Week_16: Applications and Implications

This is one of the last weeks for FabAcademy and I'm using this assignment for structuring the whole project. Starting with the concept, I'm designing a kinetic sculpture that behaves somewhat like lungs, and by downloading real-time data from World's Air Pollution about air quality in any region, the sculpture can “breathe” faster with worse air, and slower with better air. I have gone from various designs, starting with a “balloon” structure that inflates and deflates, steampunk-like design, cyberpunk-like design, or something very minimal with light. At the end I came up with the idea of using Ferrofluid and electromagnets that attract and repel it with the rhythm. I have seen some designs of speakers and lamps that use a ferrofluid display to express the music or even text. For inspiration I used the platforms MidJourney and Dall-e 2 for a better visualization of how the final project might end up looking. The prompts with the most interesting results were:

Transparent lungs filled with ferrofluid surrounded by a glass ribcage-like structure, minimalistic design.

Dynamic ferrofluid screen shaped like lungs, artificial lightning on a modern art gallery

Cancer ridden ribcage sculpture, with huge, sick lungs made out of balloons, modern art installation

Modern steampunk ribcage sculpture resembling organs.

For the electronics part it is essential that the sculpture is well lit, so I need lots of white LEDs, some for the jar illumination, and the others for the engraved spine. Also the electromagnets would work with around 12V and 900 mA, so I need to distribute the current from the main power supply to the LEDs, the ESP32 and the electromagnets. The sculpture will work something like this:

The LEDs will turn on to start the program.
It connects to a WiFi network (Defined previously from the program).
It requests the air quality information from the selected city, which will be predefined as Puebla, México. But can also be changed through an interface from the cellphone via Bluetooth.
The air quality data arrives and then it is separated in the important values we need to check like the particle size, or the average air quality.
Then this number is converted through maths into the time between intervals of the electromagnets activation, giving us slower rates with better quality, and faster with worse quality.
The process begins again every 10 or so minutes which will give us updated data about the air quality.
The city or place we want to know about can be changed at any given time through the web app from the smartphone via bluetooth.
Should there be an LED indicating the status of the WiFi connection, and the processing of the data? Something like a RGB LED that goes red when there is no connection, blue when there is a connection and it is now receiving/processing the data, and green when it is working properly.
Should one be able to change the WiFi network/password from the web app as well?

For the physical part of the project, I went to my very trustworthy business partner IKEA to find a jar for the ferrofluid and got these two options. I think I'm more inclined for the one with the wooden base, I guess it’s called capelo in spanish.

The wooden base should be routed for it to allocate the electromagnet, LED for the illumination, the ESP32, power source and MOSFETS for the project, and I'm guessing that the original one from IKEA is not big enough, so I'll have to machine a custom one for it to fit everything. The point of this sculpture is to resemble a ribcage, with the dancing ferrofluid jar enclosed in it, but it's important that we can see through it so transparent laser-cut acrylic or 3D printed clear resin are the best options. Following through the design process i was able to come up with these ideas. boceto

Having defined the general project, it's easier to make a list of the materials needed, which is the next one.

Jar/capelo or fancy glasses from IKEA ($299 MXN) (Supplier's website)
Silicone sealant for the hermetic lock between the base and the jar. Got it from Home Depot for $60 MXN (Supplier's website)
Wooden base made with waste plywood from other projects.
custom built ESP32
1 Relay module. (Supplier's website)
2 electromagnets with custom 3D printed fixtures. Which I got for around $150 MXN
Power supply (provided by the University) (Supplier's website)
3 ultrabright white LEDs. (Supplier's website)
20ml of Ferrofluid, which I bought from amazon for $600 MXN (Supplier's website)
40cm x 40cm transparent 3mm acrylic sheet which i found at the waste bin.
1 liter of white vinegar from the marketplace (or Walmart) for $30MXN. (Supplier's website)

These materials are not the definitive but I now have a better grasp of the final project budget and possible aesthetics. Next part is to design all the components for the CNC routing, laser cutting and 3D printing. This kind of art-projects, using ferrofluid and electromagnets have been around for a while, I know of two (posted below) which make the ferrofluid dance and “explode” by changing the magnetic field's strength by analyzing the sound waves coming from a speaker. It is even possible to buy them from amazon. Both speakers and lamps have been designed with the ferrofluid display.

There are also examples of art projects acknowledging the air-quality problem, like Air-Ink, which collects carbon-emissions and repurposes it into a rich, water resistant black ink for different media. A 30ml bottle of this ink is equivalent to 45 minutes of pollution, collected from a car exhaust. air ink

There is also the Smog Tasting performance done by The Centre for Genomic Gastronomy, in which they whip eggs in different busy street corners of Bangalore, and bake them into cookies, afterwards one could taste and test the different pollutants. This one is called Smog Tasting.

Thank you very much and see you next week!