SFPC Detroit 2019 taught by Colin Wang
Physical computing is taking the screen based world of computing and integrating it into the multidimensional physical realm. Living within this analog world there is already an extraordinarily complex computer with which you’re very familiar with - you! You’re able to perceive the world around you with your senses, process that data with your mind and body, and express yourself through various means and communication methods.
In this class, we’ll draw on our own understanding and experience of interacting with our physical space to explore how computers can do the same.
We’ll have a look at examples of artists and engineers working in the field of physical computing, the community they form, and some of the resources they provide. We’ll go over some of the basic coding needed to get started, as well as a map of where to go if you want to dive deeper. For our in class activity, we’ll play with a selection of input and output hardware (sensors and actuators) and create our own interactive devices with the goal of enabling our computers to communicate with the world through physical means.
This exercise is designed to help you get into the right frame of mind for this class. It should take about 20 minutes, but feel free to spend more time if you’re getting into it. It’s open ended, so please interpret it and complete it in however way you are comfortable with.
Take a moment to sense the world around you. Specifically focus on your vision, hearing, and touch. If you happen to be enjoying a meal or surrounded by scents, feel free to engage with your taste and smell, too.
Explore the depth and limits of your perception. Can your ears make out one voice over a roomful of others? How soft of a sound can you hear? How loud is too loud? Run your eyes and ears through the full range of their abilities, too. If you don’t have enough stimulation in your environment, this can be done as a thought experiment.
Consider the medium you’re perceiving. Are you able to break it out into distinct attributes or parameters? For example your eyes can sense both the brightness and color of light. How about your ears and skin? How can aural and tactile input be broken down?
Now turn inwards. How do you feel? What’s on your mind? Do your thoughts wander, or do you find calm and focus? Observe how your sensory inputs affect your thoughts and emotions.
Lastly, take those thoughts and emotions and consider how you would translate them into tangible outputs. In what ways do you express yourself in the physical world? Perhaps, you’re a singer or a dancer? Another way to look at it is in what sorts of mediums do you practice art?
Putting pen to paper counts, too, and that’s what we’ll do to sum up this activity. Please write a short poem or make a quick drawing that captures the process we just walked through in this exercise. Keep this process in mind for our class, the one of Sensory input -> Internal processing -> Tangible output. We’ll share our findings from this exercise and use them as inspiration for our in class activity.
Total class time: 2.5 hours
- Introduction 5 mins
- Discussion on pre-class activity 10 mins
- Lecture on physical computing 20 mins
- Hands on playing with hardware and code 45 mins
- Break 5 mins
- Hands on creating interactive devices 45 mins
- Share out and wrap up 10 mins
*Flex time 10 mins