Space Squid (With Lee Williams)

Lee and I created a pair of darkness loving space squids. They become very happy when placed in the dark, but become frightened by the light, and can even die from it.

The space squid uses a photoresistor to sense light and a piezo speaker to make sound. The apparatus is contained inside a cardboard box with the image of a squid on the front. The squid has 5 states that it can be in:

Excited – In low light, the squid becomes excited and will chirp. The chirp will be higher pitched the darker it is, and the longer it is excited, the chirps will become faster and faster.

Bliss – If the squid is in low light long enough, and will become overwhelmed with joy and shout out.

Neutral – In a space that is not quite dark, but not quite bright, the squid will just chirp every so often to let you know it’s there, but not much else. The sound played is a two tone sound chosen at random from several that Lee and I created to make the creature feel more organic.

Screaming – In a brighter space, the squid will start screaming. The screams will get faster and faster as the squid becomes more urgent.

Dead – If the squid is in the light for two long, it will die. After playing a death sound, it will let out a pathetic groan every so often. This groan is a somewhat randomly generated low tone.

There is hope, though! If placed in darkness for a long enough time, the squid will regenerate and play a special melody showing that it has come back to life.

The wiring before I put it in the box.

And the box I used.

I punched some holes for the speaker.

I left the potentiometer attached to the piezo in case I wanted to adjust the volume.

A diagram of the wiring made in Fritzing.

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