Ohm's law is a formula that establishes the relationship between voltage current and resistance. The formula is Voltage (V) = current (I) x resistance (R). If you want to know the current for example than the formula would be V : R = I. This is the same for resistance except you have to divide the voltage with the current.

Circuits with LED's and resistance

In this assignment i want to light a LED on paper by using some copper tape, resistance and a 3 Volt battery.

It is important to know from the LED that the long pin is + and the short - and to connect it the right way otherwise it wont light up.

I started first to stick the copper tape where needed from + to -.

Then i sticked the resistance on the right place with some copper tape on top of each pins. Here it is important to put the pins on top of the copper tape that are on the paper and on top of the pins some new copper tape so its stuck. The sticky side from the copper tape is not conductive.

Then i sticked the LED pins in the copper tape the same way as i did for the resistance. Making sure that the + and the - where on the right side.

And now i've used the 3V battery and put it with the + side on top in the circle with the -. I folded the corner from the paper so the piece of copper tape inside the cirle with the + will touch the + side of the battery.

Now i want to measure some data with the multimeter, it is the first time i use one.

First thing i want to measure is the voltage of the battery. I allready know it is 3V because of the package but i want to see it for my own curiosity.

Now i want to measure the resistance. There were a few resistances i could choose but i didn't know wich one i had and how many ohm's it has. After measuring i discovered i had a resistance from 47 ohm.

Next thing i want to know is how many volts is going through the LED. That was somewhere around 2.8V

And after measuring how many voltage is going through the resistance i had to add it up to the voltage from the LED and that will be the same amount as the voltage from the battery.

The battery gives 3V from the + side, the resistance uses 0,2V and the LED uses 2,8 and 0V is going to the -. If i did not use any resistance there would be 0,2V returned to the battery and it could get really hot.

Zine

Reflection

In the beginning it was not clear to me what the assignment was and what was expected. Once I go with the flow it became clearer to me. Making the inflatables was a fun experiment to start with. One of the most important things I learned is how to work with the laser cutter. I also know how to work now without using presets. I've learned how to solve a problem whenever i encounter one, for example deciding where to start cutting. Now I think more consciously about the material I use and what settings to use with each material on the laser cutter.

It was really fun to experiment with different shapes and structures and to think how I can make it better and worse. I deliberately thought to be more economical with the material by thinking about the following things: the amount of space because I shared the material with someone else, where am I going to cut it out and making rings for bookbinding from the leftovers.

I was happy with the final result of the sample book I've made but less happy that I had to leave him at the Makerslab.

Zine

My kit of no parts

As a CMD student I think that sharing knowledge is important. For me, this means that I can share my process and way of thinking with others to inspire them. I only do it if there is a demand because I can share it with people who find it interesting. It is interesting and educational for me to see in a project how someone's way of thinking is and how the person came up with an idea. Sometimes I think it's a shame that things are only held for the designer.

If I get stuck in my work process and cannot continue, I sometimes ask others to share their process with me. If something is completely new to me and nobody within my circle can help, I sometimes watch a tutorial on YouTube. Furthermore, I do not ask further if I do not understand. If I want to know something very specific, I ask Reddit where people are very helpful. I once asked Reddit a question about JavaScript, unfortunately I was unable to get help with that at the time, but on the other hand it was nice to know that I was not the only one with that problem.

I find it difficult to transfer technology in a didactic way to someone else, especially if the person does not know anything about the subject.

Nowadays you have a kit for almost everything you want to make. Do you want to learn how to program with sensors and actuators and you can order an Arduino kit and get started. This is an example of a kit. With a kit without parts you will look for alternative ways to create, share and collaborate. In that regard, I often have a "fuck it" mentality. I easily let go of ideas that I had before and then "I'll see" what I come up with. In my project during Emerging Technologies, this resulted in a great product.

Hacking

When are you a hacker? If you interrupt a certain process and do something else with it. Hacking does not always have to do with coding and programming. When you search for images on Google for "hacker" it seems to be put down negatively, someone with a mask on in a dark room behind a computer doing something with code.

On my 14th birthday I got a Playstation Portable (PSP), a year ago when I found it again, I hacked it by watching a tutorial on YouTube. I recently did the same with an old Wii that I got. For years no games have been made for this and they are almost impossible to find. By hacking both of them, I can download games and transfer them via USB. In this process there was also a "fuck it" mentality, there were so many ways that this could go wrong and these consoles could be thrown away in the trash. Still I started to try and see what I would end up with (Getting lost ) and yet again it worked out well.

Reflection

The last time I've worked with circuits was more than 10 years ago when I was in middle school. In the beginning it was just as difficult to pick up again because I used to have a lot of trouble with this, but now I understood it better than then in middel school and it all made a lot more sense. I don't know if that was because I am a little older now or if this was poorly explained to me in the past.

I liked making the speakers but at the same time frustrating to do. At first I didn't know it was possible to do it that way. I enjoyed soldering and I hadn't done that for at least 10 years, but it was still as good as back in the days. The frustrating part for me was sewing. I did not had any experience in it and I've made a lot of beginners mistakes that i had to solve the hard way. The speaker was working but the sound was very low. If I had sewn over it again the sound would be better to hear.

UV printer

Ways to hurt yourself

• Niet naar de laser kijken tijdens het printen.

• Pas op met het sluiten van de klep dat je vingers daar niet tussen komen.

Ways to hurt the machine

• Haal je print er pas uit als er op het schermpje van de UV printer staat "PRINT READY".

• De klep altijd dicht laten, zelfs als de UV printer niet gebruikt wordt. Door het open laten kan de inkt in de cartridges uitdrogen.

Ways to annoy others

• Niet printen als er niks in zit.

• Als de printer aangeeft dat de inkt op is, melden bij een leidinggevende. Alleen een leidinggevende mag de cartridge vervangen.

• Reserveer de UV printer van te voren om er zeker van te zijn dat je hem kunt gebruiken.

• Leg je voorwerp waar je op print binnen de kader.

Andere belangrijke zaken

• Draai het voorwerp waarop geprint wordt 180 graden als je hem op het bedje legt.

• Er ligt een handleiding naast de computer waarin staat hoe je vanuit Illustrator kunt printen.

• Voor het beste resultaat op vlakke materialen printen.

• Zorg ervoor bij het afplakken dat er geen tape uitsteekt ivm met hoogte waarop geprint gaat worden.

• Er is een bak achter de computer met schoonmaakmiddelen voor als er op het bed geprint is.

• Zorg ervoor dat de vacuüm zuiger aan staat.

Oven & lijnbuigmachine

Ways to hurt yourself

• Gebruik bij de oven de handschoenen als je er iets uit wilt halen.

• Raak de draad bij de lijnbuigmachine nooit aan.

Ways to hurt the machine

• Zet de oven en de lijnbuigmachine uit na gebruik.

• Er mag geen materiaal in de oven dat chloor bevat. Als je het niet zeker weet vraag het aan begeleiding.

• Plexiglas op maximaal 180 graden bakken. Er staat een streep aangegeven op de oven.

Ways to annoy others

• Leg de handschoenen op de juiste plek terug.

• Roosters liggen onder de oven.

• Als er restjes op de roosters zitten maak dat dan schoon. De restjes kunnen anders in het werk terecht komen van de volgende gebruikers. Doe dit evt. met een staalborstel.

Andere belangrijke zaken

• Rechts in de hoek naast de oven staat bakpapier.

• Je hebt weinig tijd met afkoelen van materiaal. Als je iets moet buigen doe dat binnen 20 seconde.

• Bij het gebruik van de lijnbuigmachine buig altijd naar jezelf toe.

• Aan en uit knop van de oven, rood = aan, groen = uit.

• Gele stip op de oven bij de timer is oneindig tijd.

• Er is een thermometer in de oven.

• Als je iets niet weet, vraag het dan aan begeleiding.

Zine

Think before you make.

As a maker it is important to think about what the consequences of the things you design can be. As an example, the cigarette creator is also responsible for the people who get sick or die from it, while that was not the intention. It is also important to delve into what the goal is for whom you make it. As an example a company such as Shell or BP, it might sound very cool and promising to design something for such a company, but you don't think about the consequences that your design will have on the environment.

Since the advent of 3D printing, we all come up with handy and fun things to print that might make life easier or perhaps for decoration. It's great that you can print a part so that you can repair your broken coffee maker. But even 3D printing can have bad consequences, it can be used for wrong purpose as printing weapons or other objects that are normally not legal to own.

Manifesto

The designer is always responsible for the (bad) consequences that can occur. - A design must not cause damage to people, animals and the environment. - A design may only be made if it is used for good purposes.

Reflection

Working with Kaz on this assignment for the first time was fun to do and the collaboration went well. We were able to come up with good ideas together and were on the samen page. We were so lucky with 3D printing because we were the only ones who had no issues while printing (spaghetti-like strings or the material that wouldn't attach to each other).

I've learned a lot in this week. I never worked with Fusion360 before and it was like a whole new world opening up for me and I would like to do more with this in the future. I would like to make a mold for skateboarding wheels for myself and with the possibilities from Fusion360, I even can create a new shape of wheel that has never been done before! I haven't experimented a lot with Cura but as soon i will need it in the future it will become more clear.

A tea bag or its contents

In this assignment i'm going to experiment with inflatables. For the assignment of the week my contrast is "smooth - sharp" and i allready wanted to try that out with inflatables to see how to get from something smooth to something sharp.

Things that I used are:

• Latex

• Baking paper

• A straw

• Iron and ironing board

How does it work?

I cut a piece of latex and then I put a cut out form of baking paper on it with a strip that comes off the latex. The strip is important because later on you stick the straw in it so you van inflate it. After i put the baking paper on the latex i fold it and put a sheet of baking paper on top to iron over it. The latex will stick together except for the part where the baking paper is located. That is the part that wil inflate.

First try

In my first experiment, I wanted a "sharp" point to pop up during inflation. First i cut a circle out of baking paper and i turn it into a cone. In addition i cut out some strips.

Now I'm going to cut a piece of latex.

This is what i have so far, a piece of latex, some strips and a circle that i turned into a cone. I also cut out a second circle in case i mess up.

Now I am going to put everything in place on an ironing board to iron. I crushed the cone because I assume it will rise again during the inflation.

Now i'm folding the latex over the baking paper. This is a little hard to do because the baking paper will move out of its place.

And next I put a sheet of baking paper over it and I start ironing. Sam told me to do this on the lowest temperature of the iron.

Because of the ironing, the latex is fused together except for the piece where the baking paper was.

I stick a straw in the part where the strip was and through the straw i can inflate my design to see if it will point up.

When I blown air into it, I discovered that I had not ironed properly and air came out of the side. Instead of a cone coming up, a sphere formed in the middle when I blew it up.

This experiment failed so i take my loss and try something else.

Second try

For my next experiment i will try it with triangle shapes so the sides wil look shawp while inflating it.

I've cut triangles out the baking paper and used my extra strip from the previous experiment. I cut another piece of latex, put my baking paper in it and a sheet of paper on top of it and I start ironing again.

After ironing, I discovered that in the process of laying the baking paper over it my strip was lost. Because of this all sides were melted together so I could not blow up my design.

foto mislukte poging

Third try

Now i want to be sure not to mess this up again so I made a new shape from baking paper where the strip is no longer loose but stuck to the shape.Afterwards i also cut a new piece of latex.

Now i fold it again and try to get the pointy side as close as much to the border where its folded. Then i put the sheet of baking paper on top of it again an start ironing it.

The result after ironing.

Now i stick the straw in it and try to inflate it. As you can see in the photo below, it partly blows up. I will have to iron again to make sure that everything is fused together.

But first i cut out the unnecessary space and try to be as close as possible to the pointy side and iron it once again.

Now that I blow it up, you can see it has a sharp shape. I can finally say that this was successful.

I've learned that even the easiest looking experiments could go wrong and that you sometimes have to be very precise and be careful. It took me three times to get something i wanted. In retrospect thinking about my first experiment it was logical that you cannot inflate a wrinkled piece of baking paper to make it come up and the latex is too firm to make it stick up.

I did this assignment together with Kaz. After some brainstorming we decided to do an alligator themed project. We both made a mold separately, for the mold that is closed and consists of two parts, we made together and it was also more difficult to do.

The idea for the mold i will create is an alligator in the water where you only will see a little of his head, back and tail. I want to make it as detailed as possible so you kan see the eyes, nose and spikes.

Kaz will make a design from the skeleton of an alligator.

Alligator in Fusion360

I used this image as a starting point.

Image source: https://zooz.wiki/nl/animals/alligator/

First i used the pen tool to draw the shapes and by extruding it i gave it a height.

Then I shaped the edges so it will sort of look like it's half above water. Afterwards i started with the spikes on the back. I was not happy yet with the spikes on the back so i deleted them afterwards and did them over later.

Because this will be made to create a mold i need to create something that will hold all the parts together, so i made a big circle.

Now i will try to make the spikes on the back and the tail.

The spikes took a long time to create because I had to make them one by one.

I also made some spikes on the back of its head.

The hardest part was to make the eyes and the nose, I had to do this over multiple times. I was satisfied with the eyes but less with the nose.

The final result with the eyes and nose:

When you're done with designing in Fusion360, make sure you save your file as a .stl file. So later you can open this file in Cura to prepare it for 3D printing.

3D printing the alligators

For the molds that Kaz and me created separately we teamed up with Desiree and Thijs because their mold were ready to print as well. Desiree put all our designs together in Cura to start the printing.

Desiree sent me this photo before printing and asked me if I was okay with this:

Due private circumstances I couldn't come early to the Makerslab and Kaz was there before me. He sent me a photo of how far the printing was:

When I arrived at school the 3D printer was this far:

The printing would take a total of 13 hours. In the meantime Kaz and me designed the two-piece mold.

Here are a few pictures from the progress of the printing:

The designs from Kaz and me were done before the ones from Desiree and Thijs because their design was bigger in height.

I was very happy with the details of the design I've made. The spikes, eyes and nose were clearly visible.

2-piece mold in Fusion360

Because Kaz and me are doing an alligator themed project we wanted to design a mold for a part from an alligator. The mold will have to be cast later, so we have chosen to make an eyeball from an alligator. The eyeball is a geometric shape.

We took this as a starting point for designing the eye in Fusion360:

Source: Pinterest.

In Fusion360 we created a new file and made a cube first that is going to be the mold.

I renamed the cube into "mal" in the browser under "Bodies" and clicked on the eye to hide it.

After this I made a sphere.

With the pen tool i drawn the pupil.

One by one I've made the lines in the eyes. This took a while to do.

The hardest part was while extruding we wanted for the pupil and the lines to round with the eyeball. This was hard to do but with some help from Sander and Kaj it all worked out.

For the rest of the mold we followed along with this tutorial:

We did exactly everything what is said in the tutorial but with our own design. The only difference is dat we made two holes in it, one for casting and the other for the air. Kaj advised us to do it that way.

Meanwhile we were following the tutorial, the eyeball and the cube we created in the beginning had to be combined so we did that. Afterwards I had to subtract the eyeball from the cube so there is an empty space inside the cube in the shape of the eyeball.

Afterwards i split the cube in two parts so we can make four balls that the mold will be able to keep closed in its place. After splitting and creating the balls I subtracted the balls on the side with the pupil so it will be able to close it.

Next thing we had to do was to make the casting hole and the extra hole for the airflow that Kaj advised us to do. The hole for the air had also to be smaller than the casting hole.

We finished the tutorial we followed and Sander gave us feedback. He said that a piece of the top and bottom could be removed in connection with the printing. Otherwise we would be wasting material and we haven't tought about that. On both the pieces I've set a plane and removed the unnecessary space.

This was the final result:

Printing the mold

I saved the the two parts seperately as .stl files and opened it in Cura. This time with printing we teamed up with Summer and Britt who where ready to print as well. We allready had set up the settings for printing while we also had to wait for the file from the others.

We used the Ultimaker 2 Extended+ because that was the only available 3D printer. We have set that in the settings.

We had a little help from Sander with setting the print settings. The settings we used here below:

After we received the file from Summer and Britt we imported it, set it in place and saved the file as .gcode and put the file on a SD-card. This time we used gold colored PLA.

Before printing it is important to clean the plate where it will be printing on and spraying it with 3DLAC.

After everything was done Kaz prepared the file in the 3D printer for printing and had it printed at night.

Results

The next moring when I arrived in the Makerslab the mold was finished with printing.

This was the first time I worked in Fusion360. By working step by step with Sander he guided the class to make a switch for the laser cutter in the Makerslab.

At first we got an explanation about the basics, what you can find in the interface and how to create objects. We started with making a cube for the design that Sander had in mind. The cube is going to be the handle of the switch.

Then we added two circles on the bottom. A large circle that is against a plate and a small circle that will go through the plate and is in the middle.

The last object was a squared plate in the bottom that wil function as the switch that wil turn the knob.

By using planes (the yellow areas) we could make parts of the plate diagonally upwards.

The final result:

I have not been able to see a 3d printed version of this and that is a bit dissapointing for me.

Quarantzine

I was the editor of this week together with Laura. The entire zine can be read at

When is something analogous?

To put it simply, when you do it yourself, most of the time by hand and nothing happens digitally. There are various equipment that work both analog and digital, such as: photo and video cameras, synthesizers, clocks and much more.

Let's use synthesizers as an example. An analog synthesizer is often separate from a computer. You can make music with it with the possibility to transfer it to the computer. With a digital synthesizer, it is often part or plug-in of a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) and reproduces the sound of an analog synthesizer. That will never be the same because the waves of analog are smooth and the waves are angular. That wouldn't make much difference to someone like me, but it would to a producer.

Is analog better than digital?

It depends on how you look at it and what the purpose of the use is. Maybe it is in music production. If you look at photography and video, digitalizing has made everything easier for the most users by omitting complex tasks.

Reflection

I was happy when I heard we are going to program with Arduino and I had been looking forward to this for a while. It was my first time working with a breadboard and I really like the possibilities. You can connect many more things at the same time and it is easier to work with resistors. It was just picking up some things again but Arduino was still fresh in my memory.

The assignment was quite easy because I've worked with Arduino before but at the same time I was discovering new things again like making a switch and analog sensor from cardboard and copper tape. The hardest part was connecting everything the right way on the breadboard and knowing wich resistor I needed.

This week got really strange from the moment everyone had to work from home due the Coronavirus. The communication went better than expected, we communicated with each other through WhatsApp and Zoom. Usually it is hard for me to work at home because there is a lot of distraction but at the same time I was not distracted because I was busy doing things that I like. I was limited in the materials I got from school and at home I had some things that could be connected with Arduino.

At first I thought you allready had to made an input and output for this week so I've made a switch that plays a song while connected. Afterwards, that was too much and I did not have any time to make the analog sensor, so i did that later.

In this same week I was the editor for the zine with Laura and that was decided the day before the show & tell, so nobody had their spread done. Because we all are in "quarantine", we decided to do something funny with this week's name "Quarantzine". We communicated through WhatsApp and had in mind that we would be able to print soon again but that was not the case afterwards. We decided to move the deadline to week 9 and instead of a magazine it would be a website.

In this assignment i've created a soft speaker on a piece of denim. I've solded a mono amplifier with a jack connector that is connected to the soft speaker. For the best audio results i should have a resistance between 4 and 8 ohm.

I did this together with Summer.

In this case the blue wire is + and the orange wire is -. We wrapped some tape on eacht wire and wrote + and -. The + (blue wire) should be soldered on the short side of the jack plug and the - (orange wire) on the long side of the jack plug.

I've soldered the pins on the bottom from the amplifier. With these pins we will provide power and amplify the sound from the speaker.

For connecting the speakers to the amplifier, make sure to solder the part (with the two screws on top) with the two holes pointing on the outside of the amplifier. Connect the two crocodile wires with the amplifier by stripping the coating (5mm will do), stick each in a hole and secure them with a screwdriver on the topside.

The amplifier is done for now and i'll continue with the denim after the recessweek.

For the design of the speakers we wanted to use a piece of denim. We will lasercut a square (10cm x 10cm) and inside the square we are going to sew the coil that is also a square but turned 45 degrees.

The coil that I am going to make will be made of steel conductive wire

Beforehand I did not measure exactly how much resistance the wire had because I wanted to solve it later. I wasn't sure yet how many centimers i actually need.

IIn Illustrator I made a design for laser cutting on a piece of denim. I have experience with the laser cutter, but since it was my first time to do this on a piece of denim, I asked a supervisor from the Makerslab if it was possible.

There was no preset for denim on the lasercutter and it worked out by using the presets from cotton. Because this was a preset i do not know what the actual settings are for lasercutting cotton and denim.

Make sure to save the file as an Illustrator 8 file for lasercutting.

I've marked the outline with red and the inside where the coil is going to be black. I did this because the lasercutter will cut out the red lines and the black lines are going to be dotted.

I have setted the dotted line 4mm apart from eachother.

Now I will embroider the pattern with the thread that will guide the current. In the beginning I often had to look back at the design so that I would not get stuck in the wrong place.

This was the hardest and most frustrating part for me because I stabbed myself in my fingers a few times, sometimes, I was tied up a few times and also broke the thread a couple of times, so I had to pull the thread through the entire denim again that I had enough thread to continue sewing.

Now I am going to see with a multimeter how much ohm it will indicate. For the assignment I want to be between 4 and 8 ohm.

The multimeter indicates 64.6 ohms. That is too much resistance and I have to think of a way to solve this so that it has less resistance. Loes Bogers told me that if I made the wires thicker, it could conduct more current, so that the resistance would also be lower. Instead of taking the whole thread out and starting over with a thikker thread i'm going to sew a new layer of thread on top of the current one. It might work but I don't know for sure yet.

This went much faster because I only had to follow the first thread. When I was completely done again I tested it again with a multimeter to see how much ohm it would indicate.

With the 2nd layer that I have embroidered, the multimeter indicates 15.7 ohms. My plan worked out and this would also be enough to be able to hear something if I connect it to the amplifier and hold it above a cup according to Kai.

I connected the denim with the amplifier and tested with magnets if I could hear music. Connect the crododile wires from the amplifier with the thread on the denim. Do that on the two sides where you've cut the thread on the denim. Connect the jack plug to a telephone of laptop with music and make sure to turn the volume all the way up.

It worked and there was music, you could only hear it if you keep your ear next to the cup.

I did not manage to get between 4 and 8 ohms for the assignment. I didn't have enough time to embroider a third layer on the denim. Hereby the resistance would be lower because the wire is thicker and provide more current so the music coud be heard louder.

An application as wearable for a soft speaker could be in a beanie. You wear it on your head and the music is played in your ears.

With the same idea for a wearable switch I've made a wearable analog sensor with electric paint.

First I improved the prototype I've made for the switch by painting a line of conductive paint on it. Afterwards I've tried it out with a LED on the breadboard and the brightness was changing.

Afterwards with the leftovers from the black cardboard I've made another wearable that looks the same as the wearable switch. Now I've added conductive paint. I used tape to make sure it looks neat.

When it dried I've used some glue to make rings again so it will fit in my hands.

After trying it out in week 8 with the output it worked.

This was my first time using Processing.

Processing is a flexible software sketchbook and a language for learning how to code within the context of the visual arts. - processing.org

The coding language is similar to Arduino code.

To try to figure out Processing I followed the Arduino X Processing Tutorials that i found on DLO.

Arduino code

First i uploaded this Arduino code on my NodeMCU and used the LDR to receive data:

//ARDUINO CODE FOR ANALOG SENSOR
int sensorValue = 0;

void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600); //needs to match processing baudrate
}

void loop() {
//Serial.println(analogRead(A0)); // for debugging only
sensorValue = analogRead(A0); // store value in sensorValue
Serial.write(map(sensorValue, 0,1023,0,255)); // map to processing range
delay(50);
}

Processing code

Then i pasted this code in Processing:

//PROCESSING CODE FOR ANALOG SENSOR
import processing.serial.*;
Serial myPort;
int dataInput;

void setup() {
size(255,255);
//println(Serial.list()); //use to find list of your port addresses
String portName = "COM5";  //change to your own port address!
myPort = new Serial(this, portName, 9600); //needs to match arduino baudrate
}

void draw() {
background(0);
fill(255);
fill(color(145,102,12));
ellipse(width/2,dataInput, 20, 20);  // use dataInput for y axis
println(dataInput);
}

void serialEvent(Serial myPort) {
dataInput = myPort.read();
 }

I was not sure what was about to happen when i would run this code. It turned out to be a circle that goes up as soon as the values change:

More experimenting

Through Zoom i learned about processing and how to work with images. Sander had made something with which you see the sun rise in an image and I also wanted to make something similar like that. I made a moon from the view of a satelite that rises above earth.

It is important to set the size the same as the image size so it wil fit as a background image otherwise you won't see it. I changed the code in processing and this was what happened:

import processing.serial.*;
Serial myPort;
int dataInput;
PImage bg;

void setup() {
size(500,333);
//println(Serial.list()); //use to find list of your port addresses
String portName = "/dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART";  //change to your own port address!
myPort = new Serial(this, portName, 9600); //needs to match arduino baudrate
  bg = loadImage("aardekopie.jpg");
}

void draw() {
background(bg);
fill(255);
fill(color(255,244,204));
ellipse(width/2,dataInput, 40, 40);  // use dataInput for y axis
println(dataInput);
}

void serialEvent(Serial myPort) {
dataInput = myPort.read();
 }

In this assignment I worked with two words that contrast each other. With a certain material I've worked from 2D to 3D.

Smooth - Sharp

Material I've worked with is Polypropylene (PP), as thick as 0.8mm.

My first impression of the material was that it has a smooth surface. It is very flexible. What i want to experiment with is to sharpen the surface so it stings while touching it. I want to experiment with different different patterns and shapes.

I was inspired by the pattern that Bas Overvelde, from the origami workshop in the first week, used in some of his projects. I've looked up how it's called and discovered that the pattern i want to use is a Miura Pattern.

In Illustrator I've created such pattern and i did it in 2 colors.

Illustrator file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dU35dSD4EOhIyYz7VjinPo9eRQN1veBJ/view?usp=sharing

I used black and red in this case. I used two colors because when i go laser cutting later, red will be engraved and black will be cut.

Before saving the the file it is important to save it as an .ai file and to make sure it is an Illustrator 8 file. Otherwise the laser cutting software, LaserWorks, is not able the open the file.

Now the design is finished i can begin with the laser cutting part. First import the file in LaserWorks.

I put my polypropylene sheet on the bed of the laser cutter and see if there is a preset that I can use for this material in LaserWorks.

After i asked a supervisor in the Makerslab what preset he would advise. He advised me to try it with the Polyester preset and try to change the speed and power. Afterwards i discovered that it was unnecessary to do and i could fill it in directly instead of working from a preset.

For the red lines i want to engraved i used these settings.

For the black line that i want to be cut i used these settings.

Now i upload it to the laser cutting machine by pressing "download" and a few times on "Ok".

Setting the laser cutter.

1. Press File. fig 1.

2. Choose the file you uploaded and press Enter. fig 2.

3. Depending on where the laser head is, you might want to adjust it and set it in the right place. This is useful if you want to save space on your material. Press the arrows to put the starting point on the right place and press Origin. The head is now put on place and if you want to see where it will cut, press Frame. If it is not on the right place then repeat this step. fig 3.

4. Place the placeholder next to the laser cutter under the laser to adjust the height. The height is adjustable by the two brown/golden screws shown in fig 4. You may close the hood now.

5. If it is all set, press the Auxillery button on the side of the laser cutter so the extractor and cooler are turned on. fig 5.

6. Press Start. fig 6.

Now the laser cutter is going to cut and engrave my design.

For the next one i have to give it more power because it didn't cut through the polypropylene. Now i have to cut through it with a knife.

To make it sharp i'm cutting through some lines from the Miura pattern so when I fold it now, there are some spikes where you can puncture yourself.

By cutting the wrong lines my design fell apart. I'll try this again later.

To start from smooth i've cut a piece without any pattern on it with the laser cutter. And because my file was still in opened in LaserWorks i've changed something in the settings. I've set the power to 50 from the black line so it will cut through and the output from de red line to no. I did this because i only want a blank sheet and now it will only cut out the black line.

This was the result after laser cutting, also had to cut again with a knife through it because the laser cutter didn't got through.

Now i want to make a sample where everything is only folded, except for the laser cutting part. I will use the same Miura pattern and by folding creating a sharp shaped pattern that will feel smooth wile touching.

Because the laser didn't got through in the previous one i will increase the power from the red and black lines in de laser cutting software. The red power of the red line will be now at 40, it will not cut through it but it will fold more easily. For the black line, that has to be cut out, i increased the power 50 and decrease the speed to 60 instead of 90. In this way the laser wil do the cutting (black lines) slower so i'm sure it gets through.

After the laser cutter was done i discovered something interesting. It does not matter how hard the power or how slow the speed will be because it cuts through but due the heat it will melt back together. With these settings cutting out was more easily to do because you can use less force and you don't plunk out with your knife.

After cutting the sheet out i had to flip it over and had to cut thin lines from the pattern, which are enrgaved, on the backside from the sheet. It is important to not cut through it. These lines must be cut so that it can be folded on both sides.

After cutting i start with folding. This is hard to do because of the robustness of the material so i dit it carefully and patiently.

When the folding part is done you'll be able to squeeze it together and the pattern will comes up in a 3D effect.

While touching it it will not sting yet.

To make it actually sharp i will try to cut through some lines again with a knife. But first i want two more pieces cutted and engraved with the laser cutter. The settings will stay the same for now because i'm ok with the fact that i still have to cut through with a knife because it will melt back together.

After laser cutting, once again i'm cutting thin lines on the back that intersect with the patter so it can fold both sides.

And now after cutting the thin lines, i will cut through some lines an do it right this time. The effect that I want to create is by squeezing it together the pattern goes up and sharp points stick out from the cut lines. If done right it will look like this.

And the piece with more lines cutted so spikes are coming out on both sides when squeezed together.

These are the samples i have this far from smooth to sharp in different gradations.

Now i want to experiment with other patterns to go from smooth tho sharp. So first i tried with triangles. I've made a triangle pattern in Illustrator so i can fold it upwards that it wil sting while touching it. Before laser cutting I import the file in LaserWorks.

Illustrator file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PLH2F-IKc3Vy58srfMmv5S5OSAOobs33/view?usp=sharing

I've used the same settings for the laser cutting as before. After laser cutting was done I've cut it out again with a knife.

When folding each triangle up i noticed that it didn't stayed up, so i have to change the design a bit. But by bending the sheet i found this interesting.

Now I've added a line under each triangle so the laser cutter will engrave the line and the triangles will stay up.

Illustrator file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PTl2wTfWyLJyT5fyXR4R7Ae8tsLHNAgm/view?usp=sharing

Now after folding it stayed up. For more gradations I've been thinking how to make it more and less sharp. By making it less sharp, I've made it rounded in Illustrator. Afterwards I imported the file in LaserWorks. With the same settings as before i let the laser cutter do its work and cutted the lines dat i needed to cut.

Illustrator file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MOsB7rOjfaaRcoPX6oGLC3Q6ugdv6iF4/view?usp=sharing

Now I went to see how it would really feel sharp and how to sting yourself with it. I immediately thought of thorns and made such a pattern. I imported it in LaserWorks and began cutting with the same settings as before.

Illustrator file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_CWGSQ78pgZlZGBPzMKvdQGwV_7kpkc7/view?usp=sharing

Afterwards i folded everything up and it felt really sharp. Result:

The second serie from smooth to sharp:

For the sample book i want to use the same material. With the leftover polypropylene I had I've made rings in Illustrator to bind. Afterwards I imported these rings to LaserWorks. I copied them and made them smaller and bigger just in case. With the same settings for laser cutting i let the laser cutter do its work.

Illustrator file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tsB7JGh8RTPhfIyjhOZfJhpwiJjrNn0C/view?usp=sharing

Now comes the binding part. The front and back cover will be the pieces that i messed up. I kept these because it is a shame to throw them away.

I have printed the pages with explanations about each piece and perforated them together with the samples.

After everything is perforated i put the rings i cutted out through the holes so the sample book is in one piece.

The final result:

Link to the PDF of the samplebook: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tsB7JGh8RTPhfIyjhOZfJhpwiJjrNn0C/view?usp=sharing

Zine

Material Storytelling

When is it right to tell the story behind a material and when not? We use materials to make functional products and often we don't know where it comes from or what the process behind it is.

As an example, the story behind Fair Trade coffee is that the farmers in Colombia harvest the coffee berries, which are processed into beans and traded so that they are available in the store for the consumer. With Fair Trade products, the company shows the consumer how it is made and that the farmers get a share of the percentage of the coffee that they buy in the store. By doing this it may sell better. What the consumer does with it is up to him to finish the story.

A company like McDonald's likes to talk about the beef they use in their burgers. They say that the cows have had a good life and in their beef there is no other processed stuff. On the other hand, the chicken nuggets are concealed how they are made. The chicken they use is so fattened that it contains a lot of meat and it is cheaper to buy per chicken and the average consumer is against it, but McDonald's does not tell that as quickly because the consumer might not want to buy it. As hard as the truth may be, it is sometimes wise not to tell the whole story behind a product or material.

Reflection

I had a hard time working with bioplastics. I often got nauseous which made it very slow. After every example I made I had to take a break. I had enough material and it was fun to experiment with what I had at home. I didn't have a scale that made it difficult, but Summer had helped me from a distance by saying the amount of which ingredient is in a tea spoon.

Most of the time I had no idea what I was making and what would come out and I actually liked it. Because we still had to work from home, I asked my roommate to assist me with the material properties and it was quite hard to explain what everything was.

What I'm going to take with me from this week is to reflect on materials where it comes from and what the story and process behind it is. It was also interesting to think about other applications that could be created by using different kind of plastics.

It has created an awareness in me of the usage of materials.

In this first part of the assignment i'm going to try out and discover bioplastics with the materials i received for this week.

Because this is a whole new thing for me i want to start easy and cook "Agar Agar" from the Bioplasics Cookbook from Margaret Dunne.

Agar Agar

I don't have a small scale at home for weighting ingredients so Summer helped me from a distance and measured it for me with a tea spoon.

The ingredients I've used for Agar Agar:

• 3/4 tea spoon agar

• 1 1/2 tea spoon glycerin

• 40 ml water

Materials:

• 2 tea spoons

• Measurering cup

• Pan

• Whisk

• Electric hob

• Vaseline

• Cup to pour in

First I filled the measuring cup with 40ml water. Then put 3/4 tea spoon of agar and 1 1/2 tea spoon glycerin in the pan and then added the water. I turned on my electric hob and set the heat to just above the middle.

I stirred as much as possible with a whisk so that everything is well mixed.

While I let it boil further, I lightly rub the cup with Vaseline so that the bioplastic is easy to take out the next day.

I found out that I had to act quickly because the mix started to boil in the pan and I was close to messing it up.

Tip for the next time: Rub the vaseline before cooking.

It all went fine and i poured the mix in the cup and moved it to my windowsill with the window open.

Agar Agar with coffee

The first Agar Agar bioplastic i made was transparent and now i want to experiment with giving it a color and I will use coffee for that.

The ingredients I've used:

• 3/4 tea spoon agar

• 1 1/2 tea spoon glycerin

• 40 ml water

• Coffee, 1/3 of a Dolce Gusto Espresso Intenso cup (any other Dolce Gusto cup without milk will do as well)

Materials:

• 2 tea spoons

• Measurering cup

• Pan

• Whisk

• Electric hob

• Vaseline

• Cup to pour in

I've put the agar, glycerin and water in the pan the same way as before. Before cooking I've cut open the cup with the coffee and poured 1/3 from the cup in the pan. I turned on the heat again and start stirring again with a whisk.

I haven't mentioned before but during cooking it will all smell bad.

When it started to boil i stirred a bit more and poured the mixture in the cup.

When i was done i moved it next to the first one on the windowsill to harden for 24 hours.

Agar Agar Foam

Now i wanted to try to make foam. Because of the ingredients that I received and the materials I have at home, I chose this recipe. Instead of the plastic cups i received I used a metal plate, that i found lying around, as a mold.

The ingredients I've used for Agar Agar Foam:

• 3/4 tea spoon agar

• 1/2 tea spoon glycerin

• 40 ml water

• 1 tea spoon dishwash soap

Materials:

• 2 tea spoons

• Measurering cup

• Pan

• Whisk

• Electric hob

• Vaseline

• Metal plate that I use as a mold

I mixed everything back together and cooked until it started to boil and then poured into the mold. Afterwards I put it with the other ones on my windowsill.

Agar Agar with chili powder (and oath cereals)

I still have the mold from the 3D print week and want to make a bioplastic that feels harder than the others so I used a different amount of the same ingredients.

The ingredients I've used:

• 3/4 tea spoon agar

• 1/4 tea spoon glycerin

• 40 ml water

• Chili powder from a pack of noodle soup and about 1/3 from the powder for the Bumbu sauce from the same pack.

Materials:

• 2 tea spoons

• Measurering cup

• Pan

• Whisk

• Electric hob

• Vaseline

• Mold from the 3D print week made from PET

I rubbed a little bit of Vaseline inside the mold before i started with cooking. I mixed the ingredients together in the pan and keeped stirring with a whisk until it started to boil.

Afterwards i poured it in the mold and saw that i had some left over. I thought it was a shame to throw it away so I quickly picked up a new cup that I quickly rubbed with Vaseline. Then i sprankled some oath flakes in there to see what that will do later and poured the left overs into it.

Result after 3 days

In these 3 days I left my window open as much as possible during the day and kept it closed at night. And this is the result:

It was crazy to see how it changed every day. The thing I was most curious about was whether the engraved mold and the crocodile mold changed anything in the texture of the bioplastic.

Actually it did!

And I'm very happy with the result from the crocodile mold, especially with the details.

Some more bioplastics

Agar Agar with paprika powder

Gelatine Foam

Agar Agar with PLA leftovers

For the left one, I first ironed the PLA in baking paper so that it would stay in the same shape without shifting. The right one is a PLA spider web that was in my material bag that I was lucky with.

Agar Agar with tulip petals

I doubled the ingredients from the Agar Agar recipe so it will be thicker and the tulip petals will be inside the pastic.

Agar Agar with ginseng tea

I teared oped a teabag with ginseng tea and cooked it with the other ingredients.

Discovering RGB

For this assignment i'm trying out a RGB LED. I've worked before with a Neopixel and RGB LED module, but not yet with a common cathode RGB LED.

I've looked on the internet for a tutorial which explains how to connect it and how to refer it in your Arduino code. I came across a tutorial that helped me a lot.

After everything set up i changed the code so it matched the pins on my NodeMCU. For each color pin you have to use a 220 ohm resistor.

int redPin   = D0;
int greenPin = D1;
int bluePin  = D2;

void setup() {
  
  pinMode(redPin, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(greenPin, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(bluePin, OUTPUT);
}
void loop() {
  setColor(255, 0, 0); // Red Color
  delay(1000);
  setColor(0, 255, 0); // Green Color
  delay(1000);
  setColor(0, 0, 255); // Blue Color
  delay(1000);
  setColor(255, 255, 255); // White Color
  delay(1000);
  setColor(170, 0, 255); // Purple Color
  delay(1000);
}
void setColor(int redValue, int greenValue, int blueValue) {
  analogWrite(redPin, redValue);
  analogWrite(greenPin, greenValue);
  analogWrite(bluePin, blueValue);
}

And the result:

RGB LED with LDR as input

Now i want to try changing the RGB color by using a LDR light sensor. I haven't worked with a LDR for a few months now so I copied the code from a previous project where i used it. I connected the LDR with a 100k ohm resistor on the breadboard.

I combined the code from LDR and RGB LED so it will change color as soon as i hold my hand above the LDR so it gets darker.

int sensorPin = A0; //LDR
int redPin= D0; 
int greenPin = D1;
int bluePin = D2;
int sensorValue = 0; // variable to store the value coming from the sensor

void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600); //sets serial port for communication
  pinMode(redPin, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(greenPin, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(bluePin, OUTPUT);
}
void loop() {
sensorValue = analogRead(sensorPin); // read the value from the sensor
Serial.println(sensorValue); //prints the values coming from the sensor on the screen


delay(100);

if (sensorValue < 1000) {
  setColor(170, 0, 255); //purple
  }

  else {
    setColor(0, 255, 0); //green
    }

}

void setColor(int redValue, int greenValue, int blueValue) {
  analogWrite(redPin, redValue);
  analogWrite(greenPin, greenValue);
  analogWrite(bluePin, blueValue);
}

In this assignment I'm going to make a virtual swatch with Processing and Arduino by using the analog sensor I've made in week 6.

Software i used

• Arduino

• Processing

Hardware i used

• Breadboard

• 100K ohm resistor

• NodeMCU

• LDR

• Analog sensor from week 6

• 7 cables to connect everything

Inspiration

At first I've looked through te examples from Processing for inspiration and came across this example I want to combine with Arduino.

By tweaking the values with my analog sensor i want to create more triangles so it will turn into a big circle, the same for the other way around.

Visually, I want it to look like it fits this series:

Arduino

The Arduino code looks like this:

int sensorValue = 0;

void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600); //needs to match processing baudrate
}

void loop() {
//Serial.println(analogRead(A0)); // for debugging only
sensorValue = analogRead(A0); // store value in sensorValue
Serial.write(map(sensorValue, 0,1023,0,255)); // map to processing range
delay(50);
}

I can use this code for the LDR and for the analog sensor I've made because i only want to read the values. The value is also mapped to 0 - 255 instead of 0 - 1023. I uploaded this code to the NodeMCU.

Schematic:

For the first time to make sure it works i will use the LDR instead of the analog sensor I made.

Processing

The last thing in processing i needed to do was to make sure the visual will fit in the serie. It finally looked like this:

The final code in Processing:

import processing.serial.*;
int x;
int y;
float outsideRadius = 150;
float insideRadius = 100;
Serial myPort;
int dataInput;
PImage bg;


void setup() {
  size(500, 500);
  String portName = "/dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART";  //change to your own port address!
  myPort = new Serial(this, portName, 9600); //needs to match arduino baudrate
  background(204);
  x = width/2;
  y = height/2;
}

void draw() {
  background(0);
  
  int numPoints = int(map(dataInput, 0, width, 6, 60));
  float angle = 0;
  float angleStep = 180.0/numPoints;
    
  beginShape(TRIANGLE_STRIP); 
  for (int i = 0; i <= numPoints; i++) {
    float px = x + cos(radians(angle)) * outsideRadius;
    float py = y + sin(radians(angle)) * outsideRadius;
    angle += angleStep;
    vertex(px, py);
    px = x + cos(radians(angle)) * insideRadius;
    py = y + sin(radians(angle)) * insideRadius;
    vertex(px, py); 
    angle += angleStep;
    fill(color(219,137,61));
  }
  endShape();
  println(dataInput);
}

void serialEvent(Serial myPort) {
dataInput = myPort.read();
 }

Final results

First i tried it with a LDR and it worked.

Next i tried it with the analog sensor I've made for week 6 and i was very happy to see it working!

In this assignment i want to make a switch that closes a circuit that produces sound as output. The switch is an analog sensor that i will connect with a NodeMCU and a breadboard. For the sound as output i will use a Piezo Buzzer.

I will make the switch from cardboard and copper tape. The switch would have to fit in a serie of products as shown in the image below.

For my idea i want to make the switch as an wearable with two rings that will close the circuit whenever they touch eachother.

For prototyping purposes i am using gray cardboard and for the finished version i will use black cardboard.

First i draw some lines and than i cut out the unnecessary space. I leave a strip in the middle that connects the rings with each-other and to make it impossible to lose one ring.

After cutting i rolled up the strips that i will use as rings and secured it with adhesive tape. With a black marker I've marked the spots where i want to secure the copper tape.

This is how it looks like this far.

I taped some copper tape and can now start connecting everything. To make sure the switch works, I try it out with a LED.

Thanks to Kaj and Loes i discovered that i used a 10K ohm resistor and instead i should use a 220 ohm resistor. I switched the resistors and the LED was brighter.

Now comes the tricky part, connecting it with a buzzer instead of a LED and figuring out how to connect everything.

I've drawn a schematic from my first try.

Then the coding started, that was easier because I've worked with Arduino before and still remembered a lot. For the speaker i want it to play Sandstorm by Darude so I searched on the internet for the code of the notes that are in the song. I came across this video and copied the code of the notes that the maker left in the description.

The code was written for the Arduino UNO so i had to change everywhere where he defined "pin 8" to the D2 pin where i connected my buzzer. Then i wrote the code for the switch and used if and else with the sound. If i press the button music will play, else there is no music.

This is how my code looked so far:

const int buttonPin = D0;
const int speakerPin = D2;

#include "pitches.h"

int buttonState = 0;

 int shortTone = 80;
 int longTone = 200;
 int standardDelay = 50;
 int delayBetweenBars = 50;

void setup() {
  // put your setup code here, to run once:
  Serial.begin(9600);
  pinMode(buttonPin, INPUT);
  pinMode(speakerPin, OUTPUT);
}

void loop() {
  // put your main code here, to run repeatedly:
  buttonState = digitalRead(buttonPin);
  Serial.println(buttonState);

  if(buttonState == HIGH){
tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
   delay(shortTone);
  noTone(D2);
  delay(standardDelay);
tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
  delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
  delay(standardDelay);
tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, longTone);
 delay(longTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(delayBetweenBars);
 
    tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
   delay(shortTone);
  noTone(D2);
  delay(standardDelay);
tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
  delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
  delay(standardDelay);
tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, longTone);
 delay(longTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 
     tone(D2,  NOTE_E4, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2, NOTE_E4, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_E4, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_E4, shortTone);
   delay(shortTone);
  noTone(D2);
  delay(standardDelay);
tone(D2,  NOTE_E4, shortTone);
  delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_E4, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
  delay(standardDelay);
tone(D2,  NOTE_E4, longTone);
 delay(longTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 
 
     tone(D2,  NOTE_D4, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,NOTE_D4, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_D4, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_D4, shortTone);
   delay(shortTone);
  noTone(D2);
  delay(standardDelay);
tone(D2,  NOTE_D4, shortTone);
  delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_D4, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
  delay(standardDelay);
tone(D2,  NOTE_D4, longTone);
 delay(longTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 
tone(D2, NOTE_A3, longTone);
delay(longTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 
 tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
   delay(shortTone);
  noTone(D2);
  delay(standardDelay);
tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
  delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
  delay(standardDelay);
tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, longTone);
 delay(longTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(delayBetweenBars);
 
    tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
   delay(shortTone);
  noTone(D2);
  delay(standardDelay);
tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
  delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
  delay(standardDelay);
tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, longTone);
 delay(longTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 
 tone(D2, NOTE_E4, longTone);
 delay(longTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 
 tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
   delay(shortTone);
  noTone(D2);
  delay(standardDelay);
tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
  delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
  delay(standardDelay);
tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, longTone);
 delay(longTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(delayBetweenBars);
 
    tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
   delay(shortTone);
  noTone(D2);
  delay(standardDelay);
tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
  delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
  delay(standardDelay);
tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, longTone);
 delay(longTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 
tone(D2, NOTE_E4, longTone);
 delay(longTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
  }

  else {
    noTone(D2);}
  }
 

In the top of the code you see that i included a library named "pitches". That is a library with different notes that will come out of the buzzer. Otherwise there will be no sound.

This is what the library looks like:

/*************************************************
 * Public Constants
 *************************************************/

#define NOTE_B0  31
#define NOTE_C1  33
#define NOTE_CS1 35
#define NOTE_D1  37
#define NOTE_DS1 39
#define NOTE_E1  41
#define NOTE_F1  44
#define NOTE_FS1 46
#define NOTE_G1  49
#define NOTE_GS1 52
#define NOTE_A1  55
#define NOTE_AS1 58
#define NOTE_B1  62
#define NOTE_C2  65
#define NOTE_CS2 69
#define NOTE_D2  73
#define NOTE_DS2 78
#define NOTE_E2  82
#define NOTE_F2  87
#define NOTE_FS2 93
#define NOTE_G2  98
#define NOTE_GS2 104
#define NOTE_A2  110
#define NOTE_AS2 117
#define NOTE_B2  123
#define NOTE_C3  131
#define NOTE_CS3 139
#define NOTE_D3  147
#define NOTE_DS3 156
#define NOTE_E3  165
#define NOTE_F3  175
#define NOTE_FS3 185
#define NOTE_G3  196
#define NOTE_GS3 208
#define NOTE_A3  220
#define NOTE_AS3 233
#define NOTE_B3  247
#define NOTE_C4  262
#define NOTE_CS4 277
#define NOTE_D4  294
#define NOTE_DS4 311
#define NOTE_E4  330
#define NOTE_F4  349
#define NOTE_FS4 370
#define NOTE_G4  392
#define NOTE_GS4 415
#define NOTE_A4  440
#define NOTE_AS4 466
#define NOTE_B4  494
#define NOTE_C5  523
#define NOTE_CS5 554
#define NOTE_D5  587
#define NOTE_DS5 622
#define NOTE_E5  659
#define NOTE_F5  698
#define NOTE_FS5 740
#define NOTE_G5  784
#define NOTE_GS5 831
#define NOTE_A5  880
#define NOTE_AS5 932
#define NOTE_B5  988
#define NOTE_C6  1047
#define NOTE_CS6 1109
#define NOTE_D6  1175
#define NOTE_DS6 1245
#define NOTE_E6  1319
#define NOTE_F6  1397
#define NOTE_FS6 1480
#define NOTE_G6  1568
#define NOTE_GS6 1661
#define NOTE_A6  1760
#define NOTE_AS6 1865
#define NOTE_B6  1976
#define NOTE_C7  2093
#define NOTE_CS7 2217
#define NOTE_D7  2349
#define NOTE_DS7 2489
#define NOTE_E7  2637
#define NOTE_F7  2794
#define NOTE_FS7 2960
#define NOTE_G7  3136
#define NOTE_GS7 3322
#define NOTE_A7  3520
#define NOTE_AS7 3729
#define NOTE_B7  3951
#define NOTE_C8  4186
#define NOTE_CS8 4435
#define NOTE_D8  4699
#define NOTE_DS8 4978

After uploading the code to the NodeMCU it did not work. The speaker was playing the song but the switch was not working. I was sure that there was nothing wrong with the code so i had to figure it out with the cables to make the right circuit.

After almost 2 hours of debugging it finally worked out, sort of, but it was good enough.

I looked in the previous slides from Micky's tutorial with the button and LED and how to connect it with digital pins.

Now my schematic looks like this:

Now i will start with the black cardboard.

First i measured and drew lines where i want to cut.

The result after cutting everything:

I also cut out a piece from the stripes on each side so the rolling will go easier. After that i put some glue on the short sides and rolled it, holding it for a few seconds until it dried.

Now i cut out 2 pieces of copper tape. One is 4cm and the other 3cm. The 4cm piece is the piece what gets two paperclips for connecting. After placing the copper tape i'm done and ready to connect for the final test.

After connecting and turning it on again i discovered that it wasn't working properly. So i tried to switch the D0 to the A0 pin and changing it in the code as-well. I also changed the if and else statements after looking in the serial monitor what the values were. After uploading to the NodeMCU and testing it finally worked how i wanted it to work.

The final code:

const int buttonPin = A0;
const int speakerPin = D2;

#include "pitches.h"

int buttonState = 0;

 int shortTone = 80;
 int longTone = 200;
 int standardDelay = 50;
 int delayBetweenBars = 50;

void setup() {
  // put your setup code here, to run once:
  Serial.begin(9600);
  pinMode(buttonPin, INPUT);
  pinMode(speakerPin, OUTPUT);
}

void loop() {
  // put your main code here, to run repeatedly:
  buttonState = analogRead(buttonPin);
  Serial.println(buttonState);

  if(buttonState > 100){
tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
   delay(shortTone);
  noTone(D2);
  delay(standardDelay);
tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
  delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
  delay(standardDelay);
tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, longTone);
 delay(longTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(delayBetweenBars);
 
    tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
   delay(shortTone);
  noTone(D2);
  delay(standardDelay);
tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
  delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
  delay(standardDelay);
tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, longTone);
 delay(longTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 
     tone(D2,  NOTE_E4, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2, NOTE_E4, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_E4, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_E4, shortTone);
   delay(shortTone);
  noTone(D2);
  delay(standardDelay);
tone(D2,  NOTE_E4, shortTone);
  delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_E4, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
  delay(standardDelay);
tone(D2,  NOTE_E4, longTone);
 delay(longTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 
 
     tone(D2,  NOTE_D4, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,NOTE_D4, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_D4, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_D4, shortTone);
   delay(shortTone);
  noTone(D2);
  delay(standardDelay);
tone(D2,  NOTE_D4, shortTone);
  delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_D4, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
  delay(standardDelay);
tone(D2,  NOTE_D4, longTone);
 delay(longTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 
tone(D2, NOTE_A3, longTone);
delay(longTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 
 tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
   delay(shortTone);
  noTone(D2);
  delay(standardDelay);
tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
  delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
  delay(standardDelay);
tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, longTone);
 delay(longTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(delayBetweenBars);
 
    tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
   delay(shortTone);
  noTone(D2);
  delay(standardDelay);
tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
  delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
  delay(standardDelay);
tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, longTone);
 delay(longTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 
 tone(D2, NOTE_E4, longTone);
 delay(longTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 
 tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
   delay(shortTone);
  noTone(D2);
  delay(standardDelay);
tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
  delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
  delay(standardDelay);
tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, longTone);
 delay(longTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(delayBetweenBars);
 
    tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
   delay(shortTone);
  noTone(D2);
  delay(standardDelay);
tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
  delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, shortTone);
 delay(shortTone);
 noTone(D2);
  delay(standardDelay);
tone(D2,  NOTE_B3, longTone);
 delay(longTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
 
tone(D2, NOTE_E4, longTone);
 delay(longTone);
 noTone(D2);
 delay(standardDelay);
  }

  else if (buttonState < 99) {
    noTone(D2);}
  }

I'm not sure if this was the right way of debugging but it worked.

Video of the final result:

I made another variant of the wearable switch that would fit better with the rest of the series. Instead of cutting the unnecessary space i only cut the strips to make two rings. Now the design is more square and would fit better with the rest. In addition the copper tape goes around the ring.

Zine

Experience

When I look at how I have worked in the past eight weeks, it is different than I normally do at CMD. At CMD you mainly do research on the internet, you create scenarios, you do interviews, you create an experience map and you use other methods. In the minor I do research by making and trying physical things. You think about the material you use and how you use it. In times like quarantine, the materials are scarce and you think about it more than usual.

In “Back to the Basics: Or Why Education Is Going Back to Making” I see more similarities within CMD than in the minor. Except for the fact that we have to think about designing for a contemporary context and understand how the materials work.

Think

Think about what you are going to make and what you need. Write or sketch all your ideas and materials that you may want to use for that. Think about where your material comes from and whether you are doing well to work with it (what your contribution to the environment is, for example). Then choose an idea and continue with it.

Design

What will your idea look like? Design it on paper or on your computer. Optionally make a prototype of paper. If you are going to work with equipment that needs a file, design it immediately.

Make

Make everything as you have thought and makes sense to you. Fail it? Do not throw it away, keep it and try another way. There is also a lot of improvisation involved.

Reflection

This week I've worked with Arduino again. I've learned how to work with a common cathode RGB LED, I've never done this before and it was easy to learn. In this weeks assignment I wanted a bigger challenge and I challenged myself to work with Processing. For me, Processing was another new world that opened up. When i had time left I've tried to make an audio visualizer in Processing, but that was a bit too much for me.

It was nice that I could make something in Processing that will fit in the serie of Loes. I've used the analog sensor I made from week 6 as an input and Processing as output. I did not consider how technical all this was and how much I learned about it in a short time.

For further application I want to see if it is possible to get Processing working in a website and to process that in my own website.

Makers skills & Attitude

Design Research Skill

Collaborative Learning

According to safety.com it is important to consider the price, function and space if you want to buy fitness equipment.

Their top 10 consists of (price included according to Amazon and a small description):

• Indoor rowing machine (€500). Rowing machine for cardio and condition exercises. Gyms and rehabilitation care.

• TRX bodyweight trainer (€50 - €105). Long strap with two handles that you can mount on the ceiling or stand on, most often used when training chest or upper leg. Gyms and rehabilitation care.

• Power tower pull up station (€240). A "tower" with which you pull yourself up from your arms, mainly used for upper body training. Gyms.

• Resistance bands (starting from €20). Elastic bands with different resistance force, used for training legs and feet. Gyms and rehabilitation care.

• Spinning bike (€500). Mostly for exercising cardio and stamina. Gyms and rehabilitation care.

• Wall mount cable station (€900). A tower with weights and two cables with grips, while pulling the cables the weights will come up. Used for upper body exercises. Gyms

• StrengthTech EXM2500S (€2500). A fitness machine that you sit on and lift weights from your arms, mostly used for arms and chest exercises. Gyms.

• Bosu balance cushion (starting from €75). A round balance cushion with which you can train your whole body, also recommended for injury prevention and used both in private and rehabilitation. Gyms and rehabilitation care.

• Treadmill (€1100). Treadmill where you can walk and run on, used for stamina. Gyms and rehabilitation care.

Source: https://www.safety.com/home-gym-equipment/

Conclusion

Fitness equipment is expensive and especially if only used during a lockdown. The most interesting thing to focus on is the balance cushion because the use is focused on your whole body and it is used both privately and in rehabilitation. In my current physiotherapy treatment we also often use a balance cushion and in the past she has also recommended that I do exercises at home by purchasing one or using a different pillow, but that is not the same. When I think about how I could recreate this list of equipment with bioplastics, most things related to weights fall off because it is difficult to make bioplastic heavy. To put it in an exaggerated way, you may need a 50 cubic centimeter to have 1 kilo of weight.

I've tried to do research in bioplastic work out equipment but as far as searched i couldn't find any. This is a big insight because I could be the first one that could create one.

If i focus on a balance cushion the next step would be to experiment with bioplastics in what composition at the same time is firm and squishy. If i found the right composition then I will focus on how other can recreate it.

I found it enjoyable and interesting to work on:

• Bioplastics: especially to think about future applications.

• Electronics.

• 3D modeling and printing.

From the 3 themes i'm most interested in:

This part is hard to choose for me because they all have aspects that are interesting. I will look through the resources to get some inspiration and to make a choice.

I explored the resources and will work on:

After getting some inspiration I've decided to choose for theme 2: Material Activism & Archiving. For the idea i have in mind it will have a slight piece of the Covid theme.

I got inspired by these resources:

• Radical Matter, by Kate Franklin and Caroline Till, 2019.

• Biofabricating Materials by, Cecilia Raspanti, 2019

• Blood Bio Leather, by Shahar Livne Design

I want to contribute by:

Due to the current Covid-19 situation we have to sit at home and facilities such as gyms and physio practices are closed, we are limited in material with which we can exercise or move. I want to see if it is possible through material properties of bioplastics to be able to make exercise material at home in order to be able to do exercise to stay physically active.

This is relevant because:

As is described before due the current Covid-19 situation. Because we have to stay at home, we do not exercise enough so that you can start to feel down and possibly become depressed. By exercising this is a way to counter such a thing and to stay in shape physically and mentally.

My first experiment will be:

I want to recreate a balance cushion i have at home by making one from bioplastic and to look at the material properties that it will be the same as what the balance cushion can do.

List of tools i will need:

• Moulds

• Recipes (have to do further research in what kind of recipe)

• Agar

• Glycerine

• Water

• Gelatine

Local suppliers that are open during the Covid-19 situation:

• Holland and Barrett

• Albert Heijn & Vomar

• Action

• Sligro (I don't have a card for it)

Other source that can be helpfull is my physio therapist. The physiotherapy practice is in the same building where I live in.

Makers skills & Attitude

Design Research Skills

Collaborative Learning

In my first experiment i want to experiment with agar based and gelatin based bioplastic. From this experiment I want to discover which composition is the strongest, but it also has to be squeezable.

I chose agar and gelatin because I discovered during the bioplastics week that it is quite firm. In this case it was slices but now I want to make it thicker and massive to see if it stays that way and what happens when I squeeze it. If it is really that sturdy, I want to see what would happen if I stand on it with all my weight.

Cooking bioplastics

For the gelatin based recipe i used the recipe from the Bioplastic Cookbook by Margaret Dunne. I doubled de amount of ingredients because I want to make a bigger piece than before in the bioplastic week.

Ingredients

• 24 grams of gelatin

• 120 ml water

• 15 grams of glycerine

I warmed it up while stirring with a spoon so that it became a composition that started to feel thicker while stirring. Then I poured it into a bowl and placed it next to an open window to dry.

I did exactly the same with the agar based bioplastic. The agar packaging stated that 3 grams of gelatin is equal to 1 gram of agar and I used that in my recipe. I had written down a formula to calculate how much I needed.

Ingredients

• 8 gram of agar

• 120 ml water

• 15 grams of glycerine

I let them dry for two days before testing.

What struck me is that the agar based bioplastic had shrunk a lot in comparison with the gelatin based one.

After drying i squeezed both of them with full force to see what happens and also did a durability test by standing on them.

Conclusion

After testing both, I came to the conclusion to continue with the gelatin base bioplastic. I chose this because that of agar shrinks enormously and quickly. When the gelatin is pressed and squeezed, it quickly "inflates" again while remaining dented with the agar.

On a small scale, the gelatin base bioplastic has the right properties for a balance pillow and the next step is to make it bigger.

For getting some inspiration we did a brainstorm session with Micky. The day before I've went to the beach to do some inspiration myself and I found some shells that might come in handy to use as materials.

Taking a look in my environment

At first we had to look around in our room and to sketch what we see.

Mind maps

Secondly for each theme I came with some idea's and put it in a mind map. Afterwards in duo's we had to show what we had and put the idea's together.

Theme 1: Covid-19

The ideas translated:

• Moving/exercise

• Soap dispenser with Arduino

• Reset button

• Human contact

• Make everything by yourself

• Reusable face masks

• Morphsuit that protects from bacteria for people who work in healthcare

• Spreading people/distancing

• Country land of the future

Theme 2: Materials

The ideas translated:

• From old or broken skateboards to furniture

• Gelatine swimming pool

• Edible clothing from mango leather

• Home exercising/workout set from bioplastic

• Giving shells from the beach a new purpose

• Finding a way to become more durable by making things by yourself

Theme 3: Homo Faber tools

The ideas translated:

• Plasma sphere

• Lava-lamp

• Inflatables that work on their own

• Reusable tools

• Guitar tuner with Arduino or Processing

• Making moulds for skateboarding wheels

Combining themes

Combining Material & Archiving with Covid-19:

Combining Material & Archiving with Homo Faber tools:

Combining Homo Faber tools with Covid-19:

I had a reframing session with Laura and it helped me a lot by looking at my project differently and also gaining new insights.

She made me realize that this would be a great solution to stimulate home fitness and that there is a possibility that this hasn't been done yet in the fitness and the open source world.

Because I want to make it accessible that everyone can copy it, I got the tip to use stuff that everyone also has at home or can easily buy in the supermarket. Not everyone has a broken clock that they can take apart.

I also got the tip to ask other people how they exercise at home during the lockdown, so I asked some friends of mine.

My friend Rolf mostly exercises in his backyard without any equipment and goes out for a run around the block.

Matthijs goes out for a run as well and works out at home and in his backyard. Sometimes he uses his 1 year old sons toys to do his exercises and in addition he uses weights and a skipping rope.

Maker skills & Attitude

Design research skills

Collaborative Learning

In this assignment I've asked my roommate Djordi to assist me.

From each bioplastic I made, I asked questions according to the MA2E4 toolkit worksheet that Djordi answered.

Here is the video where Djordi is discovering every piece of bioplastic. The video is in Dutch.

Agar Agar

Performative level

Watch the video above from 00:00 - 00:35.

Sensorial level

Interpretive level

Djordi describes this as a jar of hair gel that is very old.

Meanings of the material:

• Calm

• Aloof

• Vulgar

• Frivolous

• Futuristic

• Feminine

• Strange

• Not sexy

• Professional

• Hand-crafted

Affective level

• Frustration

• Boredom

• Disappointment

• Reluctance

• Confusion

• Rejection

• Disgust

• Curiosity

• Distrust

• Doubt

Agar Agar with coffee

Performative level

Watch the video above from 00:36 - 01:25.

Sensorial level

Interpretive level

1. Shoe polish

2. Licorice colored

3. Coffee

Meanings of the material:

• Calm

• Aloof

• Vulgar

• Sober

• Nostalgic

• Masculine

• Strange

• Not sexy

• Professional

• Manufactured

Affective level

• Frustration

• Boredom

• Surprise

• Reluctance

• Confusion

• Rejection

• Disgust

• Melancholy

• Distrust

• Doubt

Agar Agar Foam

Performative level

Watch the video above from 01:25 - 01:51.

Sensorial level

Interpretive level

1. Old

2. Soap

3. Candle wax

Meanings of the material:

• Calm

• Cosy

• Elegant

• Frivolous

• Nostalgic

• Feminine

• Ordinary

• Toy-like

• Natural

• Hand-crafted

Affective level

• Love

• Amusement

• Surprise

• Confidence

• Enchantment

• Respect

• Attraction

• Curiosity

• Fascination

• Comfort

Agar Agar with oath cereals

Performative level

Watch the video above from 01:51 - end.

Sensorial level

Interpretive level

1. Chocolate

2. Nuts

3. Cookies, "kletskoppen" in Dutch

Meanings of the material:

• Aggressive

• Aloof

• Elegant

• Frivolous

• Nostalgic

• Masculine

• Strange

• Not sexy

• Professional

• Manufactured

Affective level

• Love

• Amusement

• Disappointment

• Reluctance

• Confusion

• Respect

• Disgust

• Melancholy

• Distrust

• Doubt

Technical properties

I tested the technical properties with two of the bioplastics I've made.

Agar Agar with chili powder

Fire resistance: No / It burns easily

UV resistance: Poor / Exposing it to the sun makes it dry

Weather resistance: Poor / Putting it in a glass of water makes it losing its color

Scratch resistance: No / Easy to tear up

Weight: Light

Chemical resistance: Unknown / Not able to test this

Renewable: No

Agar Agar Foam

Fire resistance: Moderate / First it melts and after a few seconds it burns

UV resistance: Poor / Exposing it to the sun makes it dry and shrinks a lot

Weather resistance: Poor / Putting it in a glass of water makes it transparent. After touching it the soap comes off

Scratch resistance: No / Easy to tear up

Weight: Medium for its size

Chemical resistance: Unknown / Not able to test this

Renewable: Yes / Can be melted

Future application

By playing a little with the Gelatine Foam I've made I discoverd that i can press it/squeeze it with whole my weight.

My fingers moved a bit from side to side while pressing and i got an idea for an application.

You could create a balance cushion for working out. Especially if you are doing an exercise where you have to stand on one leg and your whole weight is on the cushion it is hard to keep balance. This would be a better application than my current balance cushion.

Through the coaching session I started looking at what shape the balance cushion should take. I also have a balance pad myself and examined why it looks that way.

Balance cushion

As you can see in the picture it has a dotted side. This is intended so that you do not slip when you do your workout on a carpet. The other side is smooth, which makes it difficult to slip on a wooden floor.

What I also thought about is what I paid a while back for this balance cushion and €30 is a ridiculous price for a small piece of rubber filled with air. The quality is poor and as you stand on it you can feel the surface below and that is not challenging at all while working out. What I get out of this is that you should pay more if you want a good balance cushion.

I tested with the gelatin based bioplastic I created last week if it slips away on a wooden surface and on a carpet. It did not slip away.

Molds

I want to try different shapes to cast in bigger molds. I've teared down an old broken clock and going to use the housing as mold. This would be a flat mold. For a rounded shape i want to use a salad bowl

This week I want to create a bigger gelatin based balance cushion. I want to try out two shapes, flat and rounded. For the flat one I use my mold from the housing of the old clock. For the shaped one I use a mixing/salad bowl.

Cooking

Ingredients

Once again I used the Bioplastics Cookbook by Margaret Dunne.

I upscaled the amount:

• 1L water

• 200 grams of gelatin

• 120 grams of glycerine

In the flat shaped mold I put some transparent foil so it would not leak when I cast.

I mixed everything together in a bigger pan than before and kept stirring until it became one composition and started to thicken. When it thickens i poured it in both molds.

Drying and testing

After casting in the molds I've let it dry for two nights next to an open window before taking out.

The picture above clearly shows the difference between the flat and the rounded shape. I've tested them by standing on it with my whole weight and doing a short workout.

Conclusion

The rounded shape worked fine and challenging to do exercises and would like to continue with that. The flat shape didn't work out because it functioned more like a mat and you could stand on it as long as you wanted. Another application for the flat shape could be a fitness mat.

Maker skills & Attitude

Design Research Skills

Collaborative Learning

My project in one sentence

Making fitness equipment by yourself from bioplastic to stimulate home fitness during the lockdown (Covid-19).

Which disciplines are involved in this and what is considered normal

1. Gyms - Accessible for everyone

2. Rehabilitation care - Specific way of fitness with focus on a part of your body. Guided workouts.

3. Sports club (for example a football club) - Two or three times a week training and one match.

4. Fitness equipment companies - You can only exercise with expensive equipment or if you have a lot of money

From which larger issues does this assumption divert attention

1. Fitness equipment: Money and space.

2. Sports club: Closed during the lockdown, athletes are stuck at home.

3. Rehabilitation care: Closed during the lockdown, people are lagging behind with rehabilitation or physical complaints.

4. Gyms: Closed during the lockdown, people do not know how to workout at home.

How could you reverse it. "What if.."

What if fitness equipment was cheap and mini.

• Foldable fitness equipment

What if there was a priority plan for specific patients for physiotherapy during the lockdown.

• Priority for patients who have to relearn to walk for example.

What if gyms bring their equipment to you.

• Renting equipment from gyms.

Maker skills & Attitude

Design Research Skills

Collaborative Learning

When I was shopping I found the perfect mold for casting a balance cushion at Albert Heijn. It's a big hard plastic salad bowl, I'm not sure what kind of plastic.

Ingredients

• 900 ml water

• 100ml dishwasher soap

• 200 grams gelatin

• 120 gram glycerine

The recipe is the same as before but with a slight change. I'll add 100ml of dishwasher soap. I do this because it worked in the bioplastics week and had no fungus. Depending on the soap color, the balance cushion takes on that color, in this case green.

I added the soap later on during cooking.

After it got thicker I poured it into the mold. I poured the leftovers in a deep plate i had lying around to see how that will turn out, out of curiosity. I left next to my open window to dry for two nights to be sure that I can take it out of the molds.

The one in the metal plate dried very fast and hardened as well, it started to warp a bit.

It is nice to see that if you hold it in a certain light you will see a rainbow through the dishwasher soap I added.

The balance cushion came out nice as well. It is the right size and will shrink over time, but it is good for strength and balance exercises.

I left them for the next few days on the same place next to my open window.

During the coaching session with Marjolein I asked the other students if they had some tips for fungus prevention. Desiree told me to flip the piece over time by time. Desiree's tip in combination with the dishwasher soap did the trick.

Maker skills & Attitude

Design Research Skills

Collaborative Learning

I had a second reframing session with Laura. Through this session I learned what I can investigate further to improve my story that I want to tell.

How do you dispose the gelatin balance cushion?

It was difficult to find anything about this but I did find this video. It is very different from what I have been doing, in this case a swimming pool filled with gelatin. This inspired me to try something alike.

I made a saline solution with water and put a sample in it. After an hour it got softer than it was and I could easily pierce it with a spoon.

How do you store and clean the balance cushion?

Due to the bioplastics week in the first block, I saw that my samples are still good and have no fungus. This is because I kept them in a foil in a dark place, in my kitchen drawer.

What are the exercises you can do with the balance cushion?

I have not thought about which exercises the user can do with the balance cushion because it makes sense to me but perhaps not to other people. I will ask my physiotherapist about some exercises.

Third world countries and fitness

To do some inspiration Laura gave me a tip to look how people work out in third world countries.

In the article below Craig Weller tells about how he exercised when he spent a few years in different third world country during his time in the navy.

He had a rope and two rings that he could hang in an industrial place. In addition all he had were sandbags and rocks and with these limited materials he developed a fitness program. He used rocks for underwater weighted sprint exercises

A part of the program cosisted of:

Mobility warm-up (dynamic leg swings, high-knee running, etc.) Sandbag sprints, 6 rounds (2 overhead, 2 underhand, 2 rotational) Stone sprints, 5 rounds Underwater rock running, 1 round

New insights and conclusion

Due the reframing session with Laura and coaching/brainstorming with Marjolein I decided to change something in my concept.

Gelatin gets harder over time and keeping it soft all the time will be tricky for the user and the chance of fungus is also high because it also retains moisture if it stays soft.

It seemed logical to me at first to seal the balance cushion with transparent foil and keep it in a dark place, but there it started to get moldy.

I also realized that during the bioplastics week I left my samples next to my open window for a long due my laziness to clean it up and store it somewhere else. These samples were much smaller and in the next week I will try to maintain better supervision during drying.

Now I want the balance cushion to get harder over time. The user will do different exercises based on the hardness of the balance cushion. As a result, the exercises are no longer monotonous and the user has a different schedule of exercises every week based on the hardness.

I will also look for an mould in a local store where I will make my final product.

Maker skills & Attitude

Design Research Skills

Collaborative Learning

Due to the current measures related to Covid-19, we are stuck at home. The gyms are closed and people who are in rehabilitation cannot go to the physiotherapist. It is difficult to exercise at home because many people are limited in sports materials. Sports materials are often expensive to purchase and the exercises you can do with them are often monotonous.

I want to show that it is possible to make your own workout material with the stuff you have at home and what you can get from your local supermarket, which is cheaper. I want to do this by means of a gelatin based balance cushion in a way that everyone can make it themselves. With a balance cushion it is possible to do exercises that train muscles throughout your body.

Due to the different material properties that gelatin entails in the process that it hardens, the user can maintain a sports schedule. This starts with soft where the focus is on strength and balance, after which it hardens and the user can focus on stamina.