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TARA board developments

Here we have the latest iteration of our TARA board. We’ve been trying out different sensors that can attach the board to make audio. Above we have a DIY touch capacitive keyboard, and below a gesture sensor.

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Curiosity Cabinets

We’ve started to assemble our public artworks for ‘Tales of the Town’ in Bollington.

We’re now working with the lovely volunteers, Louis and Phil from the Bridgend Centre, to use their carpentry skills to create the rest of the cabinets.

More photos and information to follow!

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Bollington Artifacts

Our latest session recording stories from the ladies in Bollington Bridge End Centre, was aided by a collection of various objects, prints and and photographs that documented how life has changed over the years.

We will now be working with the Bridge End Centre with their woodwork volunteers to build curiosity cabinets for the public exhibition and will display some of this lovely objects and tales from local residents.

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Focus Group Round 2

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Bollington Site Visit

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Focus Group Number 1

At the start of December we hosted our first focus group to get some important initial feedback into our newly developed prototypes.

We initially worked with four motion to sound prototypes. Clockwise starting top left, we made a long range IR sensor, Sparkfun Gesture Sensor, a wireless medium range IR sensor and a PIR.

We invited our participants to handle and play with the modules to figure out how they function, and discover how each could be used for their own projects.

The group brought up a wealth of useful feedback and information about how these modules could be used and developed. We had a mix of artists, creatives and technologists that provided a broad range of technical, logistical and creative input.

A few notes that really stuck with us, was that the group were really behind our drive to create technology that is plug-in-and-play and bypasses the need for programming, however is available to programme in order to create more complexity if needed. With the concept approved, we thought more about which sensors were useful for certain tasks when outputting sound, and what physical/technical attributes would be desirable for this product.

We are developing this product now as part of a modular kit which will include, as standard, a PIR sensor which outputs sound via SD card, an in-built speaker, dials to adjust parameters of the sensor, Bluetooth capabilities to control the sensor from a phone, and an option to add a GPS tracker. This kit will also have additional sensors that will click on to the standard unit, in order to get a range of functionalities that suit different projects and requirements.

Our next focus group meeting is in January, by which time we will have produced an updated version which can be user tested, and will also be an opportunity to discuss the design of the module.

Thanks again to all of our participants!

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Playing with Sensors

We had our first day prototyping with lead technician Chris Ball, with various different sensors that enable different types of physical interaction to trigger sound. 

Some of our initial sensors included PIR sensors, medium-range and long-range infrared, ultrasonic, and a Sparkfun Gesture sensor. Currently we are assembling several boards that we will be showing at our first focus group in December to see what kind of physical interaction they think is the most successful/useful, what could be improved, what is and isn’t necessary and so on. Currently, although at their very initial stage, we are uncovering pros and cons of each of the circuits - ease of use, range, accuracy - that we are looking forward to gain feedback from from users.

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Project Overview

This blog is a timeline of our Arts+Tech Feasability Study with the UK’s leading Innovation Agency, Innovate UK.

This study was selected from an internal application process for recipients of the Arts+Tech accelerator project which we participated in from January to June 2016 at MadLab, Manchester. This was part of ­­­­­­­­a £1m national pilot set up by Arts Council England and Innovate UK.

This grant is to support One Five West, who are working at the forefront of art and technology, to develop a business built on creating and supplying innovative applications of technology, that enable meaningful encounters for audiences and their environment. We are creating all-in-one, waterproof sensor modules that transform proximity data into sound, addressing a gap in the market for waterproof technologies which can be used out of the box. This will generate an accessible route for artists into applications of digital technologies by improving their workflow through the production of a waterproof proximity sensor kit that triggers sound, and is quickly adaptable to various surroundings without the reliance on computer programming, tackling steep learning curves involved in programming for beginners. 

As part of the broader social scope, we are going to be using proximity to sound technology for ‘Tales of the Town’, to ­­explore an interactive public art project that facilitates audience’s exploring and learning about place, community and history.

Through a series of outreach and engagement activities with members of the local community, we are aiming to delve under the many layers of history that make up the rich fabric of the town through collecting stories from the town of Bollington. Through this activity, we are searching to capture tales, and turn them into sacred storytelling objects to be re-discovered, and enjoyed by old and new audiences alike.