Final Project - Wiichuck Instrument

For this final project, I wanted to create something that was both interactive and more small. I did not have a certain artist in mind as inspiration for the idea, but rather became inspired through looking at a multitude of art projects centering around working with Arduino boards. From the experiments we worked on before, I grew to be really interested in Arduino boards and how they work, so I decided on a project revolving around them. I decided to use a Wii nunchuck as my other device because of its versatile ability to perform many functions and gain many readings from a computer due to its sensory devices. To me, some of the most entertaining things can be found in some of the smallest devices, and I really wanted to incorporate a more interactive quality to my project so everyone could have fun with it. This project was a bit harder than I had expected to accomplish. I had to relearn my basic coding skills and even then getting the Arduino board to calibrate and recognize the Wii nunchuck was a big process. The hardest part was by far the coding. I had only taken one computer science class, and coding had never been a real strength of mine. Therefore, I needed a lot of help with the calbration of the nunchuck, but I was so happy when I finally saw it working. It took even more time to get the speaker to play sounds according to the movement of the nunchuck and its joystick, but I did eventually get it to work the way I wanted. The sounds give off a very computer-like, futuristic feel in its tones...almost as if the board is speaking its own language through the nunchuck. Overall, looking at things like the making behind circuitry and relearning how to code, I did learn a lot more about circuitry and the functions Arduino boards can perform with different objects. This was by far a fun project to attempt as were all the other projects I had done.

Video Triptych - What Dreams May Tell

Dreams are said to be an unknown realm. Some believe that in the end, dreams may mean nothing after all. Others believe that dreams hold significant meaning and can act as guides or foresights. I made this video to portray both the strange mysterious quality of a dream as well as the feelings that occur when one cannot remember or remembers very little of the dream. The video effects were inspired by Nam Jun Paik and the audio/visual interactions were inspired by Christian Marclay. The left and right videos portray the strangeness of the dream while the center video keeps us centered on the reality of the situation. The left video is noisy and choppy representing the tendency to both forget dreams or remember fragments of it. We never get the whole. The right video is meant to be a foil as it is soft and one constant video meant to be a journey. This video is meant to be subjective and meant for everyone to find their own interpretation and meaning.

Video Triptych - Videos

What Dreams May Tell - Rest from Jasmine Alicea on Vimeo.

What Dreams May Tell - The Walk from Jasmine Alicea on Vimeo.

Musical Scores

Shown above is the musical score created for my whistle by David Kohut. Thinking about the nature of my whistle and the patterns this score created, I decided to read this score like a faint whisper. The three densities of the lines I saw on the score I assigned to one of the three workable blow tubes on my whistle. From there, I read the score very much how I would read or hear something like Morse code with the sounds the different tubes made and the changes they made when certain tubes were plugged. In the end, I played the score very much how I would want a faint message or tune to sound, and I aimed for the audience to concentrate so hard that it did cause a slight headache.

Shown below is the musical score I made for David Kohut's string balloon instrument. His instrument could make certain noises with the balloon under the strings and well as be controlled enough to create a reverb in tune. I aimed for the score to be in essence a downhill spiral with the sounds and noises getting softer and more distanced as the score was played on. In the end, I also wanted to create a sudden pop of noise via the popping of David's balloon. The idea was to start out strong and clear then get slower and softer as time went on until the audience loses attention. At the end, the pop was meant to bring attention back suddenly as well as give a fitting end.

Artist Instrument

For my artist instrument, I wanted to design something a bit different than the normal rubber band string instrument. I found myself really inspired by instruments like the ocarina and the whistle, and I wanted to create a wind instrument that was both quiet and soft like the wind yet held different pitches with each blow tube. Through the use of the 3D model maker, I was able to design this whistle. This whistle is unlike the rest as the sound it produces is faint and one needs to listen closely and concentrate to clearly make out the pitches. It is representative of the small things we fail to hear or see in life as we are surrounded by a fast life and loud noises.

SecondLife Avatar

 My face mesh process. It took a lot of time to do the front side, and the ears and sides of the face seemed to take no time compared to that. I had to fix a few things too even after the first fitting.

This is how the face mesh came out in the end. My nose is way too big but besides that it was an ok mix.

The object I made was a more simple one….a jellyfish. I made two: one for a chair and one as a hat for my second character.

My second character on SecondLife. She's based off of a jellyfish queen character I had made not so long ago. I love how the hat looked on her and almost replaced the head indefinitely. :3

Virtual Sculpture

I'm not going to deny how hard this project was. As a newbie I found myself stumbling on these newfound issues. However, I did have a lot of fun with it. Whatever I couldn't replicate from the sculpture I did my best to replace. It's nowhere near perfect, but it was a good first try.