Process

Christine Bourdeau and Jonah Stillman

Merkaba

Isabella Julian

Merkaba is a 3d printed exotic looking bracelet that worked as a musical prosthetic.  The bracelet itself has sharp points sticking out on one side and extends down the bracelet, unevenly. The bracelet has an arduino attached to the bracelet for the final presentation, and multiple wires connecting the bracelet to the patch on a users arm.  The wires are soldered and placed in the correct holes of the arduino to send the data to the sensors. Each bracelet has two touch sensors, which play two different sounds according to the instrument each player is assigned.

In our team Isabella had the vocal bracelet - one of the sensors on the vocal bracelet manipulates the volume of her recorded singing , while the second sensor manipulates one of her coaches beat-boxing recordings. Jasper had the melody bracelet- both sensors on the bracelet are piano based sounds and has the manipulations of the volume. Lizzie had the beat bracelet- both sensors on the bracelet plays two different beats and has the manipulations of the volume aswell the other two bracelets.

Body Accordion

Kate Reed

We created a corset that acts like an accordion. The corset has two belts, one at the waist and one above the bust. In between these two belts are eight arms. The arms are an organic rib-like shape that is laser cut out of plywood. Each arm is made of two pieces, which are connected together using a screw and a lock nut. We had to use lock nuts because normal nuts would fall off with the amount of usage of the arms. The arms connect to a 3D printed hinge that connects to the belt. The hinge allows the arms to move and be stable to the belt at the same time.

There are two flex sensors on the corset, one in the front and one on the side. They are positioned at the bottom of the arms and sense when you are bending forward or sideways. The flex sensors give a number based on how bent they are. That number gets sent to the computer and into a program called Max MSP. We programmed Max to change the pitch based on how bent the flex sensor is.