This project is inspired by the avant garde work of John Cage and his use of radio as instrument and also the more recent work of Scanner and his technique of picking up indeterminate radio and mobile phone signals in the airwaves and using them as an instrument in his compositions. My creative practice is heavily inspired by my time at the Experimental Television Center where I learned about modular systems, patching, and signal flow between sound and image. The Center's image processing system was a hybrid tool set, permitting the artist to create interactive relationships between older historically important analog instruments and new digital technologies.
My proposal is to fabricate a modular radio scanner – modular meaning voltage-controllable, or having inputs and outputs and being able to be connected to other instruments. I want it to use a shortwave world band radio reciever. I am new to building electronics, so I will start simple. My first build will have an LFO (low frequency oscillator). I want it to be very low, possibly one cycle per ten seconds, up to five cycles per second. The basic patch would consist of patching out of the LFO and jacking into the CV input of the SCAN. And then patch the audio out of the 1/4" jack to hear it. I want to use banana cables for patching.
My final build will be more complex. I was heavily influenced by the Flower Electronics Jealous Heart. It will have a 1/4" audio input. This is hardpatched to an envelope generator (this takes a complex audio signal and simplifies it, making it more useful for control voltage).
Born in 1983, Matthew Underwood is a multimedia artist based in Providence, Rhode Island. His work often focuses on the overlap between sound, static image, and moving image, often referencing the idea of synesthesia. He has exhibited his work internationally, including ZKM and the European Media Art Festival in Germany. More recently he has shown extensively with RK Projects in Providence. He has had residencies at the Experimental Television Center, Signal Culture and the Institute for Electronic Arts.
Week Five: electronics production
I made a FabISP... Using the Milling Machine I cut traces and soldered my own board. I then programed it. I also assembled and soldered one of Shawn's boards.
I also spent a lot of time assembing a shortwave radio kit. This helped me gain confidence in soldering. The unit works I just need to test it with some kind of antenna.
Week Six: 3D scanning and printing
I used some new programs... Blender, Meshlab, Meshmixer, MakerBot, Sense3DScanner, and OpenSCAD
Week 7-8: electronics design & embedded programming
I have been learning Eagle Software to design my own circuits. I took the echo-hello-world-board and modified it by adding one button and three red leds.
I etched it and then soldered the chips on. I used my fab-isp programmer to load an Arduino program onto my new board. I combined the Blink and Button programs into a program to make my three leds light up in sequence once the botton was pressed.
Week Nine: computer-controlled machining
I decided to make a chair this week for the cnc assignment. I have long loved of strange materials. I was attracted by the color combo of the blue and pink insulation foam sheeting. I designed the chair out of 21 cut-outs. I used Illustrator's Blend tool to make a series of smooth transition between two paths (the side panel and the middle panel).
Some things I learned. Measure twice, cut once. Make a cardboard or paper mockup to size, so that you are not surprised when everything is cut. I cut the two wooden panels incorrectly because I set it to cut outside of the line instead of inside the line. I should have also added labels to each panel to help in assembling it. I wasted much time trying to keep track of which piece was which. I am doing tests on how to finish the chair, including spackle, gesso, and boat epoxy. I used a water based glue to glue the pieces, originally was going to use 3M 90 spray, but it melted the foam. I am scared that it will still be structually unsound, but am hoping that one or two coats of the epoxy will help everything stick together and be solid.
