Friday, May 15, 2009

Spinners and Zombies







Today we figured out the engineering solutions for the rotating plant frames and how to get the biggest Oomph to strike the instruments underneath. A golf ball is suspended with string from the frame of the plantbed, sometimes it goes up a ramp, and then it falls back down onto a bamboo chime or wooden clapper that is placed at just the right spot and is free to vibrate. It takes time to tune perfectly. When all 5 spinners are going, each with one tone block, the space and the phasing will add dramatically to the effect.

Then we hooked up the brainwave, proximity, and turn sensors to ourselves (a plant was not available at school). Philip's brain activity is steady 60-62 range, students got a 0-127 sweep much more easily. One of us may be a zombie. We could definitely hear the effects of our activities and motion even though the sounds were many and complex.

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