Intro to Electronic Technologies for Art I- VIS 147A
From Banglab
Electronic Technologies for Art Pt. 1 - Aesthetics and Ethics of Electronics - VIS 147A
Fall 2009
Class Information
About the September 24th Walkout
Lecture: Warren Lecture Hall 2205, Thursdays, 5:00-6:50pm
Lecturer: Micha Cárdenas, mcardenas 4+ ucsd d()+ edu
Please include VIS147A in your email subject line, it allows us to filter.
Micha's office hours: Thursday from 3:00-4:00pm, in Atkinson Hall 1601, the Center for Research in Computing and the Arts
(or e-mail any of us for appointment - e-mailing ahead is a good idea.)
All lab sections meet in VAF 106 (the electronics lab next to the graduate student machine shop).
Certain course materials (lecture slides, lab handouts, links, etc.) will be available on WebCT.
Requirements
Grading
Participation: 20%
Completion of Labs: 20%
First Project: 20%
Midterm Project: 20%
Final Project: 20%
Grading Scale: 100% A+, >=90% A, >=80% B, >=70% C, >=60% D, <=50% F
± grading for ± two percentage points around the remaining letter thresholds (examples: 91.99% is an A-, 88% a B+)
Kits, Book and Ereserves
To take the class, you have to buy an electronics kit from Callie Taylor in Mandeville. The kit costs $169, but it includes more than enough supplies to get you through the quarter and to continue making electronics projects will into the future. The kit was hand picked by myself, based on the set of items that professors have been buying for this class in the past, but also including the new projects we'll be doing. We'll discuss in lab what is in the kit, but it includes both analog electronics and a Freeduino digital electronics set. You do not have to buy the supplies for the LED throwies you'll be making in the first lab, they are included in the kit.
The required books for this course are Practical Electronics for Inventors by Paul Scherz and Getting Started With Arduino by Massimo Banzi. Both books have been ordered at Groundwork books. The Scherz is available through the library as an electronic resource (http://roger.ucsd.edu/record=b5811997~S9). However, it is very out of date, from 2000, so all the page numbers are different and some of the material is different. I suggest you buy the book if you can. If someone wants to coordinate the page numbers from the new book with the pages in the old book and add it to the wiki, feel free to.
The required readings for this course are available at http://reserves.ucsd.edu
You need to configure the proxy in your web browser preferences to access Ereserves off campus. Instructions to do so are here:
http://blink.ucsd.edu/technology/network/connections/off-campus/proxy/index.html
Extra links for the class are at: http://delicious.com/lotu5/physicalcomputing
There are also lots of online resources, such as these:
http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/
http://itp.nyu.edu/physcomp/sensors/
Attendance / Project completion
My approach to teaching is horizontal, based on the pedagogical model from Paolo Friere. My main goal is for everyone to be empowered as both learners and teachers. That means, do not only rely only on myself or on Brianna, but also on each other and on yourself! That means, do not submit to me, the text or each other, instead, always feel empowered to ask questions. Your task here is to learn to ask better questions, to learn to think critically about electronics and technology and their interplay and intersections.
Participation in class discussions is critical to passing this class. The minimum amount of work to do in this class to get a C is to do all of the assignments, all the reading and attend every class. In order to participate in discussion, you must have completed all of the reading, highlighted or underlined important parts and have questions. In addition, you must write a one paragraph response to the reading, including two quotes and two questions about the reading, and post it in WebCT. This is a response and not a summary. You are expected to be engaging with the material in class, finding intersections, differences, problems, productive points. You are expected to be putting in, at very least, as much of your own time out of class on as we spend in class.
You are permitted one, and only one, unexcused absence from lecture or lab.
Beyond that, you are required to provide a doctor's note or other acceptable third party written excuse. If you don't provide such documentation, your grade for this course will be reduced by one letter grade.
For the labs to go smoothly, everyone should be on time. If you are 5 minutes late or more for your lab section, Brianna will subtract half a point from that lab. If you are 10 minutes late or more, it will be another half a point, etc.
Your projects must be turned in on time. A late project will result in grade reduction by one letter grade for that project, if it is submitted within one week of the original due date. Work submitted more than one week late will not be accepted. It is very possible that you will not finish your lab assignment within the duration of the lab. Therefore, you should plan to spend at least two more hours working on your lab assignment at home. If you are not able to complete a lab assignment within the duration of the lab, please bring the completed assignment to your TA's office hours on the following Monday, or arrange a time with your TA or me to check you off.
How Discussions Will Work
A few guidelines for discussions are useful to create a more horizontal learning environment where everyone is empowered instead of a few people.
1. Don't interrupt when someone is speaking! If you want to say something and someone else is talking, raise your hand. Interrupting and talking over people is a common tool of privileged groups to dominate others.
2. Step up, step back. Make space for others. Make an effort to not be shy if you are. Be aware of how many people have talked and allow space for everyone to participate.
3. Treat each other with respect. When someone is presenting, pay attention. Listen actively and respond to what others have said. If you're on your laptop, you should be taking notes or looking up things we're discussing in class, not chatting on Facebook or Gchat or Twitter.
Grading Criteria
This is the criteria for grading the projects. In order of importance.
1. The concept behind your piece, how well it engages with the material, brings the concepts to life, responds to the concepts in the readings and discussions, finds productive or problematic intersections, asks good questions and brings those questions to life.
2. Effort! How much time went into both the thinking about the piece and the construction of it.
3. Functionality, does it work? Is it feasible? Can you explain how it should work and what went wrong if it doesn't?
Timeline
Week 1, Sept 24th, Basic circuits, Social Technology, Electronic Disturbance
DUE TO WALKOUT THERE WILL BE NO LECTURE THIS DAY, BE SURE TO READ THROUGH THE SYLLABUS AND USE THE EXTRA TIME FOR NEXT WEEK'S READING.
More info about the walkout here: http://ucfacultywalkout.com/
Case study: LED throwies, eyebeam video
De Geuzen, Wearable Resistance
Lab: Some safety basics, BE CAREFUL IN THE LAB MORE ABOUT SAFETY
Throwies and basic circuit on breadboard with a resistor, an LED and a switch
The schematic for the LED circuit is here: vis147a lab1
See: http://www.instructables.com/id/EWL9H74LX4EP286JFD/
Watch: How to use a Multimeter, Multimeter with Breadboard measuring Current, Multimeter with Breadboard measuring voltage
Assignment 1: Make 10 LED Throwies and use them to make a project which explores the idea of "social technology". You may collaborate. Some possibilities include public space interventions, using a social process to make a project or using throwies to try to create social change.
Some thoughts on Social Technologies and Electronic Disturbance
See also: Social Network Wire at UCSD
Week 2, Oct 1st, From Gender Bending to Circuit Bending, Technology as Remedy/Poison
Case studies: Barbie Liberation Organization
http://www.genderchangers.org/
Reading due: For lecture: The Pharmakon, Jacques Derrida, Ereserves
The Problem With I Don't See Color, pgs. 1, chart on 6 and 7
Contemporary Politics Glossary
Lab: Due: Documentation of Project 1 with LED Throwies to Wiki here: 147a_Throwies_Projects
Read: Practical Electronics for Inventors, p. 1-17, 23-24 (section 2.5) 49-50 (section 2.11 about electronic circuits)
In library version of book, read pages 1-13, skip "recducing a complex resistor network"
Do: Basic circuit bending: bring in a toy or electronics device, take it apart and see if you can make it do something else! It's best to bring in a device that makes noise, ideally a speak and spell or a stuffed animal that does something. Open it up and identify the parts inside. Make connections with alligator clips and see if you can change its behaviour.
Wire a lamp to a breadboard with a potentiometer to change the resistance and the brightness of the lamp.
See: http://www.anti-theory.com/soundart/circuitbend/
Week 3, Oct 8th, Phenomenology, Intro to sensors with breadboards
Case study: Camera Box by Elle Mehrmand
Optical Theramin by Dream Addictive (list of parts)
Two ways to use a Piezo sensor:
- Slapshock by Elle Mehrmand and Micha Cardenas
- Mixed Relations (analog) by Elle Mehrmand and Micha Cardenas 2
Lots more sensors: ITP Sensor Workshop
Wearable Keyboard Hack (original toy)
Reading due: Heidegger, The Question Concerning Technology (ereserves)
Optional: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~zuern/demo/heidegger/
Lab: Read: Practical electronics for inventors, p. 50-62, p. 65-67
Getting Started with Arduino, Massimo Banzi, Introduction
Sensors and breadboards, photoresistors, piezo sensors, basic soldering of components and of circuit bent toys.
Assignment 2: Imaginary Technology - Imagine a possible future and invent a new object for that future, using an existing battery operated device that you modified or added components to, using soldering.
For example: Post-Apocalyptic Technology - imagining that no new technologies will ever be made by corporations. Some possibilities include new musical instruments, green technologies using solar cells or devices appropriated for new uses. Consider how you are transforming the use or value of an object.
Week 4, Oct 15, Social and Environmental Ethics of Electronics
Case studies: Tantalum Memorial (winner of lots of international art awards this year) | Video | video 2 | More info about tantalum
Projects in the Art+Communication festival in Riga, with the theme of Energy, October 15-17, 2009
Environmental Risk Assessment Rover by EcoArtTech
iphone charger | solar cell from sparkfun | solar cell from radio shack
Reading due: The Silicon Valley of Dreams, David Pellow, Ereserves, Chapter 4
Practical electronics, p. 265-267, 302-320, 332-342
Lab: work on projects.
Week 5, Oct 22, The Body and Technology
Case Studies: Cuerpo Extraño
Stelarc, Ampilfied Body, Video
Networked Performance Blog articles tagged Body
Reading due: The Prosthetic Impulse, chapter 7, Ereserves
Lab: Photoresistor, piezo, motor.
Work on projects.
Week 6, Oct 29th, Freeduino - From Programmable Microcontrollers to Programmable Matter
Case study: Chris Head's Carbot, revisiting Slapshock
Love and Sex with Robots, by David Levy
Reading due: Anthony Dunne: The Electronic as Post-optimal Object (1st chapter of Hertzian Tales) Book online at Library
Getting Started with Arduino, Massimo Banzi
Lab: Present mid term project with analog components and start Soldering your Freeduino!
Freeduino Assembly Instructions
Assignment 3: Final Project - Bionic/Cyborg Devices - Make a device that interacts with your body and uses a Freeduino. Possibilities include monitoring, augmentation and physical interfaces.
Week 7, Nov 5th, Prototyping the World We Want, Mixed Realities
Case studies: Becoming Dragon, Video
Remote by Neill Donaldson, Usman Haque, Ai Hasegawa, Georg Tremmel
Joseph Delappe, Gandhi in Second Life
Mixed Relations (digital) by Elle Mehrmand and Micha Cardenas
Reading due: The Telephone Book, Avital Ronell, p 1-11, 201-215, Ereserves
Lab: Finish soldering Freeduino. Using your Freeduino with a Breadboards.
Week 8, Nov 12, Protocological Resistance
Reading due: Cyberfeminism: next protocols, "Thoughts on Submission: Glances from the Warriors of Perception", Ereserves
Case studies:
Second Front, 28 Avatars Later
Lab: No lab because of Veterans Day, make sure to read the Getting Started With Arduino sections on using your Arduino with a breadboard, including fading with PWM and using photoresistors.
See http://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/Graph for sample code.
Useful references: Processing or Puredata manual
Week 9, Nov 19, From Circuit Bending to Reality Bending
Case Studies: Happiness Hat
Realityshifting Pt. 1 - Rezzing
Arduino Interface for Second Life, 2
How to interface an Arduino to Second Life with simple a Linden Scripting Language script:
1. Write an arduino program to send sensor data over the serial port, which we covered in class.
2. Then write a processing program to read that data and write it to a local file, Processing Text File Example
3. Use a local web server like apache or your os's built in web serving to put that local file on the internet
4. Write a Second Life script to use llHTTPRequest to get the data into Second Life.
Lab: Read the rest of Getting Started With Arduino, including the Appendices. You can skip the networked lamp example, unless you are interested in working on a networked project. The RSS communication in that example is beyond the scope of what we're covering in this class.
Week 10, Dec 3, Review and Open Discussion
Review of aesthetic and conceptual themes of the class and technical info that we've covered in class.
Lab: Work on projects.
Final Presentations
Final Presentations, Thurs, Dec 10, 11:30-2:30pm, VAF Performance Space
