Modern Living

November 29th, 2008 | BY JASON SAFIR

Modern Living is a series of fifteen television parodies that mock various perspectives of television culture

The five-minute compilation pokes fun at our TV-addicted age by presenting a variety of imitated television programming and advertisements. These segments center around issues and themes that is relevant in our modern times including mass-consumption, obsession with stardom and ubiquitous technology. Each parody is presented with the same recognizable character throughout, who is placed in different mediated contexts. The performer also acts as the viewer of his own programming, revealing a perspective of television we don’t see when sitting on our couch.

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DC Motor Lab

November 4th, 2008 | BY JASON SAFIR

Boiling Particles

November 3rd, 2008 | BY JASON SAFIR

There are many meaningful ways to project interactive particles than on a flat surface screen. Many web art sites depict intricate and well-designed algorithms, but I feel there are more appropriate contexts to present these animations. A futuristic antique could add a whole new dimension to algorithm animations.

Boiling Particles is a virtual cooking pot. The knobs positioned on the stove top adjust the patterns and behaviors of the digital particles that are virtually boiling inside the pot. When the temperature of the water is adjusted with the knobs, the intensity and color scheme of the particles in the animation slowly respond and changes with a randomized effect. The inclusion of accentuated boiling sounds may also be implemented into this new media device.
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chromaCubes

October 27th, 2008 | BY JASON SAFIR

chromaCubes is an interactive color control panel and game for all ages. The intense colors and the visceral reactions they provoke produce a relaxing and entrancing experience. It can either be in free form input mode, where the user is free to move the knobs around the circumference of the color wheel, or a short challenging game. The object of the game is simple: a sequence of colors appear, and it is your job to turn the knobs, rotating through the color wheel, to recreate the colors. The result is an enjoyable, immersive experience as you watch the glowing colors respond to your touch, and are guided by a computer voice (there is no text on the minimalist interface).
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Serial Duplex

October 24th, 2008 | BY JASON SAFIR

Using multiple analog inputs can get confusing. This week’s lab emphasized on how to obtain clear values when using three separate inputs. It also introduced the ‘handshaking method’ which is essential in recognizing data from each input that is being sent to and from the Arduino.
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Speaking Boxes Midterm

October 9th, 2008 | BY JASON SAFIR

Speaking Boxes is more than just a fun device to play with: it proposes a new, animated and efficient way to organize your belongings. (more…)

Serial Communication with Flash and Processing

October 8th, 2008 | BY JASON SAFIR

The concept of serial communication adds a whole other dimension to what you can do with the Arduino microcontroller. Communication with other applications is essential for the type of projects I would like to develop at ITP, especially for those that involve interactive video and technological live performance pieces. My excitement in learning the technical aspects of serial communication encouraged me to experiment with with two dynamic programming environments that I enjoy working with: Flash and Processing. The above images is a graph designed in ActionScript 3 that senses and reads the output values from two potentiomotor’s.  Very useful in analyzing the behavior of inputs! (more…)

3D Mouse Cursor

October 2nd, 2008 | BY JASON SAFIR

For this week’s lab, my physical computing class was asked to do something creative with a servo motor. Going in to this assignment, I really had no idea what I was creating. One thing I did know is that the idea of controlling a servo motor with a range sensor really excited me.  (more…)

Lab 3 – Electronics

September 25th, 2008 | BY JASON SAFIR

I feel this week’s lab has made me become very comfortable in understanding how electronics in a circuit work. While it was the most simple out of  all the labs we have had thus far, I gave me the opportunity to become more familiar with the common terms used in the physical computing world. It felt inappropriate to light up an LED with a switch without an Arduino micro-controller up until now! (more…)

Sensing Rose

September 17th, 2008 | BY JASON SAFIR

For this week’s lab, I was thinking of a meaningful way to use a sensor with a symbolic object. Because all plants and flowers need light to stay healthy and grow, I thought it would be interesting to create a rose that senses that amount of light it requires to stay strong and healthy. I chose a rose because people are generally very responsive to this object. (more…)