Circuit Bending

Well, i've had a bit of a disaster in the last week of class and completely fried my circuit bending project. I hadnt had a chance to record or video it either...
So instead, ive make a little ziney thing you can print out and fold into a little book and an animation of how to construct the thing...

Speaker Module

CasingCase with Speaker attached
This grid allow you to link the different control modules in series by connecting the press studs up in different combinations
Zine. Print up and fold into a booklet. Requires one horizontal cut between the 1st and third vertical folds. (hope that makes sense...)

You can see the animation here

Enjoy

Office Scene

Heres the bosses office in our puppet show so far...

Book of Nothing

Reviving my blog... again

So iv decided to try and get my blog started again for this semester, but judging by my track record this might not last long. We'll see.
It first week of classes this week and ive already cocked things up. All three of my classes clash with each other. I have CAiD and Studio (Silence and other sounds) on thursdays at the same time. And then studies and studio on fridays at the same time. I guess im going too have to change tech classes with is pretty annoying as none of the other 'toolkits' sound particually appealing. I'll probably have to go into sand casting too as i think its the only one that isnt full. Fiddle sticks! I was looking forwards to learning rhino. Oh well, what can ya do...

In other news i was thinking about starting another comic competition like the one i ran last year. iv had a few requests from people lately. So i'll try and get that up this week.

I'll also try and put up a couple of pictures of some projects iv worked on these holidays.

Thats all for now, see you all at workshop on friday.

My very late brief...

Braden Keir S3107876

Dining Experience Brief - Communal Kitchen

Background

A few weeks ago, I attended an alternative lifestyle festival called ‘Confest’. At this festival there was system of cooking and dining in which a kitchen and pantry were set up where everyone could come together and with or for their friends and also complete strangers. The pantry was stocked with food that donated by people at the festival or bought with donated money. This allowed for a very diverse range of food available that reflected the tastes of the people using the kitchen.

By cooking with a bunch of strangers, you are able to relate those people in a way that you wouldn’t usually experience, and through collaborating with other people with different backgrounds and experiences, all parties are able to learn from each other and add their influence to the meal.

Concept

For this project I hope to design a communal kitchen for inner Melbourne. This would be a space where people could come together to prepare and share food. Anyone arriving at the kitchen would be able to start a new meal, assist in preparing someone else’s meal, or share a meal that someone else has prepared. Anyone starting a meal would be asked to cook more than enough for people they arrived with so that other people could share their meal as well.

Ideally it would be free to use, and all food would be donated by participants (however probably isn’t feasible and there may need to be either an entry free or a compulsory donation).

The target audience for this kitchen would be just about everyone from kids making themselves afternoon tea after school, to families going out to lunch, young adults out to meet new people. With help from the local council it could also play the role of a soup kitchen for the homeless.

Possibly Difficulties

When placed in the city, this communal kitchen concept runs into serval problems which will need to be designed around.

Firstly, there’s hygiene. There are currently very strict standards that must be adhered to when preparing food. When you allow the general public into the kitchen, its very difficult to make sure these standards are maintained.

Next there’s the issue of trust. Outside of a festival context, you can no longer assume that everyone is friendly. Some kind of security measures would be necessary to prevent the possibility of intentional poisoning.

Then there are finances. While it would be lovely if this project was run and maintained by the good will of the local community, this probably isn’t feasible. Staff would be necessary to assure the kitchen is run safely responsible and respectfully. There is also the likely situation that not enough people would donate food or money to the kitchen.

New Feature: BLOGLINES!

I've been off on camp with the 1st years and i must d lair ay, i had a ball. Overscaled projects that spiral out of control are always good fun. Highlight of the camp? Building a giant effigy of a pregnant teddy bear to hang and then burn. This thing was MASSIVE! Like 7 or 8 metres. I'll post up some pics later. Unfortuately I had to leave before the actual burning, but hopefully Andrew got some good footage of it. My hands are so hacked up from working with that cane and wire. It was good fun having minions i could set to work on different tasks.

In other news, iv set myself up a 'bloglines'. The days of stalking round this massive web of blogs hunting for new posts are finally over. Now all i have to do is wait as they are they unwittingly drawn from all corners of design:dissent into my lair where i sit ready to .... errr ... read them.

Rev 1: Heres a photo of the bear.

Memoirs of a Geisha

I went out and saw 'Memoirs of a Geisha' last night at Melbourne Central. Over all it was a decent film. The cinematography was beautiful and there was some absolutely majestic scenery, like one scene where they are walking down narrow path with towering bamboo forest on either side.
I did find the story line a little disappointing however. It felt like just another love story. I would have like to see much more of the japanese culture and less of the girl pining for some old man. But thats just me. I was also a little disapointed to find that theyd used chinese actresses for the 2 leading roles. Surely japan has some acting talent to offer? Oh well.
After that i went round to Robot for a drink, but they were only playing Spirited Away which I'd already seen several times before. Still, it was a very nice little place to sit and chat.

Renovations

I picked up a large peice of laminated partical board from uni last week when i was in there painting. The plan is to use it as a new bench cos at the moment i can hardly fit the monitor of my computer on my desk let alone have my keyboard infront of it.
At the moment iv just got the new desktop sitting on top of the old one to get an idea of how it'll work. Heres a photo.














I got to more matching peice that i might use for shelves. They're about 300x500 each.

For those of you who havent seen the new paint jop in B87 , here it is...

Yet another stupid quiz to kill the time... Take that time!

You fit in with: Spiritualism Your ideals are mostly spiritual, but in an individualistic way. While spirituality is very important in your life, organized religion itself may not be for you. It is best for you to seek these things on your own terms. 80% spiritual. 100% reason-oriented.

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

Older sister has an older brother you know?

When in to uni to day for the working bee today. i arrived at 10:30 half expecting to walk into a corridor filled with activity. I really should have know better. Half an hour later another student arrive (Nasa i think his name was), and then a further half hour later liam turned up and we were able to start. I was a little dissapointed to find that we were just going to be painting the wall white, but i must admit it does look alot better. Its abit sad to be loosing the freedom we had to just do whatever we wanted with the walls, not that we ever really used it. It was just nice having that freedom there. Oh well. Raph and Liam turned up later on and we ended up getting quite a lot of work down. Oh and John an Paul from the workshop too.
I found a nice piece of laminated partical board in a pile of stuff to be thrown out in building 87, with i plan on using to extend my desk so that i can actually fit my computer in it properly. This setup is doing horrible things for my spine. It was a lot of fun getting that home on the train...
I had quite a character to keep me company on the ride home. A complete nutjob arguing with a whole host of invisible beings. The one he seemed to have the most to say to was named "Older sister". Every 10-15 minutes he'd hobble over to me and very earnistly tell me that 'Older sister has an older brother' several times untill he was satisfied that i'd understood then hobble back to his side of the train. Only to come back and tell me the same thing a few stops later. God bless public transport crazies.

Mars Volta

I've just got home from the Mars Volta concert at the palace. My God those guys are animals! The played for 2 and a hlaf hours and rocked out like men possessed the whole time. My back and legs were exhausted just standing there! For now I need my bed. Ill try and post about my weekend at Rainbow serpent festival sometime tomorrow. I couldnt be bothered right now. Goodnight.

Hmmm, so much for all my good intentions of keeping this blog going over the holidays. I keep thinking of things i want to post about, but i never quite seem to get round to actually posting... oh well.
Yesterday, my mate Alex and I headed into the botanical gardens with a video camera to try and scope out some good setting for a little film project we want to try. However, we found the gardens to be much to landscaped and clean cut for what we're after so we ended up going home empty handed. Still, it we had a very pleasent stroll in the park so its wasnt a complete waste of time.












Check out this beast i found in the vegie patch. Its about the size of my lower leg, maybe even a bit bigger. You really gotta keep an eye on zuccinis. If you dont pick them when theyr a senisible size they just keep on growing, and end up tasting like wood. That small zook at the back is about the size you'd usually buy at a supper market. Iv also got a lot of pumpkins growing and im tempted to try slipping a milk carton or something a round one to make a square pumpkin. Could make a pretty cool looking jack-0-lantern.














Heres a little trial stop motion i did with Lego.

Curse you flu germs!

I woke up this morning with a bit of a scratchy throat and it seems to be quickly escilating into full fledged flu. Anyone know any miracle cures? anti-flu spells? appropiate deities to sacrifice some cattle to? I'll take anything. Earthcore is in 3 days and i need to be in peek condition.
On an unrelated topic, i'll try and post a pic of that harvey birdman mask tonight when i get home from work.

Costume completed!

I actually finished this project over a week ago, but iv been to lazy to post to. But im on holidays now so i make no apologies, so there. Anyway, here's what i did...

once the wire frames have been completely covered in 'feathers', i used a heat gun to bend shape 2 pieces of ridged PVC conduet and attached them to the top of the frames.














... Then i got a $5 op shop suit jacket onto which mum kindly sewed 2 button holes for the wings to slide into (she wont let me touch the sewing machine after last time)...














... Next I got my broken old school back pack and cut it in half so that it was only the straps connected to a rectangle of fabric. I got mum to sew on some loops and pockets for the pvc pipes to slide into. this would go under the jacket so that the wings slide through the holes in the jacket into the back pack.














Here how it looked when i put it all together. Having the pack on underneath meant that the jacket didnt quite fit, so i was unable to button it up with out looking like i was wearing a corset.














I also made a mask to go with the outfit but it looked so trashy that im not going to post it here. The wings were a hit at the party though. It was a small hall party so wear these giant wings made it particularly difficult to manuver around the place with out taking any one out. Luckly my friends were more than happy to make the occasional trip to the bar from me so it all worked out (thanks fellas!).