learning the ropes

Today I made some revisions to the Max/MSP patches that interface the rope&pulley to the computer. In preparation for the videotaping session I’m doing with Wendy tomorrow, I wanted to make sure that it was easy to switch back and forth between the different patches. When I’ve done that in the past, I’ve always run into trouble — I invariably forget to configure some part of the patch. While cleaning up the patches I found that I could structure things in a way that may make it easier to combine them should the need arise.

I have three different versions of the patch now:
Audio

- rope&pulley controls playback direction (and optionally speed) of user-selectable .wav audio samples.

MIDI

- rope&pulley plays notes on a MIDI synthesizer and can adjust two user-configurable MIDI realtime controller values.

Movie

- rope&pulley scrubs a looped QuickTime movieplays. Scrubbing rate is mapped to the pulley’s rotation speed and the scaling of this value can be adjusted from the patch.

I’ve been playing around with the code David Nolan sent us for generating Bezier curves in Processing. I wanted some way to move the Bezier curves around in real time, so I combined David’s Bezier code along with customized versions of Daniel Shiffman’s interactive selection code and his button class into an interactive bezier drawing program.

Initially I had a bit of a bug which was joining the ends of the curves together:

Next steps:
- Animate
- Make the control points and lines disappear except when they’re in use

I visited the Coles Athletic Center at NYU with Lisa Lurie to observe gestures and get a sense of the haptic feedback that exercise machines provide. While Lisa worked out on the rowing and elliptical machines, I recorded my observations by sketching. I also spent some time working out on the machine to perceive the force feedback it delivered.

General Observations
- When you step into the workout room, all you can hear is the sound of whirring equipment
- The row of elliptical machines looked like a massive multi-cylinder engine as the pistons moved in and out.

Rowing Machine

- Lisa pointed out that the trade-off of energy on the rowing machine is pleasing. In the first half of the cycle, you work to pull the handle to your abdomen. To complete the cycle, you allow the handle to return to its starting point and the machine does the work.
- The rowing machine provides a great deal more resistance than my pulley.
- There is a fan in the rowing machine. Interestingly, the fan spins in only one direction. This may be useful for me. It raises the question of whether the rope&pulley needs to have some sort of inertia. I was thinking about whether to add weights to the pulleys, but another way of approaching this is to make the pulleys behave like bicycle wheels: pulling on the rope adds energy to the system, but the rope won’t continue to spin. This may be a tricky mechanism to built.
- The rowing machine works out a bunch of muscle groups. A body takes several different shapes while using the machine from very compressed to fully extended.
- The rowing machine is designed ergonomically for the action it is meant to receive. The handle exits the machine at the height you should be pulling it towards on the abdomen.
- The sound of the rowing machine corresponds to the motion… ZZZzzzZZzzZz z z z ZZZzzzZZzzZz z z z
- There is an expressive quality to the gestures the body makes when exercising on a rowing machine.

Elliptical Machine

- We also tried the elliptical machines
- When using an elliptical machine, the torso is stationary. The arms and legs move and the shoulders twist, but the torso remains in practically the same position.

This evening, I presented by visual reflection to the thesis seminar class and gave a short demo of the current system. Despina asked the class to come up with lists of words that resonated with each of our presentation. The following words were associated with my reflection and demo:

theremin
gestural
expressive
skeletal
movement
tactile
mechanical
playful
delight
contrast (between organic construction and electronic sound)
inventive