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leech mold 2.0 with alginate

habitat growing

internal electronic structure

leech in habitat

leech body

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Leech 2.0 investigating their surroundings

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Project Book and Kid’s Book

Hirudinea lampyris: Untangling Sustainability through Design Fiction

Do You Know? Series : The Firefly Leech

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Hi, welcome to the process blog for Hirudinea lampyris, my 2021 BDes Graduation Project.  Read more below for a better understanding of the work. For other projects of mine, visit www.laurenthu.com

Hirudinea lampyris: Untangling Sustainability through Design Fiction

Do You Know? Series : The Firefly Leech

A Technological History of the 20th Century

In the late 1900’s, as the Industrial Revolution began to gain traction in the West, Fredrick Taylor published a text called The Principles of Scientific Management. This work, encouraging factories to go further in their exploitation of workers by valuing efficiency systems over living beings, enraged the general public and incited the Factory Riots of 1911. Lead by the “Imagination Effort” and supported by the Luddites, the Factory Riots destroyed many major factories, including Ford and General Motors, who were both car manufacturers at the time.

The Factory Riots changed the way the West developed. Former President Theodore Roosevelt later applauded the work of the Imagination Effort for their advanced theories on conservation through thoughtful consideration of other beings.

Throughout the 20th century, science shifted from the pursuit of knowledge of, towards the understanding of knowing with. Forestry and Oil industries began a downturn as cellulose bioplastics and bio-fuel began to boom in the 1950’s. This integration and new respect of nature and technology lead to locating many new species previously on the brink of extinction due to past industrial concepts.

As part of a connection trek in Ontario’s Boreal Forest, scientists met Hirudinea lampyris, the Firefly Leech. The Firefly Leech has an incredible ability to identify and communicate complex chemical chains in hemoglobin samples through bio luminescent markings, and has taught humans how to read other species’ emotional states with more nuance.

As nature and technology continued to grow together, human involvement in it’s developments became extraneous. Communication has become increasingly nuanced, beyond the early 20th century notions of speech and body language. Knowing between species has evolved, and contributes to other-than-human species developing many of the technologies that we interact with today.

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I’ve backdated all my blog posts from my previous semester’s private blog, accessible from the archive. I did a lot more writing last year, and hope that if anyone ever gets deep into this blog, the direction I’ve gone in will make more sense. 

Today I finished my two other classes, this is my last project of my degree! :)

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yay I actually got the video and the final finished! My partner helped me with putting the video together (so thankful that he was so gracious and up til 2am with me!!), and while I was sad at first that there was no colour in the leech - I had a thought that if I used an HSL cycler and an opacity mask and then map a path that I could replicate the bioluminescence... and I think it worked really well! Hallelujah! I guess film school wasn’t a waste after all hah

I want to add titles and subtitles to the video, so that in the exhibition, you can read it from afar and not have to hear it. I’m also going to dial in that opacity map because there are a few places where the light overlaps my hand and it bothers me. 

Emailed Rob about remolding the leech, going to go meet with him today. 

Going to see if Bobbi is in too, and if any of my parts are salvageable.

I filled my aquarium the other day and planted it, I’m going to check and se if the mud settled or if I need to change the water out.

Also going to finish my other classes work I guess?? Research paper in 2 days? no problem!

Oh and I applied for the physical exhibition, so that’s done too. 

This week - project book is the big thing! I’m happy I can focus on that and then the next week I can focus on website material - and in between this I can rebuild the leech - bigger and better!

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ok update before tomorrow's long haul to the finish.

I finally got to soldering the parts together.

I soldered everything together on Saturday I think, plugged it in and it didn't work! my wiring was right but... of course I hadn't tested my new trinket out of the package, and it was a dud. SO I desoldered everything I had already done, desoldered the breadboard pins from my original trinket, and then resoldered everything together again.

  SO from the last picture, you can see that it really, just did not fit. I shoved and I stretched and I just could not fit everything that needed to be in there inside.  

I figured I could use one of my test pieces to frankenstein a cover on it. I got pretty far, but realized the head would need some work too. 

 I went back the next day and created a mouth sock, kind of, by pinning my two mold sides together, I then rolled the sock over the mouth, silicone epoxied around the edges, then did an extra coat of dragon skin around any crevaces or connection points to MAKE SURE it was water tight - I used almost half a tube of sil-poxy and the rest of my dragon skin to do so.

here you can see the huge gap I had to cover with the sock

it was beefy but it worked, it was wireless, it was button operated, it moved it’s tail, it lit up... yes I’m talking in past tense. 

I went out to film the shoot today, and when I put the leech in the water, bubbles started to come up. It instantly shorted out. Did I take better video or pictures? Of course not! 

I was still able to carry on and film the video, but it was definitely a huge let down. 

Brought it home and threw it in some rice. Who knows if that will do anything.

I think that I will have to start from scratch. New model that fits the electronicss, new mold, new model, all new electronics... really disappointing. Are the shops even open past next week? sigh. 

Minutes before the tragedy

the one hole that ruined everything

pretending I’m not devastated

tail broke too

who knows if this will work

very sad drumroll to thursday...

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I put the aquarium on the plinth and things are starting to become realized...

I put my first model in there as a placeholder. 

then I spent the day pulling hair out over coding. 

Thankfully I got the neopixels to work - they aren’t going to stop on a colour right now, I just need them to change colours for the time being, and I can adjust the coding later on perhaps. 

So I hummed and hawed over the motor, I thought I had grasped Bobbi’s explanation of stepping forward, but I couldn’t get it to work. 

I headed to the WIP lab, and Bobbi patiently tried to help me again. I got frustrated and started reading about the motor - a page I had read at least 10 times - and I found an example sketch that did something really similar to what I wanted the motor to do - and no delays used!

so I tested it.. and it worked... and then I combined it with the neopixel code.. and it worked! 

#include <Adafruit_NeoPixel.h> #include <AccelStepper.h> #ifdef __AVR__ #include <avr/power.h> // Required for 16 MHz Adafruit Trinket #endif

// Which pin on the Arduino is connected to the NeoPixels? // On a Trinket or Gemma we suggest changing this to 1: #define LED_PIN    6

// How many NeoPixels are attached to the Arduino? #define LED_COUNT 8

// Define step constant #define FULLSTEP 4

// Declare our NeoPixel strip object: Adafruit_NeoPixel pixels(LED_COUNT, LED_PIN, NEO_GRB + NEO_KHZ800);

// Pins entered in sequence IN1-IN3-IN2-IN4 for proper step sequence AccelStepper myStepper(FULLSTEP, 9, 11, 10, 12);

//for timing of the neopixel of rainbow function (without delay) unsigned long previousMillis = 0; const long interval = 50; int color = 0;

void setup() {  // put your setup code here, to run once:

   // These lines are specifically to support the Adafruit Trinket 5V 16 MHz.  // Any other board, you can remove this part (but no harm leaving it): #if defined(__AVR_ATtiny85__) && (F_CPU == 16000000)  clock_prescale_set(clock_div_1); #endif  // END of Trinket-specific code.

 pixels.begin(); //initialise pixels  pixels.setBrightness(50); //turn down the brightness so they dont burn your eyes  pixels.show(); //show nothing

   // set the maximum speed, acceleration factor,  // initial speed and the target position  myStepper.setMaxSpeed(2000.0);  myStepper.setAcceleration(100.0);  myStepper.setSpeed(1800);  myStepper.moveTo(200);

}

void loop() {  // put your main code here, to run repeatedly:

 rainbow();

   // Change direction once the motor reaches target position  if (myStepper.distanceToGo() == 0)    myStepper.moveTo(-myStepper.currentPosition());

 // Move the motor one step  myStepper.run();

}

void rainbow() { //function to get a rainbow pattern on the neopixels

 unsigned long currentMillis = millis(); //record the current time

 if (currentMillis - previousMillis >= interval) {    previousMillis = currentMillis;    pixels.setPixelColor(0, Wheel(color));    pixels.setPixelColor(1, Wheel(color));    pixels.setPixelColor(2, Wheel(color));    pixels.setPixelColor(3, Wheel(color));    pixels.setPixelColor(4, Wheel(color));    pixels.setPixelColor(5, Wheel(color));    pixels.setPixelColor(6, Wheel(color));    pixels.setPixelColor(7, Wheel(color));    color ++ ;    if (color == 255) {      color = 0;    }    pixels.show();  } }

uint32_t Wheel(byte WheelPos) { //function to get the colours for the rainbow  WheelPos = 255 - WheelPos;  if (WheelPos < 85) {    return pixels.Color(255 - WheelPos * 3, 0, WheelPos * 3);  } else if (WheelPos < 170) {    WheelPos -= 85;    return pixels.Color(0, WheelPos * 3, 255 - WheelPos * 3);  } else {    WheelPos -= 170;    return pixels.Color(WheelPos * 3, 255 - WheelPos * 3, 0);  } }

So the coding is done for now!

Then, I was talking to Bobbi about my shopping list for the final build, and she was reminded of a boost converter that could step the battery up to 5V, and it could be recharged.. and it could be WIRELESS so I don’t have to do leech surgery !

Thankfully I found out about this with an hour before Lee’s closed until Monday, so I ran and got the supplies and tested them out at home. 

here you can see the transmitter and receiver

here you can see the led indicator that it is charging through the leech!

woot!

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plinth done!

took all day but its great - timing wise I’m a bit worried with Easter taking two days away... hopefully I can get it finished, I’m trying to put blinders on to shield the worry but I still have to code.... mama mia

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I had a better day with electronics yesterday, and today I finished the frame of my plinth!

plith pics:

rolls really smoothly and nicely, even though this thing is heavy and can hold 800lbs...

tomorrow Im going to finish the siding, throw on some doors and then paint it. 

In electronics world, Bobbi was patient with my rapidly fogging mind and helped me get through some understanding of the code Im writing - she also figured out a way for me to not have to change the battery as often, so that is awesome!

Here are some scribbles that make sense to me and Bobbi and no one else. 

The idea is that the motor and the lights will run off a 3.7V battery BUT it will use a step up board to get the current to 5V - enough for both components. 

THEN the code will use a time system of running through a loop that asks what time the controller is at, and then operating a function (the motor and the lights) if it meets criteria (the correct time), and then resets. 

It’s been really crazy learning all this coding, but it’s kind of being absorbed into me via osmosis... just in time too...

So yes, I’ve got to get this code done, hopefully by Thursday when I can spend the day with Bobbi working out the kinks. 

OH my god I almost forgot - I made the final mold of the leech! It looks great, and the opening is perfect, I can easily cut it open and reseal it. 

and heres a sneak preview of the two codes working together (the two separate codes stacked on top of each other, the colour cycling isn’t exactly working, but again, working on the final code)

Going to film the video this weekend - should be fun!

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updated my blog appearance to match my project a wee bit more.

ok ok okkkkkk starting to feel the deadline dread but I am chugging along! Worried about the electrical internals fitting properly, but the cast material is super stretchy and I think everything should fit... FINGERS CROSSED. 

In other news - tails printed - 5.45 diameter is a perfect fit. I changed some of the motor code and it wags more convincingly now. 

After the grad show meeting today, I was bluntly reminded that all the awards adjudicating happens online - and I’ve been sitting here worried about how to make it swim! 

I decided to get a head start on some web stuff, since I won’t be modelling my leech until next week anyways. 

I want the website to be a bit of a springboard to other topics - some fake, some real. 

I’m ditching the aquatic rehab centre and just leaving this as an information site, enthusiasts that want to talk about the leech, something like that. 

new site map^^

I got started on a fake wikipedia entry about the ‘factory riots’ that instigate the move in manufacturing towards holistically ethical modes of production. Have to input some information here, but I think it’s convincing - I did change some small print to say “fake wikipedia”, in case I either get into trouble or if someone needs to see that it’s a fiction to come around to what they are reading.

I put that aside for a bit and started to work on the AR filter. 

I think having an AR filter for instagram is really interesting because it brings up the question of what would be different and what would remain the same in a butterfly effect scenario. Would instagram still exist? Maybe it wouldn’t - but I think it also brings it into a tangible ‘this-world’ interaction. It’s fun too, nodding to not taking the leech too seriously (although I believe the concepts it brings up are very serious - but a bit of brevity softens the blow). 

Anyway - in my true fashion, this means I have to learn a new program - Spark AR. It’s a patch editor so at least I don’t have to learn anymore coding. 

It’s taking some time but I am following tutorials and getting there. The biggest problem is that no one uses Modo  the program I used to build the leech in. Because Blender is open-source, way more people use it and way more people use it for Spark AR. After relentless searching on why my modo files weren’t importing properly into Spark, I figured if I can’t beat them, join them. 

SO I’m learning Blender too? of course. 

Anyway, I’ve got it to a pretty good place after some nose to the grindstone work. 

The idea is that the text cycles through an emotion at the same time that the colours on the leech are cycling - the colours that it lands on corresponds to the emotion written on the text. 

I haven’t done the colours on the leech yet, this is the most difficult part. 

As well, I think I have to sleep on the logic for this one. The text answer-cycler stops after about 6 seconds on a random frame (worried, optimistic, etc,)  in order to have the colours correspond with the answer-cycler, the random output for the text has to match the random output for the colours. Maybe it will be as easy as linking both outcomes to the same randomizer... but I dont think it will be. 

Here are some process shots and videos - pretty proud of myself that I got the leech to animate! 

I wanted to add visible lighting to the leech for the AR filter - it doesn’t have to be perfect, but it does have to be noticable. 

animated in Modo at first (not something I’m experienced in)

at this point, the leech was not importing texture or animation from modo

left over form a cycle test

This is when I switched to blender, which was a bit of a learning curve but I got there eventually.

so Blender I was able to import to spark AR, but I;m still having trouble with the texturing - that’s a problem for another day though! You gotta celebrate the successes when you get them!

everything going well here...

and progress vid after 15 hours:

yaaayyy super super close. I did a test run with uploading and the filters have to go through testing, and foudn out that it takes a few days for them to be approved. Another reason why I have to get this done quickly. 

Looking good for today though! 

Monday I get my 2x4′s and get working on the final model of the leech

Tuesday I build my plinth 

Rest of the week - get my leech to float, get some more web content!

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well it can move!

printing out these tails today as well

These should make the movement smoother and more natural. 

In bad news - as I’ve been climbing this arduino learning curve, Ive kind of.. avoided things I dont understand so I can get to them alter when I undertand them.... such as mA and mAh... aka battery life. 

The batteries I’m using will only run the leech for .9 of an hour!

what should I do? run it for only 5 minutes a day? like a ‘feeding time’ where it swims and lights up, but hides the rest of the day? I think every time I open it I will have to seal it with another layer of ecoflex, Rob and I were talking about the difficulty of a plug or something, and that it’s much easier to just cut it open to change the battery... but if Im doing that 8 times a day.... hmm I dunno.. 

I emailed Bobbi about it... we shall see...

Thinking of running it off two trinkets too.. oh boy..

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A lil inspo

Look, it’s possible!

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Wow I am on a roller coaster with this project! Huge high yesterday in getting some concrete material testing done for the leech, financial lows in realizing the cost of this behemoth of a plinth I have to build for this thing. 

Ok let’s start with the good stuff. I did some experiments with what material I am going to use for the leech yesterday, and the cure times are much quicker than the silicone mold cure times, so I was actually able to get two sides done plus the electronics ..sack.. as I’m calling it. 

I tried dragon skin (top) and ecoflex (bottom), as both are stretchy and translucent. I also pigmented them to a brown/green colour that I thought was fitting for a leech.

here it is, in all it’s glory - one half of it at least. (see video below for more)

two sides put together 

I 3D printed this little sack for the electronics (it’s sitting in the shallow side of the mold, so it looks big)

  the beautiful sack! It’s really stretchy and malleable, which is perfect. My plan is to shove the elctronics in and push the tail through the end and seal it with a bit more material. 

here are some of my tail rudder ideas. I think the hexagonal one might be good, I was thinking aobut adding clasps almost, to get more articulation - but I also think because the material will be fairly thin anyways, that it should move fairly without the added engineering

I also felt like it was time to sew in the neopixels, as I was happy with the code for them. this took ----- SO long.. hours, because you have to hand sew them and also because conductive thread is kind of a weak connection by itself, so best practice is to sew back over each stitch it 3-4 times.

I measured this piece of felt and thought it was a good fit

I used Tacky Glue to set the neopixels in place as I sewed. You have to make sure that all of the data arrows are aligned, otherwise you’ll cross your threadlines and potentially blow your pixels. 

Ta-da! hours of swearing under my breath later, here is the chain. Note the end point where the stitches match my tired brain.

And of course, if I plug them in and it doesn’t work, I have to painstakingly go through each connection with my multimeter and sew in more thread but...

Ta -da! so bright, just what I wanted.

and here’s my weird video of the week - kind of boring (should I add some stock music?) but I wanted to know how the materials stretched and how the opacity was with the lights. The ecoflex is much stretchier and translucent, and most people in the studio preferred hat one, but the dragon skin has more rigidity and structure, which might be more helpful for swimming. I also think that being too translucent might not be as effective... you want to see that it is a leech, not a slimy glowstick. The ecoflex is also slightly more buoyant. I can do a combination of them as well... I’m not decided yet. 

I also met with Yang from the painting studio about building a gargantuan plinth for my aquarium. Yang was so awesome, super helpful, but honestly the plinth is what I’m truly dreading - I don’t want to buy it or build it, I just want it to exist already. 

Anyway, we did some planning and figuring out what I would need to make it super strong (aquarium weight, plus plants/dirt, plus weight of the wood even). 

This is the initial drawing I brought to Yang, and we figured I would need a lot more bracing and support. 

I went home and came up with this (measurements are all off though)

Then I took it into solidworks because I don’t trust my drawings and I wanted it to be precise. 

I love solidworks. Going from modo to solidworks is really nice sometimes haha

here it is with the panels exploded -  I ran this by Trevor and he says it should be good. I only have the extra framing in the top of the plinth because the aquarium will be off to one side to allow room for the booklets to go on the other side, meaning the weight might sag in the middle. 

I have to buy all the wood and build this thing, so I might as well be able to use it afterwards. I designed it to be a cupboard as welll, so after the exhibit I can jush it up a bit and bring it home with me. 

missing the shelf piece here, but an idea of the BOM

so this is a lot but it’s needed. Then I tried to work out how to buy this, because I’m not a huge wood builder person and don’t buy lumber that often. I think I figured it out... but omg my money.... :(

This might only make sense to me BUT I need:

21.81 board ft of 1/2 ply 

4.27 board ft of 3/4″ ply

34.47 board ft of 2x4

4 3″ casters with weight lmiit of at least 120lbs each

screws, L brackets, wood filler, primer paint

so somewhere around $200+ most likely..... cup noodles for me next week I guess