Sensthethesia

We are done with our mini project and that makes me quite relieved. Our group had a pretty hard time scheduling times that we could meet. Most of our group was gone the first week and we were all pretty bad at or just terribly unlucky at checking our emails (except Muhammad Zahid, who deserves my apology for always getting his message a day late.) .It was even harder to decide what exactly we were going to do. A lot of ideas were too hard or were too artistically vague. Our group thought we had something going toward the end of the second week with the ferrofluid that Andy had ordered but that ended up being a chemical puzzle and we were lacking a chemist. I even asked some chemists I knew but nothing really came off the top of their head or they weren’t household solutions either. We finally had to make the executive decision of scraping the last two weeks research and coming up with something to do in a short amount of time. Nick had an interesting idea about having two logo chips hooked to keyboards that would type randomly and eventually write something from Shakespeare just as the saying goes…Put two computer chips in a room etc etc. Nick and I talked again toward the deadline about some kind of statement we could make about technology and computers. He was interested in changing and complicating interfaces, specifically the mouse. The mouse seemed like a simple idea to emulate to me. We sat and discussed it with Andy, while he was available, and came up with basics of how this would come about. That night I robbed my poor mother’s mouse from her computer and rewired it with CAT5 cables so that I could use the right and left click remotely. Around Ten O’clock that night Nick was able to meet me in the studio and we built the whole thing from scratch. It took us until about midnight. Today I found my old digital camera I got for Christmas and uploaded pictures to the mini project wiki. That has been what the mini project journey has been like for me. I don’t think we made as pristine of a product as we could be but I think the real message our group got out of this was the problems with concept vs. design. It seemed like the ideas that the engineers came up were to technical and a artistically unsound. I think it is important for the artist to take an initiative in coming up with the concept, the engineers providing a means, then both groups coming together in the execution. It seem that with Nick finally said “this is what I want to do” and I was able to say “this is how we could do it” and then we did it, that there was the most natural progression in our work and the most efficient use of our expertise. I hope this will help keep me in perspective for the final project and that it will be as much fun as do the mini project was!

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;WAR CITY PROTOCOL
;Tommy Engdahl
;This is the protocol for a city at war-a network of waring chips
;One on One /Green Side

global [rpop]
global [gpop]
global [pop]
global [color]
global [X]
global [y]
global [war]
global [army]
global [growth]
global [vic]

to Powerup
main_initialization
loop
[
warloop
if (vic = 1) [powerup]
]
end

;——————————————–
to main_initialization
;include ad.lib
write $fc1 $f
;config-analog-lines 2
;a0 a1 input tech and year input.

;green number in binary
clearbit 0 portb-ddr
clearbit 1 portb-ddr
clearbit 2 portb-ddr
clearbit 3 portb-ddr

;red number in binary
clearbit 4 portb-ddr
clearbit 5 portb-ddr
clearbit 6 portb-ddr
clearbit 7 portb-ddr

;set pop to 1 Green
setgpop 1
setbit 0 portb
clearbit 1 portb
clearbit 2 portb
clearbit 3 portb

;set pop to 0 Red
setrpop 0
clearbit 4 portb
clearbit 5 portb
clearbit 6 portb
clearbit 7 portb

;Color Channel
;setbit 5 portc-ddr
;setbit 6 portc-ddr

;Turn Channel
clearbit 0 porta-ddr
setbit 1 porta-ddr

;War Channel1
clearbit 2 porta-ddr
setbit 3 porta-ddr

;troop channel1
clearbit 4 porta-ddr
setbit 5 porta-ddr

clearbit 0 porta
clearbit 2 porta
clearbit 4 porta
;clearbit 5 portc

setcolor 0
setgrowth 2
setvic 0
end
;————————————–

to warloop
setbit 0 porta

showled

;GDP Phase———————————

ifelse (color = 0)[setx gpop][setx rpop]
ifelse (x = 9) [setx 9][setx x + (random % growth)]
ifelse (color = 0)[setgpop x][setrpop x]
print x
print rpop
print gpop
print “—–”
showled

sety random % 100

;foriegn polocies———————————
if (x = 9)[setwar 1]
ifelse (x > 5) [setwar 0][if (y > 90) [setwar 1]]
setwar 0 ;forced peace

;build army————————————
if (war = 1)
[
setarmy x - (random % (x - 2) + 1)
]

;war phase———————————-
ifelse (war = 1)[setbit 2 porta][clearbit 2 porta]

turnsync

;If ((testbit 6 portc and (color = 1)) or not(testbit 6 portc and (color not 0)))
ifelse (war = 1)
[
ifelse (testbit 3 porta)
[
turnsync
ifelse (color = 0)[setx gpop][setx rpop]
setx x - 1 ;border clash
ifelse (color = 0)[setgpop x][setrpop x]
]
[
turnsync
invade
]
]
[
ifelse (testbit 3 porta)
[
turnsync
defend
resolve
]
[
turnsync
]
]

showled

turnsync

victory

showled

turninit
end

to showled
showred rpop   ;decodeing pop and sending binary to 7 segment with logic
showgreen gpop
wait 20
end

to showred :pop
setpop rpop
if (pop = 0)
[
clearbit 4 portb
clearbit 5 portb
clearbit 6 portb
clearbit 7 portb
]
if (pop = 1)
[
setbit 4 portb
clearbit 5 portb
clearbit 6 portb
clearbit 7 portb
]
if (pop = 2)
[
clearbit 4 portb
setbit 5 portb
clearbit 6 portb
clearbit 7 portb
]
if (pop = 3)
[
setbit 4 portb
setbit 5 portb
clearbit 6 portb
clearbit 7 portb
]
if (pop = 4)
[
clearbit 4 portb
clearbit 5 portb
setbit 6 portb
clearbit 7 portb
]
if (pop = 5)
[
setbit 4 portb
clearbit 5 portb
setbit 6 portb
clearbit 7 portb
]
if (pop = 6)
[
clearbit 4 portb
setbit 5 portb
setbit 6 portb
clearbit 7 portb
]
if (pop = 7)
[
setbit 4 portb
setbit 5 portb
setbit 6 portb
clearbit 7 portb
]
if (pop =
[
clearbit 4 portb
clearbit 5 portb
clearbit 6 portb
setbit 7 portb
]
if (pop = 9)
[
setbit 4 portb
clearbit 5 portb
clearbit 6 portb
setbit 7 portb
]
end

to showgreen :pop
setpop gpop
if (pop = 0)
[
clearbit 0 portb
clearbit 1 portb
clearbit 2 portb
clearbit 3 portb
]
if (pop = 1)
[
setbit 0 portb
clearbit 1 portb
clearbit 2 portb
clearbit 3 portb
]
if (pop = 2)
[
clearbit 0 portb
setbit 1 portb
clearbit 2 portb
clearbit 3 portb
]
if (pop = 3)
[
setbit 0 portb
setbit 1 portb
clearbit 2 portb
clearbit 3 portb
]
if (pop = 4)
[
clearbit 0 portb
clearbit 1 portb
setbit 2 portb
clearbit 3 portb
]
if (pop = 5)
[
setbit 0 portb
clearbit 1 portb
setbit 2 portb
clearbit 3 portb
]
if (pop = 6)
[
clearbit 0 portb
setbit 1 portb
setbit 2 portb
clearbit 3 portb
]
if (pop = 7)
[
setbit 0 portb
setbit 1 portb
setbit 2 portb
clearbit 3 portb
]
if (pop =
[
clearbit 0 portb
clearbit 1 portb
clearbit 2 portb
setbit 3 portb
]
if (pop = 9)
[
setbit 0 portb
clearbit 1 portb
clearbit 2 portb
setbit 3 portb
]
end

to turnsync
flash
clearbit 0 porta
loop [if (not testbit 1 porta)[setbit 0 porta stop]]
end

to warsync
clearbit 2 porta
loop [if (not testbit 3 porta)[setbit 2 porta stop]]
end

to armylisten
loop [if (not testbit 5 porta)[setbit 2 porta stop]]
end

to turninit

end

to invade
clearbit 4 porta
warsync
loop
[
warsync
ifelse (not(army = 0))
[
setbit 4 porta
setarmy army - 1
armylisten
]
[
clearbit 4 porta
stop
]
]
end

to defend
clearbit 4 porta
setarmy 0
warsync
loop
[
warsync
wait 1

ifelse (testbit 5 porta)
[
setarmy army + 1
wait 1
setbit 4 porta
wait 1
clearbit 4 porta
]
[
stop
]
]
end

to victory   ;losing contditions for game and player “resets” (you’ll never know you won here) infinite battle
ifelse (color = 0)
[
if (gpop = 0)
[
setbit 0 portb
setbit 1 portb
setbit 2 portb
setbit 3 portb
wait 100
setrpop 0
setgpop 2
]
]
[
if (rpop = 0)
[
setbit 4 portb
setbit 5 portb
setbit 6 portb
setbit 7 portb
wait 100
setrpop 2
setgpop 0
]
setvic 1
]
end

to resolve
ifelse (color = 0)[setrpop army][setgpop army]
setarmy 0
showled
loop
[
showled
setx random % 3 ;1/3 chance of g,r,0 loss
if (x = 0) [setrpop rpop - 1]
if (x = 1) [setgpop gpop - 1]
if ((rpop = 0) or (gpop = 0))
[stop]

]
end

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I have an idea for making logochips have numerical wars. I have a one on one chip program that is 80%done. I will need logochip V2 in order to have one chip connected to two or more other chips with my current protocol scheme.

I have also come across a good source for 7segment led’s with built in logic. I will need a lot of these to display the numbers in the chips with minimal ports for decoding. I would like to find green ones though.

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An Engineer’s Review

Ulrich Museum March 2^nd, 2007

Thomas Engdahl

I was given an insightful tour of the Ulrich Museum and the adjoining facilities by Joshua Unterman. He first showed some of the processes of the art before exposing it in order to help the viewer understand the art better. Most specifically he introduced the basics of printing and showed some of the equipment. Then we proceeded into the Ulrich Museum from the back entrance.

The piece that really caught my eye was “Double Transversal” by Richard Serra. This was a very large print. The piece is very large in scale and occupies most of the wall it is hung on. It was also one of the first pieces visible when coming in from the back entrance. The print is very monochromatic; the black creating very large negative space opposed to the white walls of the room. The piece’s parallelism with two identical shapes create a very interesting illusion when view from a moderate distance both giving the shapes depth and also making the viewer doubtful of the two shape’s equality by use of devices such as skewed and concave perimeters. When viewed at a closer distance, more depth is exhibited from the large amount of ink used on this print. The inks clump up creating an almost metallic texture, like panted over oxidizing iron. Of course when viewed from the side the piece has no depth as all prints are flat, but the piece seems to merit such practices.

Another Piece that was discussed was “Torn Leaf Hold to Fallen Elm with Water” by Andy Goldsworthy. What was viewed was not the piece itself but a picture to document a temporary piece or ephemeral work. Goldsworthy used limited tools in this work, constructing the entire piece from trees and leaves and other elements from the surrounding stream. This clash between the eternal nature of the wild built on the brevity of life is portrayed by the platform that is the elm and the construction of the artist on the elm torn against the elm, revealing elm beneath the construction of leaves.

The last piece I want to discuss is “Landscape (detail)” by Kristen Beal –De Gandmont. This installation consisted of many small uniform pieces of plastic mounted to the wall. The white light shining from above the piece then created patterns as it affected by the properties of the plastic. The piece created an interesting three-dimensional presence when the light was viewed in conjunction with the plastic, making the plastic look like crystalline or solid glass. Upon further inspection, these fixtures were flat pieces of plastic shaped like raindrops. The idea of rain is further exemplified by the dense distribution of the plastic figures toward the top and a thinning number of figures as it worked its way to the floor. All the droplets faced downward which is important in a portrayal of rain and gravity.

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