Unschedule/Time spent

I wrote up an unschedule last week, but to make sure I was as accurate as possible, I made it for this week.  The red is my unschedule, while the green is how I'm actually spending my time.  As a bit of an extra challenge, my brother is in town for the first half of the week.  He has, however, been cool with the fact that I block out three to four hours a day to do work.  The nice thing about the embedded calendar is that it is dynamic, so stop by on the regular and check out how I'm doing.

Thesis Progress Roundup, week 3

So forgive the new format, but since I'm posting the assignments as I complete them, there will be a bit of a link storm as I recap old material alongside the progress I list here.

The first point I made in the last week was to sit down with my advisor, Ethan Hein.  More details and a lovely picture can be found here.

The second point was to reach out to some other individuals who can help with the more practical aspects of my piece.  First was fellow NYU student Adam November, who build an amazing harp that runs on a Max patch and uses capacitive sensing, which is like the mechanism I'm using to run Better With You.  We'll be getting lunch later this week while we talk about durable conductive materials.

Here is Adam making a microphone out of a sponge because the world is just wonderful.

With the help of Steinhardt music professor Alex Ruthmann, I was also able to reach out to the creator of the Makey Makey himself, Eric Rosenbaum.  I'm currently discussing human conductivity via email with him.

Once you've made a piano with bananas, everything else is just downhill.

In addition to outreach, I also had to complete two other assignments, the first draft of my outline and answering three questions after listening to a podcast.  The links to those posts are below:

Outline, draft 1

Three questions

Other than that, I've just been chugging along with Max tutorials, and am on my way to having some sort of music generator patch up on here.

Next roundup in a week, but I guarantee that if the faithful stay online, you'll get a bunch more posts before then.

Three questions exercise

So DeAngela had us listen to this podcast, which examined the questions one needed to ask oneself when going through the creative process.  Those questions were "Why," "What If?" and "How?"

After listening to examples of how this line of questioning worked, why the order was important, and how the Polaroid camera was created, we were then instructed to come up with our own questions.  And here they are:

For those interested in viewing this in a different format, it's available here.

Outline, draft 1

So here is that first outline of my thesis paper, now in convenient JPEG format:

For those who are having trouble seeing it, here's the link to the Google doc (viewing only).

Catch you on the flip.

Thesis Statment, draft 2

After meeting with my responsibility partner Donovan this afternoon, I really had to think about what kind of question I'm trying to ask and then answer with this project, while keeping it brief.  Here is my second go at a thesis statement:

The emphasis commonly put on play by children has a tendency to subside greatly as we approach adulthood, which can lead to effects like depression and feelings of isolation.  Better With You is an installation piece that aims to counter the effects of diminished play by creating stronger bonds between people through the means of music and human touch.

See you in draft three.

Thesis Progress, Week 2

As suggested by our instructor, I created a few systems to stay on top of productivity.  In addition to the iCal, which syncs to my phone to give me reminders of due dates, I also set up a project milestones Kanbanery board.  While not entirely complete, it allows me to assess different areas where I need to focus.

In order to better express the two main components of my project, Better With You, I created a mind map.

Admittedly, the concepts here are rather general, since my line of thinking on this is mostly of the tangible, practical nature.  Treating my project like a body, I have to pay attention to both the physical and mental (software) development, so that it functions like I intend to.

However, this line of thinking doesn't account for the cultural context of my project.  There are a lot of intangibles that I would need to be able to explain.  Therefore, in addition to the general project map, I also created a map for the defense paper, just so I could get the main ideas out there.  I figure this will also help me draft an outline in week or so.

A lot of these ideas aren't complete, and some aren't quite clearly connected to more than one other at the moment, but I want this to evolve as I compile more research.

On the software side, my initial prototype for the software was mocked up in Scratch, just to roughly test the functionality of the physical components.  Those who shared the pre-thesis class with me last semester may have seen an earlier version of this, but the latest can be found here.  Even though it works with keyboard commands, it works great with the Makey Makey.

Note the VERY rough first version.

Of course, this is in place of the actual software that will eventually drive the guts of the installation, so be on the lookout for my first generative software Max patch by the end of the month, which, admittedly, will most likely be a random generator instead of the deterministic one I will build by the end of the semester.

On a final note, as far as less-deliverable progress goes, I was able to connect with my advisor before traveling over the holiday weekend (Cleveland gets awfully muggy, let me tell you) and arrange for at least twice-monthly meetings at the Washington Square campus.  I am also working with Alex Ruthmann of the MusED Lab, as I am having him put me in touch with the creator of the Makey Makey, which will hopefully lead to some insight on how to safely power a large-scale human conductive circuit.

I can't believe it's already Wednesday.