For my midterm project, I was thinking of creating an art piece using projection and servo motors. At the moment, in its conceptual stage, I’m imagining a projector pointing downwards towards a space (floor, table?) with a motor attached to a metal rod moving around in circles, carrying a paper plane that will take us on a trip through Abu Dhabi from dawn to night in a loop, using film projections and sound.
I will be attaching the paper plane to a metal rod, which will be connected to the servo motor in the center. Here’s a rough sketch:
The shaded area is where the video footage is going to appear, and the paper kite will be rotating around the circle in a loop, powered by the Servo in the center.
Now, I have two challenges with regards to this project. First, I’d like to incorporate an ‘interactive’ aspect to it, where it’s not just a narrative using video, sound and the paper plane. I’d like some element of it to be controlled by the viewer, and so I may add pressure sensors or buttons, for the user to be able to “control” the paper plane’s direction, in a way turning the installation into a mini-game. The other challenge would be manipulating film footage of aerial and city views of Abu Dhabi to fit into a circular/donut-shaped form surrounding the motor.
This might be a good final project for this class, but it’s a bit much for the short time we have now. Also, we haven’t gone over any video or sound stuff using a computer, and I’d like you to restrict yourself to using just an Arduino, and whatever inputs and outputs an Arduino can afford you. Soon, very soon, we’ll be wading into the computer side of things.
I like the idea of using an airplane. Perhaps you can make a paper airplane thrower and there could be two and people could see who can throw an airplane further with your plane thrower? And maybe there are buttons that people have to press and hold down and then release at thr right time to try to get a better throw.
Another idea, which I really like, is perhaps there are many airplane throwers (using servos) and when someone comes in a room all the airplanes are triggered and thrown. That’s super playful. What do you think?