Module 1 Formstorming

Weekly Activity Template

Livia Kurti

Project 1

Module 1

Building and experimenting with circuits.

Activity 1

First, I started by following Steve's tutorial and making a simple circuit with copper tape, one LED light, and one low-voltage battery. I also placed a sticker on top of the copper tape. After that, I was excited to experiment, but at the time, I didn't realize how much hassle it would be just to make the LED light flash again. Next, I sketched out circuits. I also added the switch to it, which can be a simple flip paper end. Then I put everything in position. And then it was fixed and taped, but for some reason, it doesn’t work like in the videos or the Steve's tutorial. I'm thinking maybe the curving or something caused an issue—maybe the electricity was lost. So, I remade the lines simpler but kept the switch part. Even after that, the LED light never flashed or turned on at all. Did I burn the LED, or is the battery faulty? I wanted to make at least one working circuit, so I made a very basic one. When I pressed hard on the LEDs, they flashed again. At least that means it's not a battery or LED fault. However, for some reason, the LED light is very picky and won’t just flash on properly. I wanted to experiment more, even if it's not working. I wanted to try and learn whether graphite painting can reconnect broken or separated copper-taped parts to transmit electricity to an LED light. Sadly, it couldn't, but it would have been cool. I could have made mixed media works, but okay—on to the next experiment we go! And this was a 2B pencil experiment. Since I looked it up, it should have contained a high level of graphite to transmit electricity. The problem was figuring out how to connect the negative and positive sides on a flat drawing. Also, it totally slipped my mind that I could have just used folding. Anyway, on to the next experiment! This time, I used alligator clips, and they worked perfectly. It inspired me to use graphite painting again. This is when I realized I need the opposite connective alligator clips as well as the special holder if I want to access both the positive and negative sides of the battery. But back to the experiments I painted with graphite, creating a simple first half of the circuit. Then, I placed the alligator clips on the designated sides and connected the ends to the battery... but it didn’t work. The LED didn’t turn on, so... I removed the alligator clips and looked at the circuits, thinking about how I can make this more conductive. So I added copper to the sides of the paper, but even that didn't work. Unfortunately, all I can say is that these LED stickers are very picky and hard to impress in order to make them turn on by themselves. Then I used another matter aluminum foil that worked perfectly, and finally, the long-awaited light has shined once more! Here is a close-up to ensure that the alumino is well connected to the LED sticker. Then I did the same with the conductive fabric, and once again, the picky LED light refused to cooperate. So I also tried with the alligator clips, but there was no change. Then I experimented with mixed materials again this time, using copper tape and aluminum foil. As the light flashed up, I came up with more artistic experiments, and that was... A flower made from mixed materials circulates! Its written-down leaf and line parts would be made of copper tape, while the petals would be crafted from aluminum foil. And so, the hard work of putting it together once again didn’t work, even though I was making sure they were well connected. So instead, I made a half-and-half thing again, with one half made of aluminum foil and the other half of copper tape. But I have no experience with that, and in the end, I gave up because it was just too hard to bend. So, I noted to myself that I need to watch tutorials on how to bend copper and aluminum foil better, since mixed materials piqued my interest. Once again, I go back to making a simple circuits, but this time adding alligator clips. Here is a sketch of the circuits It can be seen, but when I connected the end of the alligator clips to the battery, the LED didn’t light up. Probably, this time the LED was loose because I feel this circuit should have worked.

Activity 2

In this activity, the first thing that came to mind that would be fun to make was improving the lighting in the middle area of my shelf where I have my collectibles displayed. So, I made some sketches of how I can bring that to life. I then started building it in C4D, where I also add textures to the objects. This makes it easier for me to visualize when incorporating it into brainstorming, since some details can be lost when kept in a more natural state. Here is an overview of the fully finished circle for the display shelf, featuring four LEDs and a switch that can be moved around, as it is taped with duct tape. The switch should be designed to function easily with this circuit. Next, I found that it would be a good idea to have some light inside my table drawer so I can see the contents more clearly. I made a really simple sketch of how I wanted the LEDs inside the drawer. I started 3D modeling again, and this time to adding textures so I wouldn't get confused or lose an object. Here is the best angle at which I could take a screenshot of the battery location. By moving the drawer in and out, it activates, so you need to pull it out to the specified place to have the contents inside light up. Next was my chair, as I sit on it a lot. When I get bored or need to think, I turn it from left to right. I was wondering if I could create an interaction for it. Looking under it gave me the idea that turning to a specific spot would light up an LED's. Here is the sketch and the idea of when it turns around 360 degrees, so you’ll know when you've made a full circle. It's a weird but interesting interaction. Then I made 3D models of it, but I didn’t think it through, so it ended up as a mess. I also made a building from the bottom view, but I still don’t think my idea could work, unfortunately. Next was a watch from one of my favorite anime. It's originally a stun or tranquilizer in the show/manga, but there are laser pointer versions out there sold as toys or fan merchandise, so I thought I could definitely work with a design around that. So, I started making a sketch that I wanted to fully replace with a wrist holder so it can actually be worn as a watch. Then, I made close-ups and a sketch of how the LED switch would work. I based it on the cylinder mechanism used in anime to turn the minute and hour hands, which also opens the top glass part to pinpoint the target. I'm using that as the switch mechanic for my project. And so, I made a 3D model of that, and once again, I used materials on the objects so they wouldn’t lose details as well. This is how I envisioned the switch working. As seen, when turned off, the copper tape would disconnect, opening the circuit and causing the LED to turn off. Then I got hyped thinking I could create another anime- or manga-inspired thing! One of my favorite things to see is magic circles or magic runes. Here's a simple sketch of how I want it to work—the intention is that pushing the middle will light up LEDs inside the circuits. I made more sketches of how I can make it possible, such as where I would place the LEDs (small triangles) and how it would interact with the glove to activate the circuits. I was also thinking that instead of placing it on top, I would have the activity area on the outside, so I would put paper on top to hide the copper tape and place LEDs underneath the paper, similar to that journal from week 1, making it look like performing magic. Then, I made sketches of how I could create an interesting interaction with my notebook, since I also remembered from a lecture when a person put LEDs inside a booklet, and the spine of the book would have the LEDs turn on. So, when I looked outside and didn’t see any fun interactions, I instead focused on the interactions of how a person uses the notebook. Then I looked at the motion of flipping pages but found it would be tricky to come up with fun circuits since it should only involve 1 or 2 pages. It would be more fun if entire notebook pages could be used. After seeing someone experimenting with their pencil case, I also wanted to see how I could use my own, so I made a very weird sketch. After looking at my pencil case, I realized it would not work very well, even though it could be useful to have LED inside my black pencil case if I had the space to look inside. The problem was, I didn’t know how to execute that, and so those were the experiments I conducted for Activity 2.

Project 2

Final Project 1 Design

Here are the two final designs: one wearable and one non-wearable.

Here is the wearable design from the front view, with the battery on the other side of the gloves. The reason there's another battery is that when I tried to take a picture, the other one wouldn't light up unless I pushed it down, so I just used my extra battery to keep the LED working. There is another side where the battery is located. Basically, I wanted this design to be fun, where whatever finger touches the battery would light up. It ended up looking like a Rockstar fan merch you could take to a concert, but I still wish I had made a better wearable design. Now, here comes the front view when the switch is off on the lamp that was inspired by my long-running anime I watched. And there it is turned on as well there is also a duct tape on top, so I can place the painting on it and protect the LED from getting damaged when I transport it around.
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