zero pressure

my post this week is being written on a wet, windy and warm sunday following yesterdays  first figment festival to happen in europe. a festival where i showed the re-imagined snee snaw.

the director of the silk mill development project had totally embraced what figment is and brought it to the uk and specifically to the silk mill.  yet another first for this historic site.

the re-imagined snee snaw caught the imagination of visitors and i saw numerous methods of playing on the snee snaw.

today as i reflect upon the work i have a sense of an evolution within the way it works to further enhance the experience.  it’s connected to something i wrestled on tuesday.

it wasn;t until i saw the work being fully realised and played with that what it was came into focus.

it’s been a very focussed week actually.  beginning on monday with the bare essentials to finish the work.

the week included making a structure to contextualise the led and some covers for he seats.  i think it’s been the first time on a sewing machine and i have to say with excellent guidance from staff at the silk mill really enjoyed myself.

there was a maker camp in the mill this week too.  i contributed to the camp in small ways and on the last day the children at the camp were let loose on the snee snaw to test it.

something as not mentioned about the snee snaw is that it runs off battery.

the original plan was to have the work outdoors.  with the weather being so changeable i ended up inside along with many of the other contributing artists.  part of the testing process was to ensure that i could run the work for 5 hours on battery.  the maker camp testing showed me that the led would only go for 4 hours.  when i considered this i remembered that i was driving the led at full power to get maximum light output for being outside.  with the news of being inside i made the connection to running the led at reduce brightness to maintain battery life.  i’m so happy to say i achieved this.

running the snee snaw yesterday was again a very informative process.  being with the work, playing with it again giving visual information for new players worked well and also being away from it let the really curious discover what happened with the work.

i’m looking forward to a little more headspace to be able to reflect about what happened yesterday and also about the entire residency as i’m soon going to be at the end sessation of it.

with this post i reach the deadline of the maker certificate programme and i hope that those of your reading it in connection with that have enjoyed reading and got something of the joy and pleasure at being a resident maker at the derby silk mill, the museum of making.  a place that has made many safe opportunities for me to throw myself into trying something new.

i look to the future and hope i can continue this relationship in some way …

pretty much carrying on from the last post made … once again i need to use pictures of what i’ve been doing so i can quickly document the last week.  a week in which i took a few days out to go to a funeral.

in the last week i’ve been working on the snee snaw , loose parts creation for steam tots, planning for maker camp and beginning my journey with microbit.

microbit is a microcontroller at the centre of an iniative centred around getting 11/12 year olds into programming and is backed by the bbc.  before the summer recess, the microbit was rolled out to year 7 students and it’s now available to buy.  the programming  is web browser based and the code can be loaded onto the microbit. microbit has a host of sensors and can connect to external sensors too.

after my workshop induction i have been engaged with a bandsaw cutting shapes from wood based on acrylic shapes cut on a laser cutter.

at todays update, review and reflect meeting i took along a small selection of loose parts and they proved very engaging for my colleagues around the table.

with chris’ tweet being picked up by kids in museums .

i also learnt this morning that the childrens museum in san fransico has picked up on steam tots via a maker ed hangout with chris and andrea of the silk mill and want to know more.  i’m quite liking this working internationally and getting the bus to the place that i work…

maker camp happens this week and we’ve done some really good planning for those taking part.

i’m going to be taking part as a resident maker / artist working on the snee snaw and now in this moment of calm reflection i’m really looking forward to the experience.  i have quite a lot of work left to do and earlier today i did get a little anxious about the time i have.  however … i do see that i can get a little precious and when i’m not wholly working on the snee snaw do get a little anxious.

i feel confident of finishing in time.

my snee snaw week in review …

have created some idents for the work

considered the led placement

worked on the programming to get the audio response working with the movements

and how the physical form of the work might be

for the next few days i have a makerspace in the museum where i can work with the components of the work and run tests and feedback results into the programming.

the figment festival is saturday 20th august and i’ll be showing the the snee snaw (re-imagined) at it.  figment is an international festival and so once again i’ll be traveling on the bus to work internationally.

i quite love my work at the moment.

this week has been time managing the priorities with the intention of completing everything in the time i have remaining.  it’s been a hard week as my sleep has been disrupted a little.

i’ve helped myself by mapping what i need to do.

part of what i need to do at the moment is be really time efficient.  thus the week review will be mostly in pictures :

project : maker bar

this project is about evolving how the makerspace in the museum known as the maker bar to become easier to engage with and diverse in its offering.

i’ve finished a board :

got the menu onto the maker bar :

both these involved working with other makers.

the new process i learnt was to veneer :

played with the image adding to screen thing inspired by the epidiascope:

during the open make added images to the screen in real time of makes made on the bar.  the visitors loved this !

project : steam tots

i have been inducted onto using the bandsaw.  this will be the maching i use to cut out the shapes for the loose parts play aspect of the project.  the induction consisted of making a number one.

project : figment festival : the snee snaw (re-imagined)

for this project i’ve been working hard at creating the programming to create the re-imagined snee snaw.  i’m finding that the new way of sensing movement has needed me to totally programme the work from scratch.  this is a surprise to me because when considering this project i thought i could simply use the existing patch.

we spent time reflecting and evaluating some of the projects that us the team of resident makers have been working on

my favourite image of the week

and best of all i really enjoyed myself during the saturday open make with fellow resident makers steve and stevie :)