Several works were developed for the Is Technology Eating My Brain? exhibition:
Pedal-powered automated watering and lighting system for a geranium
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Endless computer speech declining public opinions on technology
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Participatory sculpture made of upcycled e-waste
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Self-portrait machine with random slice-mixing function
My residency-exhibition Is Technology Eating My Brain? at Watermans Arts Centre Brentford West London is going well. The project is based on my Wrekshop idea. The principle consists of installing an e-waste upcycling unit in a gallery space, opening it to voluntary participants and build exhibits over the period.
The residency part of Is Technology Eating My Brain? at Watermans Arts Centre has concluded with a launch on 15th May. Visitors had a chance to mingle among a Geranium Survival Unit, a Slicing Photo-Booth, eat French style radish snacks (raw with a chunk of butter and some salt), play tunes on a pedal-powered sound system provided by Pedal PA.
Other works include the techeatbrain Litany, a growing list of “Technology is…” statements read by a speech synthesizer running on an old PC retrofitted with Linux Crunchbang and espeak. Visitors can enter statements to the list which was started by myself and participant Toby Lynch. The soundscape is completed by an audio mix of atmos sounds I recorded in Australia and Japan.
Participants Jason Scording and Bobby Neighbour contributed greatly to the Big E-Waste Helmet of Tomorrow, a bulky just-about-wearable headset featuring mobile photographic eyes made of hacked 2 megapixel vintage-ish cameras. The Slicing Photo-Booth was programmed on Raspberry Pi by Vagmakr. Eugenie Smit put together a delicate assembly of small devices triggering one another (see below).
The exhibition runs until June 3rd
– Interview for Science Cafe, a science programme on BBC radio Wales, initially broadcast on May 6th 2014. Sound file available here.
Interviewer: Adam Walton
Producer: Jeremy Grange
© BBC Wales 2014
I have been using basic 3d printers since 2011, starting with a Thing-o-matic by Makerbot, then a couple of UP3D machines. They use plastic filament, mostly made of Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), the same material used to make Lego bricks, or polylactic acid (PLA), a plastic derived from corn starch or other renewable bio-materials. The filament is generally made from virgin plastic (ie: not recycled), purchased ready-spooled and in various colours.
The frequent use of a 3D printer has a common side-effect: the production of a significant amount of faulty parts and temporary support structures, without even counting in the endless tat spewed out by the little machines in the guise of Yoda heads, clumsy plastic jewellery, door knobs that don’t quite work…
Additionally ABS plastic perfectly suitable for printing can be found in the casings of many consumer electronic items, car bumpers, fridge door compartments, lego bricks, luggage etc… The problem is how to turn this abundant source of potentially upcyclable material into suitable filament. The most spectacular and impressively robust use of recycled ABS in a 3D printer is Endless, a project by Dutch designer Dirk van der Kooij based on a modified robotic arm.
The search for an environmentally friendly solution to the needs of desktop 3D printers is underway. The Filabot was probably the first attempt for an open-source solution allowing both the re-use of discarded prints and of recycled plastics. Filabot is now providing a commercially available grinder, the Reclaimer, as well as different models of filament extruders.
Other commercial designs include and the Strudittle and the Filastruder. Open source designs can be found on the Recyclebot website. Joshua Pearce from Michichan Technological University made the news in 2013 for his recycling of milk jugs using a Recyclebot v2.2, design available on Thingiverse. Beyond the fact that high-density polyethylene, or HDPE (the plastic milk jugs are made of) retracts dimensionally while cooling, the recycling of plastics presents the inconvenient that polymer chains do break down in smaller chains each time the plastic is melted, thus weakening the material and limiting the amount of useable cycles.
Filastruder recommends a pellet size of no more than 5mm width in any dimension for use with their machine. I experimented briefly with an office paper shredder and some of my discarded prints. The coarse plastic fragments I collected are not suitable for a small extruder, and the shredder struggled to cut anything thicker than 2mm.
In November 2013 the UK based techfortrade charity launched the Ethical Filament Foundation, an initiative aiming to reduce plastic waste in developing countries while providing income to deprived populations. Their vision: ” We believe that there is an opportunity to create an environmentally friendly and ethically produced filament alternative to meet the needs of the rapidly growing 3D Printing market. We also believe that by doing this we could potentially open up a new market for value added products that can be produced by waste picker groups in low income countries.The foundation is working on a manufacturing and quality standard “.
While in Manchester I took the opportunity to visit my friends from the Owl Project in their studio round the back of Piccadilly Station. Anthony Hall, Simon Whitemore and Steve Symons have scored a large space split in two sections: one dedicated to (mostly) wood fabrication, with a CNC router and some more traditional cutting tools, the other for brain work, electronics and small scale projects.
The space contains several of Owl Project’s FLOW installation instruments. FLOW was commissioned by Cultural Olympiads fund in 2012, and installed on the Tyne River in Newcastle UK for several months. Mounted on a specially designed floating platform, a water wheel activated several beautifully crafted wood and electronics instruments that analysed water samples and generated sound accordingly.
I also saw a few solar-powered iLogs (if you want to make one, there is an iLog workshop coming soon) and current work on various synths, sequencers and light spectrometers. The Owl project are currently developing new work during a residency in Manchester Museum.
I visited Access Space in Sheffield, where I enjoyed a two days crash training in using the command line and shell scripts in Linux. Initiated by James Wallbank and the Redundant Technology Initiative group in 2000, Access Space is arguably the first open source/community computing creative technology labs in the UK. The space is open several days per week, with two main areas: the Media Lab where visitors can access a Linux workstation for web access, design, programming, etc. A code-protected door opens on the Refab Space which hosts the digital fabrication machines (laser cutter, CNC router, several rep rap 3D printers), a lot of recycled computing gear and several solid workbenches.
During my stay I saw lots of activity in both areas, including a Sheffield Hardware Hackers meeting (every monday 6pm), and the laser cutter was pretty much always busy.
James is a great host, busy with many projects including his latest business adventure Infinite Crypt. He is always keen to share on topics of technological accessibility, community development and techno-social trends. I recorded an audio interview where he gives us his insight on Access Space and thoughts on the opportunities offered by digital fabrication technologies.
Interview with James Wallbank in Access Space Sheffield, 26th February 2014
I have been interested in supercapacitors for a while. These components are boosted up versions of the humble capacitors found in most electronic products. A capacitor is a component that can store energy, in a similar way to a battery. Normal capacitors – aka caps – only take very small charges (typically measured in Microfarads), and they are often used for cleaning up spikes and noise in power supplies. Supercaps can store much more (measured in Farads), which presently makes them almost suitable as battery replacements.
What’s wrong with using batteries?
– They take a long time, and fairly complex charging circuits, to charge. A super cap can be plugged in a standard power supply with addition of just two components, and charge in minutes.
– They have a limited life span, generally around 1000 charges, after what they have to be recycled, a tricky business. In theory, a well-treated super cap will last almost forever.
I have run a couple of tests with current supercapacitor technology. I found all the info I needed about supercapacitors in this instructable.
One if my experiments was to build an 8.1V, 120 Farad capacitor array, that should be sufficient for powering a small robot or microcontroller. It is made of 6 x 360Farad, 2.7V supercaps. First test: to supply power to a Raspberry Pi. It works fine, but with this configuration (8V 120F converted to 5V) I only get approximately 15 minutes of operation, and that’s without powering a display.
The bright side is the speed of charge, around 3 minutes with my bench power supply (2.5A).
Erm… Not sure what these supercaps will be good for, maybe a secondary power for mobile robot. The fast recharge rate could make it a good combination with a conventional battery to provide continuous operation.
Finally finished the mini audio amp I started when I visited Flowering Elbow. I fitted a supercapacitor array inside the amp, that gives approximately 20 minutes of operation when fully charged. Charging it with one of my modified dynamo torches takes 3-4 minutes.
Finger dancing optional. Music is Chocolate by Syrup.
I am gradually getting to grips with the Raspberry Pi, and I have stumbled upon a great online/hardcopy resource called The Magpi.
Currently at issue #20, The Magpi started in 2012 to deliver a monthly selection of articles written by enthusiasts about various Raspberry projects, features, and culture. All the issues are available online, and are a perfect repository for beginners and intermediate Rpi eaters.
The feel, layout and content of the magazine bring back a community based DIY computing spirit very close to that of the 1980s, which I guess the Raspberry Pi initiative is very inspired by.
The Magpi is currently running a kickstarter campaign, already 341% funded with 13 days to go!
I went to Flowering Elbow‘s open day on Saturday. It took about 90 minutes to drive from Cardiff, and I finally arrived on top of a hill near Carmarthen where Sam and Steve have built a workshop extension to an existing farm building. Lots of TLC and sustainable design principles have gone into the building, as well as an impressive array of metal and wood machining tools.
Theme for the day was wood, and I chose to make a casing for a prototype small amplified speaker powered by a supercapacitor array. Steve and Sam suggested different bits of timber. I settled on geometrically challenging but good looking holly cuts that they gathered from a hedge nearby sometime ago. I used a bandsaw and a scary table saw to make small holly panels. There was no time to assemble the case, it is now on my homework to-do list.
I totally recommend attending Flowering Elbow’s next open day, Steve and Sam are very welcoming and knowledgeable, and they are keen to share skills and ideas. I have invited them to come to my studio soon, and spend a day on electronics and small scale digital fabrication.
