Applications and Implications

Have you answered these questions:

• [x] what will it do?

• [x] who has done what beforehand?

• [x] what materials and components will be required?

• [x] where will they come from?

• [x] how much will it cost?

The answers to the questions above will allow you to create your BOM, or Bill Of Materials.

• [x] what parts and systems will be made?

• [x] what processes will be used?

• [x] what tasks need to be completed?

• [x] what questions need to be answered?

• [x] what is the schedule?

• [x] how will it be evaluated?

Final Project 2021 - Abundance

What will it do?

Abundance is a growing tank for aquatic plants, primarily duckweed. It has a tank for water where the plants will grow on the surface. The tank will have a DHT-11 temperature and humidity sensor. Users will be able to track conditions through a display which will output the readings of the DHT-11.

Who's done what beforehand?

Several final projects in Fab Academy have been developed that seem similarly aligned. Aquapioneers by Guillaume Teyssie at Green Fab Lab in 2016. In this project Guillaume uses a DHT22 for air temperature. He also uses a pH probe which helps to keep track of nutrients in the water/solution.

What will you design?

I designed the electronics, the housing, and the enclosure. I have chosen to use as much as I can salvage from the local environment as possible. I want to think of this project as a speculation into a possible future. Thinking about shows like 100 Years After Humans, I wonder want a future would look like in which plants and machines form a mutualistic relationship.

What materials and components will be used?

I am using materials found in bins in Barcelona neighborhoods. I accented the device with a modified form of basketry made from lasercut cookie boxes. I also found a piece of abstract art that I lasercut to form the end cap. I found an Orbit gum display that I disassembled and used for the main structure. I composited the tank and lid from burlap, resin, and hardener. My electronics are based on the hello world board from Fab Academy. Each device in the system has an ATTiny44 microcontroller with headers for power and communications. I have a DHT11 sensor from a 37 component Arduino sensor kit in Fab Lab BCN. I also have a 16x02 LCD display from Fab Lab BCN. I have a SparkFun SerLCD v2.5 backpack for serial communication between the ATTiny 44 and the LCD.

Where will come from? How much will they cost?

See final project page for full BOM

What parts and systems will be made? What processes will be used?

• Lid and Tank – computer aided design; computer controlled machining; composites
• ATTiny 44 microcontroller boards - Electronics design; embedded programming; input devices; output devices

What questions need to be answered?

• What are the optimal conditions to grow aquatic plants?
• How can I simulate the conditions for more starch or protein content in plants?
• What are recipes for food or biomaterials that I can help promote through this project?

How will it be evaluated?

I have a supply of lemna minor or duckweed that will be grown within the system. The DHT11 is not necessarily good for small spaces, but can provide the conditions externally. The goal will be to periodically monitor the conditions

Final Project - 2018

I am continuing Fab Academy from 2015 and several attempts to complete in the off cycle. Thank you to all who have supported me patiently on this journey. I started with an idea of the IndigiCase Alpha, which was to be a symbolic bridge between Fab Labs and the Indigitization project at UBC Vancouver. As fab labs are community spaces for invention and for people to work and play, the Indigitization project seeks to democratize the process of language documentation by recommending a toolkit and developing training for linguistic competencies.

Iteration from previous year:

The original proposal in 2015 was for a language lab in a box which would incorporate recording and digitization processes. At the time of final project development in 2015, I had so much trouble fighting with the machines, my own computer, and 3D CAD tools. I ended up simplifying the project to an alligator toy that would simulate the tones in language. It would be done by parsing an XML based language documentation format.

FYI: The Lexicon Interchange Format data on Tunica eventually was used for the Tunica online Webonary. This was done through our Tribe's collaboration with Tulane University in New Orleans, LA.

I was able to mill out one side of the toy on the ShopBot. I 3D printed clips for the toy to have movable legs. That was as far as I got with the project in 2015.

I began studying Fiore Basile's Digital Companion. I liked the social application of the digital companion and started thinking about ways to adopt my project into this simpler implementation. I even departed from language and wanted to work with plants. Perhaps my project would be a smart planter that would "cry" went the soil became too dry.

Then my mom got a email:

I’m following up on my Sept 25 email (below) regarding WE NEVER LEFT: Artists of Southeast Indian Tribes, an exhibition I am curating for the Museum of Arts & Sciences in Daytona Beach, Florida. (MOAS is a Smithsonian Affiliate and member of the Alliance of American Museums.)

Since writing to you, the exhibition dates have changed; the new dates are January > 12 - April 14, 2019.

WE NEVER LEFT will showcase artists from those Southeast tribes — like the Tunica- Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana — that successfully avoided removal to so-called Indian Country in the 1830s. The inspiration for this this exhibition is “Return from Exile,” a traveling exhibition that primarily focused on artists from tribes that had been relocated. WE NEVER LEFT is in many ways a response and complement to that wonderful exhibition.

I’m writing to you to request your guidance in identifying artists who would be interested in participating in WE NEVER LEFT. I’d love to hear from artists who work in both traditional and non-traditional mediums.

To which my mom uttered the famous last words, "My son is an artist."

At this point, I have an illustration of Tanap, a being from our Tunica-Biloxi Cosmology, that teaches tribal children about plants. The idea of the project is to help combined: Input, Output, Network weeks with Molding and Casting and Composites.

The skeleton of the sculpture will be laser cut tooling that will have a composite "skin" from a linen fabric and resin from Entropy Resins. The detail on the face will be from a casted mask, most likely using dragon skin in a rotary mold. The sculpture will be placed on a CNC milled box which will have a window for an LCD display. I capacitive sensor will be added as an input that will communicate with the LCD output. When the user places a hand above the sensor, the LCD will start to display the story of Tanap in our Tunica language.

Illustration of proposed sculpture:

Preliminary model:

• Design files: Right click + Save As

Schedule of work:

Bill of Materials