Second Presentation and Preparing for Making the Final Machine!

Here is my second presentation explaining how far I've gotten with making the final piece for this module.

Starting with the title slide for obvious reasons, the second slide shows what I have completed up to two days ago and then goes on to explain my inspirations and further research and then how I am going to do it.

The plan is to create this in Room 108 in Scott, starting with the main drum machine first and then building the extra bits around it.

The theme is also going to be a tongue in cheek styled science experiment which will consist of different cameras filming the piece as it's runs through.

The examples shown are those from my previous post showing the main drum machine pieces I made over Christmas and finally I am thinking of exhibiting this piece as a stand alone piece on a TV in the main exhibition area.

The TV will be turned on by a smaller marble run which the viewer will set off themselves when they wish to view the video.

The presentation itself went well except I couldn't show the videos due to not taking my hard drive with the original files along with me, but still all went well and I just hope I can live up to the expectations people have for this style of work. :)

Other than that, all that is left to do now is to crack on and finish this piece so check back soon for the beginning of my final piece diary and making this project a (hopefully fully functional!) reality. :)

Take care,

Joe.

Prop Research and Final Designs/Layouts

Here, Before I show my second presentation is some prop research I did at the House of Marbles near Dartmoor:







I was thinking of using these for the rest of the piece to turn on things (for example the hamster in a wheel could turn a conveyor belt) and also for the overall look (e.g. the Eyeball Marbles looked awesome but were so expensive!).

But since these props were very expensive (don't get me started on how much the cherry picker lift was!) Here are my final designs which unfortunately do not include these props, but do have inspiration from them:





Firstly, i'm sorry about the poor quality, but if you can read it, you can see that I have decided against using the Sparkfun Arduino Starter Kit.

This is because I feel that firstly it would be very expensive to get all the starter kits etc. but secondly and most importantly the piece will gain more attention if the actions can be physically seen, e.g. the point is to show how ordinary things/actions can make music through purely physical contact.

And yes I do agree that the pads might work and give the piece a more professional feel but I personally believe it would look more impressive and realistic if the marbles hit a cd player “play” button rather than a pad which could easily have sound edited over it, thus making it more professional by being actually real!

By working in this way I can also relate more to my inspirations like Wallace and Gromit and Pee Wee's Breakfast Machine.

And secondly, these designs and layouts are how I am going to make the final piece, which I'm hoping to construct in Room 108 of Scott Building.
This room has a large window into the sound proof booth and I've had the idea to link back to my original inspiration of the Diet Coke and Mentos experiment and make my own piece a tongue in cheek styled experiment. I was thinking of putting the marble run in this room then filming through the glass and also from different angles as if it is a dangerous experiment and we had to use security cameras in fixed positions to film it, for fear of getting too close.

In these plans I have also included a list of props which I have collected and still need to include in my machine.

As you can see there is a lot of stuff going into this piece so fingers crossed I can pull it off successfully!

Here finally is my doodles and designs of how pieces could work. Most of my ideas start as drawings and from there I visually draw what will happen/I would like to happen and then I figure out how to make it a reality.

That's it for this post so check back soon for my second presentation and preparation for finally making this piece! :)

Take care,

Joe.