Sunday 26 April 2015

Finished!


It’s finished! I now have a complete working patch to run my exhibit. I had to give back the Makey Makey, but the patch will still work by pressing the space bar (although the water bottle does complete the look).

The Final Arrangement

The Max patch runs the exhibit while the Makey Makey acts as the interface. The circuit board is hooked up to the computer and alligator clips connect the circuit board to the foil wrapped board on top of the water bottle. To control the exhibit, the user holds the ground cord and touches the foil wrapped board, which takes the place of the space bar. This is meant to simulate the action of pumping water. The space bar then sends a signal to the patch to light up the designated pump and play the sound clip attached to it. If you look closely in the water, you can see little white bits (croissant bits) that represent the “white flocculent bits” that Dr. John Snow saw in the cholera infected water of the Broad Street Pump. (Summers, Judith. Soho -- A History of London's Most Colourful Neighborhood, Bloomsbury, London, 1989. http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/broadstreetpump.html)

My "pump"


To finish the patch for the presentation, I had to combine the various test patches I made while figuring out the sound clips, the light delays and the counter used to turn everything on at the right time. I also had to print the map to the right size to fit my screen. This took a little while, but I had a friend (check out her project; it’s really fun) help me figure the sizing of the map so it would print properly. The map ended up being smaller then my screen, but it still worked. Once I had the map attached to my screen, I had to arrange all the lights so they would show up in the proper positions. To do this each pump had it’s own collection of buttons and wires which included a toggle switch, the delay mechanism, and the lights. Underneath the first light, I connected the play list filled with my sound clips. Each segment was then connected to the counter, which would turn on one group of lights at a time. Out of all the wires, buttons, and messages, only the lights are seen in presentation mode.

Top: Tons of criss-crossing wires, buttons, and messages
Bottom: Nice and clean presentation mode

My presentation went well, even with a few minor issues. The various parts were easy to set up, and it was fun to show my off my work. However, there are a few things I would do differently if I refined this project for an actual museum exhibit. My first problems involved the size of the map and organizing the lights. Positioning the lights underneath the map was difficult because they tended to move around when I locked and unlocked the patch. This meant a lot of tinkering to make sure everything was in the right place. I also couldn’t figure out how to get the right size of paper to fully cover my computer screen. Both problems would be solved if I could use a digital copy of the map and overlaid it on the patch. My second problem involved the counter that controlled when the lights turned on and off. If I continued the project, I would insert a reset switch to restart the patch from the beginning, rather then have it reverse through the light sets. 

I have learned a lot with this project. I had never used any visual coding program before, so was completely new to Max. Our professor gave me a lot of help, while some other things I figured out for myself. On the content side, I learned more about the map and the cholera epidemic that has interested me for a while. Combining the two experiences, I learned a lot about how to present events like these in an engaging way. If this project was an actual museum exhibit, there should be a short interpretive panel on the side or a screen before the user enters the exhibit to contextualize the map and explain the aftermath of the epidemic. All in all, I enjoyed the chance to learn a completely new way of presenting information.

No comments:

Post a Comment