Photo by Tobias Toft
The topic of the last two weeks was Physical Computing. The course was taught by Massimo Banzi from Italy and Gwendolyn Floyd from the US with help from CIID faculty member David Mellis. Our tool of choice was Arduino, the open-source electronics platform that is most popular amongst designers and hobbyists because of its flexibility, ease of use and large online community. Massimo and Dave are two of the original Arduino developers (and featured in the current issue of Wired) so learning from them was a real pleasure.
From the course syllabus:
Networked objects are conversing. These invisible conversations surround us and respond
to our directives, but very rarely do they consider engaging us in or influencing the
dialogue. Physical computing can hack our physical landscapes to create an ecosystem of
objects responsive to inputs and outputs that we define, whose “conversations” are
conducted in visual, metaphorical, or tangible ways. How though, can these objects engage us in the conversation, activating us as responsive players in this network? How can intelligent and emotional objects conspire to change each our behavior, influence each
others emotions, calm us, incite each other, induce dialogue, etc?
Our time was spent learning the fundamental skills to build and prototype electronic devices using circuit boards, software, digital and analog sensors and actuators, serial communication, etc… while also exploring contexts for physical computing through different themes such as networked objects and expressive objects.
Post a Comment