tape. I also need to change how my piece is hung because I’m not feeling the clear plexiglass right now.

the work continues…

stephbailis11 — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 23:12:36 +0000

There’s been a few issues with the sensor acting up. It started happening when I changed the circuit board. Here are some pictures of the new board. Nothing to exciting. Just the usual process work

the FINAL shape

stephbailis11 — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 11:35:15 +0000

one of the most valuable feedback I received from the critique in December was that the round organic bubbles that I had glass blown were too boring as a shape. There needed to be something different about them to add interest. I did agree with this, that they were somewhat boring and I also agreed with the fact that they looked like christmas ornaments. (This could be because it was around the time of christmas, but regardless, the shape needed to be changed. Over the break I thought about different possible shapes and I spoke with Kent, the glassblower about possible shapes he could create for me. The main thing that I requested was that it be round at the base. This is because I wanted an organic shape to give the aesthetics of a bubble.

Now that I am implementing a touch sensor to my piece, I have to consider what would invite people to come and touch the glass and how on earth am I going to attach a conductive surface to the glass. In order to encourage people to touch the glass, Kathleen suggested I just give the piece a literal title, which is definitely one solution, but I seriously need to find a conductive surface that works because the wires that I’m using now are just not working. I would use conductive aluminum tape, except for the fact that it looks REALLY tacky and just plain bad.

Here’s a picture of the shape (ignore the wires, those have got to go)

a bit of sensor testing

stephbailis11 — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:24:57 +0000

Just a bit of testing done with the qtt113 capacitive touch sensor. It’s attached to conductive aluminum tape which has been placed on the glass container. When activated, the sensor, changes the RGB LED from blue to red. This is still the very beginnings, but at least the arduino, sensor and LED are communicating properly.

new year, new goals

stephbailis11 — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 20:14:09 +0000

After meeting with Steve and Priam today and discussing the next few steps in continuing with the process of my project, I was introduced to the idea of having my hanging “light bubbles” as touch sensors. In order to do this I would have to use a special chip (QT113). I’m not sure exactly if I’m going to go down this route but it’s definitely something that would add a level of interest to my project. Over the break I was thinking of ways to make my piece interactive and this would definitely solve that problem.

FINAL PROPOSAL!

stephbailis11 — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 13:49:06 +0000

proposalFINAL <– link to the pdf file of my final proposal.

just a few recent photos

stephbailis11 — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 06:05:13 +0000

These are just a few of the recent photos from the lastest experimentations I have been doing. The glass bubble was glass blown, measuring about 60mm in diameter. Inside is the RGB led that I have been testing with before. There have been a few changes since the last proposal which I will highlight and go into more detail for the next proposal. I also have new video documentation as well that I will post soon.

project proposal

stephbailis11 — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:53:01 +0000

Here is a copy of my project proposal

the possibility of glass blowing

stephbailis11 — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:05:47 +0000

Last thursday, I went over to toronto art glass where I met with the manager and asked about the possibility of either:

having her cut my lightbulbs seeing as their studio is equipped with diamond blades which would make the whole process a whole lot easier as well as having a nicer finish to the edge of the cut glass
having someone blow the glass to meet the sort of “look” that I would like my little “fishbowl/bubble/ornament” spheres to have.

After speaking with the manager, and later on saturday with the glassblower, I’m leaning toward option two, because it just seams at the moment to have a little bit of extra benefits. What I discussed with Kent, the glass blower, was that if I went for a lesson, he would be able to show me in probaly two to three hours how to make my bubbles, which would even be able to have a hook attached to it (which would make it a lot easier to hang later on) It would also allow me to have bubbles of different sizes, which I think would add interest to the piece, because it wouldn’t be so repetitive, and less “christmas lights-ish” He also mentioned that it would be possible to blow the glass into a bubble shape, insert the LED into the bubble, and then fill it up with mineral oil and close it all up. (definitely going to need to look more into this if its a possibility, because right now it just seems a little crazy, but interesting as an option!) Also, last reason, it would be kinda cool to learn glassblowing. Studio time costs 10$ an hour, and I was told I would probably be able to make around 3 bubbles in an hour, so this could work out. I’m meeting with Kent again on tuesday afternoon to further discuss these options.

RGB LED testing

stephbailis11 — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:51:52 +0000

After uploading the previous code to the Arduino and RGB LED, this was the outcome. The LED is gradually changing colours as the values for Red, Green and Blue changes.