Week 1
Kate's Physical Computing Journal
Some Thoughts on the first week of Physical Computing....
Walking into an electronics store with a list of parts and absolutely no idea what anything means was something I had never imagined myself doing. But that's what I love about this program. Everything is new. It's like I started all over. No boredom--confusion perhaps but there is a sense of living in doing new things. Electronic components are beautiful, shiny and colorful with this mysterious feeling of power. They make you want to touch and grab and put together.
I was worried when I first arrived at the school that there wasn't enough artistic work in the classes but as I am learning I have found that this is probably more artistic then anything I have ever done. Before I worked with tools and never questioned them. Now I can not only create my artwork but I can bring it into being. The birth of new things.
It all brings to mind other times in history--times when imagination was overflowing because there were so many questions left out there...how did we invent airplanes, cars, boats...they all came out of questions, some out of necessity first, and I hope to try to open up my mind to that same way of thinking. It's difficult because I'm not used to it. I have pretty much lived a life of accepting my reality as it is. I didn't think of the power I had to create my own reality. I see this as the major challenge of the class...how can I think outside of my usual realm of thinking. How can I allow myself that freedom?
- What it is -- (http://www.longnow.org)
"Civilization is revving itself into a pathologically short attention span." In response to his view that society has much too short an attention span, Danny Hillis, once a designer of supercomputers and theme park rides, decided to (In a way) redefine the common use of long term. He wanted to use long term not just in terms of ones lifetime but at least in terms of centuries. His solution was a clock.
"When I was a child, people used to talk about what would happen by the year 2000. For the next thirty years they kept talking about what would happen by the year 2000, and now no one mentions a future date at all. The future has been shrinking by one year per year for my entire life. I think it is time for us to start a long-term project that gets people thinking past the mental barrier of an ever-shortening future. I would like to propose a large (think Stonehenge) mechanical clock, powered b y seasonal temperature changes. It ticks once a year, bongs once a century, and the cuckoo comes out every millennium." - What is so special about
the clock?
The clock is meant to tick through 1,000 decades. The clock uses a binary digital-mechanical system. - The Questions Asked
What I found most interesting when thinking about this clock was what problems did designers solve, why did they make certain choices? What was the process?- The clock must last.
Not only for a short time but for 10,000 years and the clock must
remain accurate.
I think that anyone working in technology should take this into consideration. Our education does. With technology rapidly changing how can we make things that last? Maybe allow for upgrades but when you get down to the very basic part of what you create how can you make that endure. You have to question everything, choices of materials, types of technology, location, etc. Or maybe you don;t want it to last at all...maybe that is the point of it.- Danny's team took
three things into consideration for this question: Power Timing
and Display.
They decided to make it human powered--when you come up to it it displays the time the last person visited. If you want the current time you have to wind it. The timing decision came in two parts, a pendulum and the sun. The noontime sun will heat up a piece of metal so that it expands and flips a match and resets the clock. (I see a problem with this one...how can they predict the heat of the sun at noon for that many years?) And finally the display---They had to build a type of computer to keep track of both natural time and calendar time. They could not use gears because of the large calculations involved so they built a computer using levers and wheels which add numbers each time the clock ticks so that the dials turn correctly.
- Danny's team took
three things into consideration for this question: Power Timing
and Display.
- The clock must be able to be used by people. How can you allow people to use something they know nothing about? They solved this by making all the parts visible and making the clock strictly mechanical.
- The clock must last.
Not only for a short time but for 10,000 years and the clock must
remain accurate.
- Other points of interest
There are a lot of sociological as well as cultural aspects to the clock. I think what draws me to it is that it is so full of life. It has such a rich symbolism.
Analog--(normal clock) continuous, infinite number of points
Digital-(digital clock) discreet or discontinuous
Read "The inmates are Running the Asylum" chapter 1 by Buxton and "Less is more (more is less)" by Cooper
Hopefully as the class goes on I can fill this space...I would like to use my environment (New York) as an inspiration because it is so unlike any other place I have lived.