Today I went to the wood shop early in the morning to work with Daniel on the stand of the bowl for the projection. We started with the wooden “base” by cutting a circular shape into the wood and making a hole for the bowl in the middle.

Making the wooden base

Cutting the center of the base

Checking the scale with the bowl

Checking the height of the entire base with the legs

This was the magic “pink thing” to fix the holes on the wood

Fixing the holes on the wood (this thing is super toxic!)

Getting the base ready for painting

Painting the base - with supervision!

Painting the legs

Almost done!

The base is ready, now it needs to dry

After making the base for the bowl I was so happy that I couldn’t stop myself from trying the mirror and the projector.

This mirror is too big for what I need, but it’s just a test

Putting some translucent paper on the bottom of the bowl

I have a big portion of the projection going into the ceiling!

Peer Advisors: Kate, Daniel and Theo

Today we had studio visits all day long. An opportunity to invite the rest of the residents and Peer Advisors to our studios to update them on the project. My project changed so much and at the same time is the same one, from a simple projection on the wall to a projection on the floor to a projection on a glass bowl with sensors, it was really exiting listening to their reactions and expectations.

Today we went to Lake Minnewanka which is really close to The Banff Centre. We walked for a little while around the lake and then we rented a boat for an hour.

View of the lake

Our boat: Juliana, Oscar and me

The other boat: Teresa, Liz, Eva and Kate

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After the amazing afternoon, back to work! I finished all the sensors, hooked them up with alligator clips to the Arduino and tested it using the program from this instructable, made by Hannah Perner-Wilson. I’m a big fan of her work!!!

Arduino + Pressure Sensors + Sonic Range Finder + Processing

Pressure Sensors connected with alligator clips to the Arduino

Testing the Processing program with the sensors

Today I built the soft/pressure sensors for my project. I’ll be putting five sensors on the back of the bowl. These sensors will control the behavior of the animation projected on the water. This is the first time I’m using Velostat for soft switches. The velostat helps to measure pressure, giving an array of numbers that can be used later for different results.

The sensor: two layers of felt, two layers of conductive fabric and a layer of velostat

The sensors on the bowl

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For dinner we had another barbecue. I did a workshop on Salsa dancing.

Kate and Leslie with the preparations

I’ve been looking for a bigger bowl for my project…. NOTHING! I even went to the Restaurants here at the Banff Centre looking for a Punch Bowl, and nothing. So I decided not to worry about it and work with the small one that I have.

I decided to add some pressure sensors to the back of the bowl to force people to embrace it. Since it’s small, I need some way to make people more close to it. This particular bowl has circular shapes all around it. This will be the pattern I’ll be using for placing my sensors.

Marks for the sensors, conductive fabric and velostat

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At night we went downtown to the BNMI barbecue. Lots of fun, lots of wine and lots of fun.

We have a lot of geeky moments including GPS.
From right to left: Juliana, Tony and Daniel

In the afternoon I went hiking with Eva, Liz and Juliana. We went to the Hoodos Trail. It’s an hour and a half long hike. Of course, beautiful!

Juliana needed to do some user testing on her project with the GPS. It was the perfect excuse to spend the afternoon hiking.

This is the place where I sit down with a coffee think a little bit and see the Columbian Ground Squirrels. Great for organizing ideas.

I had a meeting with my Peer Advisors. I’m showed them the tests I made with the projector and the different materials I used with the water to make the graphics more clear. They didn’t like much the idea of using water that looks “dirty” since it goes against what I’m trying to communicate. They suggested me using a simple screen of paper in the bottom of the bowl, having clear water where the projection would be seen.

They suggested me to use a mirror underneath the bowl to reflect the projection into the water, that way I would not be dealing with a projector under a container a water and the image could be controlled more easily.

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Today is Saint John’s Eve. I have always celebrated this night with my family back home making wishes and burning them into the fire. I’m glad my peers were exited about the idea and joined me.

From right to left: Juliana, Eva, Isabella & Deanne

I spent most of the day working on the projection. Figuring out how to place the projector and playing around with the water. I tested adding different “ingredients” as I called them to the water to create several effects on the projection.

These were some of my “ingredients”:

I was playing with the idea of “whitening” the water to create some sort of screen and therefore have a more clear projection.

Water with white paint

Typography Test

My rough sketchy setup in my studio

Looking for the best position for the sensor

Ben helped me incredibly today and gave me really good ideas to test with the water. You’re the best! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Hello Athabasca!

We went to the Athabasca Glacier today. Just amazing. Incredible experience. I have no words to describe it, but I do have tons and tons of pictures!!!