We were challenged by the city to make an average bus stop interactive by inventing creative ways to bring people together. Our group decided to make a semi-interactive art piece that morphed depending on how many people rode the bus. The more people take the bus, the less cars there are on the road, resulting in less pollution being put into the atmosphere; therefore resulting in the bus being a more "green" mode of transportation.

Our project is meant to bring people to the bus stop to experience how our project moves and reacts according to the amount of people riding the bus. Our project would wrap around the sign post, with the inner workings attached onto the sign post for structural support. We themed our project around the urban environment, as well as fractals. A fractal is a pattern, commonly found in nature, that splits off from itself infinitely. An example would be a fern, and we took thi idea and tried to incorporate it into our branches. We make our branches triangular, as well as the trunk, because we anted to capture the essence of a tree, rather than mimicing one.

To make our branches "grow" and "die", Jules programmed an arduino to rotate a motor. This motor is gripping onto a cord tht runs through all of the segments on our branches. When this cord is pulled taut by the motor, the branch will "grow" and straighten out. This will reflect the motion of a tree growing and wilting. 

We went through an elongated process of planning our idea and conceptualizing which lead to a severe time crunch, which made it difficult to fully create our project on time. We ran into some problems towards the end of the project that, if we had extra time, would have risen earlier, resulting in a more functional and complete project. We discovered that the motor didn't have enough torque to be able to pull the branches completely tight, so we added a counterweight, and even then, was struggling to pull the cord. We perservered and eventually, came up with a project that looks good and also functions at a decent level, which hopefully will bring people to the bus stop. 

    In this studio, we were challenged to make an art piece that kept people busy while they waited for the bus. The first solution we came up with, was making a pedal box under the bus stop seats, that would allow commuters to pedal and generate electricity. This could be used for charging electronics or powering a sign that tells you when the bus is coming. We later pivoted because this was kind of a solitary idea. Although it encouraged you to charge and use your phone, it wasn't really a form of art. So we wanted to make something that was interactive, communal, and is a piece of art. We split up to come up with ideas, and we all decided on a large cylindrical music box that you could spin around a pole making music.

    Because our initial idea was a pedal generator, we did some research about them, and how they work. We wanted to incorporate the mechanical aspect of a pedal into our music box. This seemed very complicated at first, because we thought about designing a gear ratio to limit the speed you could spin it. If we used a crank as well, there’d be more rhythmic consistency. But we were challenged to make the design different than a usual one. Rosie and Nathan suggested that we try a spinning mechanism without the gears and handle. This presented a new set of challenges that we worked towards overcoming. Based on our research, this would be one of a kind. We couldn’t find anything that was an inside out music box. Because our project is so unique, it has benefits and drawbacks. It is great because it means we are being original and creative. One drawback is that due to the lack of similar projects, we had to come up with every single detail ourselves, or using regular music boxes. Since there are plenty of regular music boxes out there, research on basic principles wasn't very time consuming. The real amount of work went in to figuring out how we'd take what we learn from these DIY music boxes, and make them our own, all while flipping the music box part inside out. Some other research we did was another quick bit of research that gave a lot in terms of results. We looked in to tuning and how to use rhythms so that our song would sound recognizable and also would be a little different. Ethan did a great job arranging the song, he even made it into a duet.

   Our first idea was to have a few bicycles at the bus stop that would be connected to a generator. The generator could then power something fun like a game or something useful like heated blankets or a fan. But after days of brainstorming, we found out that our idea didn’t fit in to the purpose of the studio. So, we scratched that idea to try to find something more fun. The first thing we did was to separate and just generate ideas. After generating two or three, we would get together and discuss our ideas. During this process, we noticed that most of our ideas were about music. Out of those ideas, the most plausible concept was a music box. We thought, with a music box, we could build multiple music boxes that could be mounted to the bus post. To make the music boxes more user immersive we designed one that could have interchangeable pegs so that the user could create their own songs. Also we could have multiples at a bus stop that are all tuned to the same key so that people could play together. We came up with two ideas of how to mount the music box to the bus pole. Our first idea was to have a regular music box mounted sideways on the pole. Our second idea was to have an inverted music box that fit over the pole. What this means is that the keys would be on the inside of the wheel. We decided to go with the second idea because if incorporated the post more so than the other one.

   Our first iteration was a really basic design just to test out the materials. We made the wheel out of cardboard and wooden pegs. We made the keys out of wood. The wooden pegs did work but the cardboard was too soft to keep the pegs in. The wood worked fairly well for the keys, but they were to stiff and would not be able to bend and vibrate as much as we would need it to be.  In the second iteration we tested different materials. We tried spring steel this time for the keys. The steel was louder than the wood because it was able to vibrate more. Because the steel was separated from the wood that held it in place, we were able to tune the keys to a C major scale. We then tried  to use wood for the wheel because it was sturdier and was readily accessible. Before we started building we ran into a problem. The wheel on a music box had to be a perfect circle and it would take a very long time to even get close to that. So we chose to create a multi sided wheel instead. For this model we wanted to have the music box play “Wheels on the Bus”, So we needed 72 sides to the wheel. We still wanted to show that this could be interchangeable so we put eight holes in each of the sides. On our final iteration, we kept the spring steel keys but we added a resonation chamber on the bottom to allow the sound to become louder. We made the wheel entirely out of wood, but we only cut the holes we needed to play the song “Wheels on the Bus” to save time in the laser cutter. We had also covered the wood pegs in felt to dampen the unwanted noise. On this model we added more of the more technical pieces to make this model work. one of the most essential part of this design was to create something that would allow the wheel to rotate around the pole. We first wanted to 3D print skateboard ball bearings because those bearings are mostly silent, provide little resistance and were already able to do what we needed it to do. But because we needed the bearings to be so large, we were not able to 3D print them. We were then forced to come up with other ideas. The ideas we came up with had less moving parts and were plausible to be able to build. On the top we created an acrylic slider that would attach to the pole and sandwich between two other pieces of acrylic that would be attached to the wheel. This would provide little resistance and easier fabrication. On the bottom we put singular ball bearings that would roll on top of a stationary plate that the wheel would sit on. The plate and bearings were designed to bear the load of the wheel.

    Our project is put together in a seventy-two sided box. The reason it needs all of these sides, is because we need each side to either have a note, or have a rest. The way that the music box is plucked is pegs that were glued into carefully mapped out holes on our sides. The music box itself has two components, the first being a part based on a thumb piano with the tongs that are hit, and the resonation chamber. The thumb piano part required a lot of thought early on in our project. We had to put each tong and make sure that it was tuned correctly on a C major scale. This was challenging for the first tong, but after that, it became easier. For the first one, we had to calibrate its angle and length for it to play a low C. Once this was done, the rest was relatively easy. We were able to build off of this first one, each being pushed in a little further than the last. The resonation chamber was manufactured using a box making website, as well as a hole in one side. The next two parts are the sliders on the top and the ball bearings on the bottom. The ball bearings were pretty simple to attach, however they required precise measurement to find out where we should attach them. The sliders on top were prototyped 3 or 4 times before we cut them out of acrylic. There are three parts to these, the top and bottom pieces which are screwed together, and the middle piece which spins freely in the center. We also made two mounting brackets that were 3D printed three times, the first time, the printer ran out of plastic. The second time, the width measurement was off by less than one millimeter, but we couldn’t fix it unless we re-printed it. These mount to the secure acrylic pieces and to the bus pole. The box with the tongs and resonation chamber is fixed to the pole in the middle of all of this.

    The music box is spun around the pole which strikes the tongs in the middle, and resonating through the music box. Although we didn’t have enough time to finish our prototype, we know that if we were given more time, we would have a working one. Another way we were thinking of rotating the box was with a crank. But we were challenged to make one without a crank. This is how most music boxes function, so we were going to be totally original.

    This music box is a solution to the problem that many people who take the bus daily have. They are more than likely always on their phone, computer, tablet, or reading a book. We were challenged to make an art piece that is interactive and brings people together. We did this by making a music box that is extremely unique. Ours is not only spun without a crank, or a motor, but it is flipped completely inside out! During our research, we didn’t find anything like this out there. We spent a lot of time brainstorming, which meant more fleshed out ideas, but it also lead to less time to build. this wasn’t a huge deal because we are at a point now where we can demonstrate our idea with confidence that it would work if we had a few more days time.

Today, we tried to start finishing the project.  We have most things done, but still need to do a lot of work.  We have not cut anything in wood yet.  I think that it will be best if we put all of our components in one cut, so it is done at the same time.  We need to cut out the button box, supports, and screen holder in wood.  Assembling them should not be too hard if we got the measurements correct.  Today, I worked on a lot of different things.  I started making the screen holder, but Louie is going to finish that.  I also started to write the process post.  I got a decent amount of that done, before I found out that we were not presenting tomorrow.  I then switched my attention to the button box.  While checking if all of the notches lined up, I discovered that they did not.  I spent the rest of the day trying to fix the alignment, with help from my coaches.  

Unfortunately, I spent most of my day making a bracket for the screen.  The unfortunate thing about it was that I was given the wrong dimensions, and thus made the wrong bracket.  I was working on that for almost the whole morning.  When I got to screen, after lunch, I started over, and made the new bracket fairly quickly.  The thing that took the longest was waiting for the laser cutter.  Waiting to cut took a very long time, and there was not a lot of other things to do while waiting.  The way the bracket works now is by utilizing the holes on the sides of the Screen.  I made a flat pierce of cardboard (could be any material) that allows bolts to be attached through the screen and onto the support.  This is not a perfect solution to our mounting problem, but I do not know if we will have time to make changes.  Tomorrow, we have to cut everything out in wood, and make sure there are no bugs in the game.  

Today Becca and I started the day continuing work on our physical model and 3D model. Becca created a three tier structure that she strung string through to represent the placement of the holes. We had done numerous drawings on paper to come up with the best set up for the piece and how to apply the hinges. I continued with the 3D model and focused on the look of the piece. We changed the idea of the piece from just wrapping around the pole to completely covering it. We continued talking about the set up of the installations and the best way to put it together because the hinges made it a little more complicated and we had to think of the movement of the hinges for each. After lunch Becca worked with Rosie on designing the pieces that will hold up the structure while Nathan and I worked on grasshopper figuring out the best way to place the holes for stitching. We had to separate the model into the 3 tier like Becca's model and color code the pieces that moved. I'm excited about stitching up the project tomorrow and putting our final touches on it. 

Today, I spent almost all of my time improving the button box.  I listened to a lot of the feedback about the button box, and remodeled the whole thing.  I made it more compact and less likely to hurt somebody.  On the original design there were a lot of pointed edges; I got rid of those on the new design.  In addition to those improvements, I made the buttons closer to each other.  I still think that the games will be easier with two hands, but now the user can made that decision.  I also added extra pieces to the supports.  I made cut outs in the bottom of the button box and corresponding pierces on the support, so that the bond would be a lot stronger.  At the end of the day, I started to think about how the screen would attach to the box and pole.  I have some ideas, but I will not know if they work until I try them.

Today in the collaborative art group we got a large amount of work done. Becca and I started the day by making two different prototypes so we could decide which way to go with our project. I made my prototype with a large piece of wood and cardboard triangles that I had cut out, and I attached them to the wood using hinges and screw to make it interesting. I also made the triangles in different sizes to make it look more artistic. Becca made the second prototype out of a dowel rod and small triangles. She made little pyramids covering the rod which made it more like a sculpture. With the pyramids you also have the ability to open up the hinges and have "secret" places to write. We decided the best prototype was Becca's and began working on that. Becca worked on improving the prototype  while I made a 3D model on Rhino. I'm very excited about the project and we decided instead of making it just pyramids coming off the sides a continuous piece that goes around the whole pole.

Today in the collaborative art group we began to finalize pieces to our projects. We began moving away from our initial idea of the foldable fortune teller and more into an foldable structure piece. After talking with Rosie, she instructed us that the best way to move forward would be to create a structure that would have shapes that would fold out and could be folded in, covering the pole entirely. Becca and I then took that idea and brainstormed for a while what shape to make the places for people to write and we decided on triangles. We laser cut some triangles and drilled them to a piece of wood for a prototype and we will continue working on that tomorrow. I'm getting excited about the project because we now have more of an idea for what we are doing.

Today, we did a lot of laser cutting and made a lot of design choices.  We spent most of the morning focusing on the button housing.  We made a few minor changes to the original design, such as hole spacing and size, in Rhino before cutting it out in cardboard.  Everything was great on the housing besides the holes.  Unfortunately, the laser cutter malfunctioned, and did not cut circles.  Instead, it cut some sort of strange ellipse.  This problem was easy enough to fix though, and we moved onto the buttons.  We first revised the casing around the button, making it smaller and more aesthetically pleasing.  We also figured out a way to house the button within the box.  The last thing that we worked on was the structural support for the button box.  We changed the supports so that it is angled more towards the user, so that it is easier to use.

Yesterday, Becca and I continued working on our fortune teller structure. The day before we had 3D printed an original design, but we had made the pieces too large resulting in them making a rectangle instead of a square and it could not fold properly. We made the dimensions of the triangles the right size and 3D printed it. We had found a way to drill holes that would make all the pieces connect like when the paper is folded. We thought the best way to connect the pieces was using a stretchy string that is very flexible and allows the pieces to bend in both directions. We really liked the way it looked and realized that you could fold the pieces in many more ways than we expected, making the piece even more interactive. We are really happy with how the process has been going.