Conclusion and Reflection

Though it was disappointing to me that my project could not come fully together before the 31st, I know that it almost did. There is definitely a satisfaction to having learned and accomplished so much in developing it.

The program I wrote for Processing to control the light is by far the most lengthy program I have ever written. It is not eloquent and there are some inherent limitations to its variability, including the speed of the light and the base size of the pulses/steps. In retrospect, to rewrite it from scratch, I would use a much more object oriented approach. Other things about the program which I am very happy with include the aesthetic behavior and the scalability to different room sizes. A major limitation to the entire projector set up, which I was aware of (stated in my post Timeline Reassessment on April 16th) was the inevitability of the participants shadow sometimes being an obstruction. I have already begun to think of alternatives to using a projector (not necessarily a set up with two servomechanism mounted spotlights either) for a future implementation of the project. Not using fixed projection of a graphic would make my program very different, possibly not using Processing.

With these projector limitations in mind, I was very happy with how my projection in room 109 turned out. The precarious mount I rigged on top of the light panel worked great. So did the wide-angle lens assembly I strapped in front of the projector lens. Plus I now have a lot more experience with lenses (something I actually remained reasonably ignorant of in film school).

I had never soldered anything before, nor read any circuit diagrams, but now I feel a lot more confident in both of these areas. It is still inexplicable why the HRM clicks audibly. I may dissect one over the summer to find out.

One major sinkhole of time on this project had been diagnosing the signal, rediagnosing the signal, building circuits, and rebuilding circuits. If the HRM sounds clear coming over audio, it might not be clear just as a voltage, so in retrospect, I should have hooked up my BT chip and experimented with that much sooner.

The amount of assistance I needed on this project in the electronics/hardware department was much more than I thought I would need, particularly because at the outset I did not think I would need build any circuits at all. I did a lot of hands on learning in this area, but not being capable of doing it independently was frustrating and a drag on the project. A side effect has been my newfound interest in taking the mechatronics series and learning more about interactive electronics for installation pieces (that B term summer class taught by Max and Allison sounds great).

The experience of having dedicated so much of my time and energy to a single project parallels my work on film projects last year. This project organization experience helped me a lot, though I had never had to wrangle so many different aspects of a single project together.

It is nice to be able to step away from my project and to again consider it as a whole rather than as many parts. Because I could not have anyone participate with it as was intended, it can be a little hard to judge whether it would have achieved the effect I was hoping for, but regardless, I found myself considering creative alterations of it. Keeping the project concept pure and minimal, and letting the inevitable biofeedback loop (given a correct pulse step distance) give structure and direction to the experience was important to me all along. I will definitely try to make variations on the fundamental project similarly free from semantic clutter.