A brief explanation of photosynthesis.
This plant is an Interactive audio sculpture. The leaves conceal a polyphonic optical theremin. Flashlights are used to play the instrument; the intensity of the light controls the pitch of 6 independent synthesizers. While the circuit used in this project will help students to understand analog oscillators, audio mixing, and logic gates, their grasp of photosynthesis may be sorely taxed.
Learn how the circuit works and make your own by following these instructions:
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Sonafolia 2010
The sonafolia are interactive audio installation sculptures. The tufts of the plants are suspended by springs and contain a small bell and piezo pickup mic. Below ground the signals are mixed and routed through an amplifier and reverb unit. When participants bop the plants they return a low, rumbling bass chime. All electronics were built with components salvaged from discarded e-waste.
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Instruments Series 2010
_The instruments series addresses issues of sustainability and was built with e-waste recovered from local roadsides and dumpsters. For most of us, these appliances enter and leave our lives as fully realized products. While they both enable and construct the social roles that we play, we have little direct connection to their production and so we often perceive them to be irreducible entities. We think of a goldfish, for example, as a singular sort of thing, one which comes to us as it should be and lives happily in its time. To consider new and curious uses for Mr. Flippers’ various parts is socially frowned upon. In the same way, we understand intuitively that a VCR is simply a VCR, obsolete and soon for the landfill. As consumers, we are well insulated from the production cycle and as a result we have become estranged with the everyday objects that surround us. Uncertain of how they work, how they are made, or even what they might be made of, we accept them with an air of suspicious mysticism and fall into a habit of deferring critical reasoning. It is my belief that this psychological barrier checks sustainable reform by fostering a cycle of dependency which assures us that solutions are bought and not made. The instruments were interventions; small acts of independence that reclaimed materials castoff by the consumer cycle and used them to create new, heartwarmingly useless machines. They, seek to demystify technology by provoking curiosity and rewarding it with an unexpected introduction to practical electronics.
Synesthephoner 2010
This instrument was designed to be strapped to the head of the listener and played with one or many standard remote controls. The device receives the IR data signals from the remotes and converts them to sound (a kind of prosthetic synesthesia.) In order to enhance the amusing social awkwardness of the interaction, the sensor's range was reduced to several inches; allowing many players to compete for the listener's attention so long as all of them stand at nose-distance.
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