Hello, my name is Myriam
Updates from May, 2009 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Yury Gitman
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Yury Gitman
project 1 – Things will never be the same again.
Things will never be the same again are unique modern candles.Made out of Wax and Leds, the light compositions imitating candles shivering are made upon command.Things will never be the same again from maryam aboukhater on Vimeo.
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Yury Gitman
project 2 – Maestro
Maestro is an instrument that plays electronic tones. The music is played by moving your hands in the air over sensors, and visualized in red light bulbs.By turning switches on and off, Maestro allows you to mix up to three different low to louder tones. You can also choose to leave Maestro play random tones by itself.Maestro from maryam aboukhater on Vimeo.
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Yury Gitman
Project 3 – The balloon Girl
The Balloon Girl is a costume prototype proposal to contemporary dancers Zack Winokur and Michelle Mola
Adding sensing experience and light effect to her original costume, the balloon girl is proposes a new way of dancing while enhancing the dancers' narrative.
The Balloon Girl from maryam aboukhater on Vimeo.
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Yury Gitman
Myriam – balloon girl final prototype + places I will submit this project
After implementing my circuit on the structure, I tried to put the fabric I found over it. I chose a kind of mesh that was transparent so that the dancer could see trough and at the same time tight enough to keep the lights shining inside. The thing is when I put the fabric over, the whole geometric aspect and grace of the structure disappeared, letting a massive balloon take over.The structure with the fabric would kill the dancer instead of valorizing her. At the same time, I liked the skeleton of the structure poorly fitting the dancer. It gave another dimension to the costume and the dancer was able to play with it, bending it around as if she wanted to get released from this "prison".I wanted to keep this feeling and give more narrative to it.But the bare boning with the circuit let show the Leds. The leds didn't have to be simple leds, they had to be light shining from the dancer.I then thought that I was naming my project the "Balloon girl", so why not putting real balloons in it?The dancer would be trapped in those balloons, and her loud breathing through the microphone would be her suffocating and trying to get out gracefully by twisting the structure.I chose white balloons, that would hide the leds to make their light glow.At the same time, I wanted her to fully play with the structure, and accompany her movement while dancing. This is why instead of putting the conductive thread on her corset, I chose to have conductive ribbons falling form the structure, and giving a more floating aspect. She would have to pull them to trigger the lights and to bend the structure over at the same time.
I wish to continue exploring how to integrate technology into dancing performances for my thesis next next year.I want to propose only this project to be funded or to be able to have a space to work at my best.I will submit toArt vs. Design competition -
Yury Gitman
Myriam – balloon girl structure progress
I made my circuit again on the Lily pad board, to be lighter and hidden in the costume.
Meanwhile, I rethought about the lights animation and disposition in the balloon.Only the Leds that visualises always her "breathing" should be on the top: they are permanent and softer. Then, as to accentuate something, the red and cold white Leds will be placed on each diagonal.I want each color to mark its own trace but at the same time to glow in all the balloon space.
I then added the fabric on to see the light intensity on it.Putting the fabric will be a hard task: the boning get distorted by the weight of the fabric. That's why I bought some kind of mesh that's at the same time light enough to be place on the boning and stretch enough to follow its curves.
While placing it, Sah and I found different possibilities of sewing it that would change the overall shape.For now, we just put the fabric on with pins. I don't want it to be sawn yet to be able to still work on the circuit and alter it.
When we put the fabric on and set the concept in the dark, the white "breathing" leds where soft and diffused enough. The other ones were not bright enough. We need to add some more.As well, the Leds need to be implemented in some fabric to be more diffused over the lines and not appear as they are.Here is a video. It is pretty dark but you can have a sense of the effect.For now, I m using 360 Leds not to have spots on the fabric, but I test the regular ones and I want to try making an animation using this spot that appears. -
Yury Gitman
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Yury Gitman
myriam – balloon girl structure
As a visualization of the dancer while performing, I had to review the light effects for my conceptMichelle has a microphone in her mouth in the end of the performance: the warm white Leds will be fading on and off with her breathing the whole time.Then, when she or Zack triggers the conductive spots on her bustier, cold white or red Leds will turn on or off. Their fading will visualize the x and the y axis of the accelerometer placed on Michelle.I started building the structure with the help of Sah,a fashion designer.I decided to focus on the balloon itself and not on on the rest of the costume. I want the structure to be adaptable for other shows.For this first prototype, I bought a simple white bra, boning and fabric to cover the boning so that we can saw it on the bra.
For now, I simply taped the arduino and breadboard on the back of the form. I want to test out the light and positions before programming it on the Lilypad.
I used white tape to integrate the Leds on the boning.
Balloon Girl test 1 from maryam aboukhater on Vimeo.
This is an overview of the concept. The code still needs to be improved.You can look at the code for now here.
Next steps:- put the fabric on the structure to see the light effect.- if needed, add more Leds.- build the circuit and program on the Lilypad. -
Yury Gitman
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Yury Gitman
Myriam – Balloon Girl prototypes
In the time frame we have, I don't have time to properly set up the microphones for the performance.
When I started prototyping the microphones, I realized it was much more complicated than I thought to have live sound with arduino.That's why I decided to concentrate on the Balloon Girl.As I said before, Michelle, the dancer, has a structure over her head. This structure will be covered with white fabric, and a diffused light will glow inside of it.The balloon girl is the representation of a mood, a visualization of a dance. She is given life by the dance and the lights shining within her.I want to experience how her dance and how dancing with Zack will evolve depending on the lights.Michelle will have on her corset three conductive fabrics, put on strategic dancing spots. Each fabric will trigger a different light color when it is pressed.
The balloon Girl will be an additional part of the performance already existing. The show is an evolving piece, and the dancers are interested in adding technology to give more expression and finding a new way of dancing.I started working on the code to see how the capacitance sensing was working.Here is a video of the sensing wires lighting three different lights.http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4312220&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1
Leds with capacitance sensing from maryam aboukhater on Vimeo.here is the codeNext steps:- build the balloon structure.- test the leds inside to see how many is needed and how to make them glow with a sense of life- find conductive fabric and sew it on the corset.- start experiencing with dancers -
Yury Gitman
Myriam – The sound of dancing – Prototypes
1. Role
The sound of dancing is an experiment to enhance the sounds of dancers as they are performing. The sounds become the music of the show, and a perpetual dialogue is built in live while the dancers dance on their own sounds.2. Look+Feel
I will be transforming the existing costumes of the performance to integrate the hardware in it.For Michelle, I will add fabric on top of the head structure as it was originally planned, and diffuse light in it. The light will fade in and out with the sound of her breathing, creating an organic balloon character for the play. The balloon will visualize her current state.
Some conductive paper will be added to her corset and to Zack's jacket, to be used as switches to turn the microphones on and off. They will be triggered by the dancing, and the performance would evolve around them.
The look+feel part is subject to change depending on the Role.
The microphones need to be tested out to figure out the most interesting part of the body to put them on.3. Role
I didn't figure out the role yet.
I want each dancer to have one arduino and two microphones.
Only Michelle will have and Led.Playing sound with arduino is harder than I thought it would be.
I found three solutions to make my project:
1. I can hook up a multiplexer, connected to amplifiers and microphones to have a good and loud sound. The multiplexer will turn microphones on or off depending on the value of the capacitive sensing.
I will use the mini amplifier LM386, but I don't know which multiplexer to use yet.2. I can use the Arduino Voice Shield, but it is mainly to record and play back sounds. It also has only one mic input. I could use a splitter but it will play both microphones at the same time. I need each microphone to be triggered seperately, with different switches.
3. I could make a switch system to be opened or closed depending on the value of the capacitive sensing. The microphones would be directly connected to the speakers, responding to the switch state.
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Yury Gitman
Myriam – the sound of dancing project (+blueprints)
The sound of dancing is an experiement to capture and enhance the sound of dancers while they are performing. Microphones will be integrated in their costumes and mouth, triggered my their dance and interaction.
The sound of dance is a team project with dancers Zack Winokur and Michelle Mola and their current team.
1. Zack Winokur and Michelle MolaYou can watch below their current performance, where in the end Michelle has a microphone in her mouth that display her breathing and other mouth sounds. The system not being stable enough, the you can hear as well the cables moving, which create an interesting sound.Zack and Michelle's perform with few music. It is the sound of their own dancing that makes the music.For this performance, they added the paper sheet Zack is tearing off of this jacket.They want their show to evolve and experiment new ways of dancing.2. The sound of danceHow to create new unheard sounds from their dancing?How to enhance their own movement to make music during their performance?How can this music be a whole part of the performance?And how this music will change and create new ways of performing?For this project, I will be adding material to the costumes, working with the costume designer for the integration of the circuit.
Pictures by Collin LaflecheIn the performance, Michelle is wearing a structure up her
shoulders. It was originally supposed to be covered with fabric to hide
her head, with her arms going out from holes. But the fabric wasn't
stable enough, so she kept only the structure for the show.I want to put back this fabric to pursue their idea of "Balloon girl".
In Michelle's structure, an Led would be on top to illuminate the hole balloon. The Led would fade on and off, visualizing her breath.For both Michelle and Zack, I want to use a conductive fabric that will be torn off during the performance. The fabric on, the microphone will be on. They will be turned off as the fabric is off.Some parts will be permanent, and used as switches for the dancers to turn on and off as they dance.They will turn on different microphones set on various parts of their bodies.
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Yury Gitman
Myriam – What unexpected things happened when you created your design Files?
While creating my design file for the "hugging bear, I realized how complex my simple project was.
The rough idea on paper was becoming more and more concrete: I had to plan the size of the bear, the materials, what motors and how they were connected. I wanted my bear to have a conductive fabric on its belly to trigger the motors in the arms.But when I was thinking about all these facts, I figured out that I thought the idea of the bear was fun, but just fun. I didn't want to make it because I felt my concept wasn't strong enough and I didn't have enough time to make it as I wanted to in the short time frame we had to make this project.My bear needed several prototypes and user testings to have a good and human feeling of "hugg".Most of all, I wanted to make a project that people would actually use. And I was looking for better ways to use capacitance sensing.During this process, I got to a contemporary dancing performance. The two dancers danced without sound, and they used a microphone in their mouth to enhance their own sound while performing. I went to see them after the show and talked to them about other ways to play with their own sound as music.I am going to meet them in the next days to figured out new ways for performing with sensors in their costumes and how we can play with their theme. And see how their dancing will evolve as well with the integrated sensors. -
Yury Gitman
Myriam – Ideas for a Plush Toy
To begin with, I am interested in making a plush toy for adults and work on the special relationship they will have.
I had two ideas for this:1. The Barking Dog
The barking dog is a toy you put facing your front door. You can put it on and it will start barking and moving his head to knock on the door to scare off intruders.It is at the same time a protective and decorative animal to have in your house.
2. The Talking ParrotThe parrot is a decorative and friendly stuffed animal made out of real feathers. In your living room, press a button to record a message and play it back. Once every hour, the parrot spread his wings.
3. The Huggs BearMy third concept is for both children and adults.It is a human size flat bear that you can sleep on and that gives you huggs.
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Yury Gitman
Destroying Rocker Bunny
Here are some photos of the destruction of the singing bunny.
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4138903&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1
Bunny from maryam aboukhater on Vimeo.
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4139066&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1
Bunny Broken from maryam aboukhater on Vimeo. -
Yury Gitman
Myriam – Maestro
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4093560&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1
maestro from maryam aboukhater on Vimeo. -
Yury Gitman
Myriam – Where I’d like my work to be
Blogs- Colette shop and blog
- ID, the International Design Magazine's "product of the week" pageCall for proposals- absolute arts- 101 Tokyo -
Yury Gitman
Myriam-Theremin like project
IMPLEMENTATION
For this project, I started building different codes (videos soon online).
The first one, the scale controlled by the ultrasonic sensor is not precise enough. I need to figure out a way to change the average depending on time, so that it can be read every second for example.I then created 2 musics. One of them is the intro of "the man who sold the world" by David Bowie.But I am not going to use a melody for my final project because I think the sound is annoying.And I prefer people to play around freely with my instrument.In the end, I made a code where the tone of the music changes with the sensor, and I really liked the sound of it.http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=3990072&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1
Test-tones from maryam aboukhater on Vimeo.LOOK + FEEL
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For the aspect of my project, I had three different ideas:One is playing with boxes and controlling rythm and notes with opening and closing them. I like the idea that the "clap" sound of the box closing can be part of the music as well.
2.
The second one is a intrument made of tubes, reminding an orgue or a flute, and that has a holy spirit to it. It can illustrate the magic of playing music with your hand in the air.
3.The third one, and the one I want to make, is an "inside out" theremin. The idea is revealing the hidden mecanism of the original theremin, using light bulbs as a symbol.While you pass your hand over it, the light plays music and fades with it.It is a nice way to visualize the music you're playing as well.
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Yury Gitman
Myriam – IR sensor
I used the IR sensor to control 2 Leds. The first one fades in from 0 to 150 and the other one from 150 to 255.
A switch turns the arduino on and off.You can view the code here.http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=3932636&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1
IR sensor from maryam aboukhater on Vimeo. -
Yury Gitman
Using a POT to control 2 LED’s and a speaker
The POT fades the blue LED in and out,
increases/decreases the blinking speed of the green LED and changes the
speed and frequency of the sound on the speaker.
I’ve being researching about IR Devices and reading your blog, I found your post very helpful
. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading.