What is it like to simulate 2 environments simultaneously in real time?
Sensors from circuit breadboard with an Arduino and X-Bee shield.
Placing sensors in Thomas Square Park, a team comprised of Adam Sabh, Noa Dolberg, Isaac Malca, Mani Nilchani, and myself set out to test environmental elements and represent them miles away at another location.
1st environment/behavior: Benches
Placing pressure sensors on the planks of the benches themselves, the sensory device will extrapolate the data of an individual seated on the bench translating this data into pulse similar to a heartbeat sound. The idea of a pulse will simulate the presence of a human being.
2nd environment/behavior: Swings
In the playground of the park, a sensor will be placed at the area of the swing where the seated child is swinging. This will be a ping motion sensor.
3rd environment/behavior: Sun/Light/Shadow
A light sensor will be placed underneath the trees so it will capture the changes of light
as branches move as the day “wanes” and “waxes.”
4th environment: Tweet Spots(s)
Displayed signage of footsteps on the walkway near the gazebo fountain. On the footsteps will be placed a QR code to denote an online presence leading to an X-Bee shield with an additional ethernet shield for data capture/monitoring. All sensors are connected to a breadboard; this encourages pedestrians of the park to tweet about themselves and their presence at the park.
The web presence is a live streaming of the work and summary of the data to denote the temporal nature of the activities of Spring. We could actually monitor the changes in the day by creating our own data feed, and watch the changes in the park via a website that we created:
So we chose to represent the 2nd, simulated environment in a set design reminiscient of a 1970's apartment on Tompkins Square. The reason being all of the history with music, protests, and a punk culture at that time.
Here is its represented in a simulated CAD environment.
We never actually were able to build the actual environment, even though the sensors did work perfectly. Costs and time were not on our side, and the orders for the furniture, antiques, hardware, windows, books, etc never arrived. Its still a mystery where they are today.
I still feel it is a great experiment with huge potential for testing in the future.