This week we made a first draft of a soundscape for the project, and divide up work for the rest of the build process: as Cristele focuses her efforts on the digital and print materials, I will work primarily on the sound design and technology for the device.
To start with, I worked with my friend Eddie, a professional actor, to record a transcript of a story John supplied to us last week. I combined the recording with audio from the London Sound Survey from around Dalston, as well as the audio from a VHS recording I found from the restaurant in question on YouTube. I think the audio does a good job at embodying the ‘foot in multiple times’ that we’re trying to conjure with our project, but it needs to be tested on target users before we can be sure.
While Cristele put together a leaflet and a prototype website for the device, as well as a logo, I turned my attention to how the technology would work. We also decided on Getlost as our initial project name – it captured the idea of disrupting cognitive mapping from the Erik Jonsson reading, as well as encouraging users to wander in the spirit of the dérive.
On the technological side, I took out Arduino equipment from the CTL, and ordered a GPS and compass sensor online. The basic structure of the code is detailed below, but it relies on treating a map as a 2D surface, calculating angles from trigonometric functions around differences in latitude and longitude, and sending the desired angle and distance to the Arduino to drive the motor and lighting (which will change from blue to red, as if from cold to hot).
As I cannot get the sensors working on my own, I built a simulation in Python to test out the motor and lighting components. Limited by the fact that Servo motors only rotate through 180 degrees, we will have to lock the compass in place when it is too far right or left for the motor to successfully rotate.
The next step in the build process is to install the GPS and compass sensors, for which I may need help from friends more familiar with physical computing, but this should be done this week.
Harry Solomons 