Hunting a Snark? | Rudi Knoops

I’ve been exploring  different scenario’s how to in a controlled way use randomness  in the large interactive wall for the museum installation. Randomness and control? Indeed,  there is always some kind (and degree) of  control when you integrate randomness.
I’ve been experimenting with the ‘Assembler’ code  from yaief.wordpress.com/2008/12/09/fun-with-flash-assembler/. One possible idea was to use treelike structures as background for each of the 12 elements of the installation:

influencing Flocking behaviour using image maps from Rudi Knoops on Vimeo.

This video shows the output of the Flash experiment where an influence map is used to control the flocking behaviour of particles. More specifically:  the particles line up in the form of the influence map used: a treelike structure.

When using 2 such ‘elements’ within one Flash project, it became immediately clear that this was too CPU intensive. Pity.

Conclusion: interesting technology, but not usable for the project I’m working on now.

Reading again about the Arduino Lilypad a few days ago, I started imagining what you could do with this miniature Physical Computing platform.

the LilyPad

Leah Buechley – developer  of the LilyPad – describes the LilyPad Arduino as “a set of sewable electronic components that let you build your own soft, interactive fashion.”
You could consider it a ‘subspecies’ within the Arduino range.
Leah Buechley has quite some tutorials/instructables on her website, and interesting examples like this one:

turn signal biking jacket

It might be an interesting link for the Social Textiles project, as the concept of the Lilypad centres on the combination of textiles  with a communication layer or a social layer (fed by sensor input). All depends of course on the conceptual framework wherein you intend to use this Physical Computing platform.

Another interesting idea would be to have a master student -  in  the context of his/her masters thesis in Communication & Multimedia Design – set up a project using the Arduino Lilypad, and develop a conceptual framework + prototype exploring possible uses of the Arduino Lilypad.

Might offer quite some possibilities indeed.