Beautiful sample textures and beats

Traditional western music is written with equal temperament- so that one can play in every key equally out of tune.

Hearing classical instruments performed in just intonation was new for me- I found the pieces very accessible, and very evocative.  The quartet performed a fantastic piece by Dan Sedgwick.  Previously I had imagined that such music would require special tunings- in this case you’d only need fretless instruments.

I would love to explore just intonation scales more.

Here is a video Keith took of one of the pieces:

I’ll try and describe it a bit below and put it best I can to words.  Certainly, the concepts will be honed as I continue to explore them.

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about generative design in the scope of multiple people. I’ve made applications for one person to play around with, or on more experiential pieces that deal with interpersonal interactions, but mostly through conversations or interactive art.  This particular form of interaction I’ll describe- I want to explore digital or object based equivalents, especially forms that do not pull one away from their surroundings (as I feel staring into a laptop or smartphone can do).

now finds it’s way into your life through meditation, yoga, self-help, meaning, learning how to live… there is an emphasis on not dwelling in the past or the future, but embracing the now.  Just a week ago a friend was telling me how he felt the now most intensely in his life while in a volunteer position taking care of wild animals in the jungle – the intensity of the moment in wrestling off a bear or a puma.  In a way it can feel elusive – must you travel to find it? Or work that discipline with meditation? Or wrestle wild animals?

play - not just any kind of games- there is a very specific, imaginative kind I am referring to.  It is a kind of play where the rules are sort of made up as you go along.  Maybe its making a goofy sound and responding back and forth with variations, or maybe its running around forming certain postures here and there.  It doesn’t make sense really, but there is a direct dialogue, a back and forth, and through that some flexible structure forms.

This happens between people who have known each other a long time, with good friends, with some pets, and without fail -with infants.  A friend was recalling to me how he saw a baby in the train, and a punk-y guy walked in with a pretty stern demeanor.  The baby was fixated on the guy, looking up curious.  The guy wiggled his face a bit towards the baby, and the baby began laughing, and this went back and forth, and you can tell both were having fun.  We’ve all seen this plenty of times, how a baby inspires play and smiles.  Its that moment I’m thinking of- this dialogue back and forth with this simple game of split second intuitive decisions and responses- that moment feels so present. 

But as mentioned above, this interaction is not limited to babies.  I play a lot with my cat, and together we make up all sorts of games.  When I make these sorts of games up with people, not only does it feel great to be playing a fun game, but there is this sense of ownership where I can better understand myself and my creative potential.

This is a different kind of play than sports, or board games.  The rules are up in the air, they can change quickly, and these games can last just a few seconds or several minutes.  Mostly I’ve noticed they come with a level of repetition, quick variations of the same thing to allow quick learning.  There is an immediate response and communication.  There is a physical element to it. It is due to this level of interactivity and immediate response, and exploration, that makes it feel in the now.  There are no clear goals, there are no foreseen intentions other than those that are being deliberated together in the moment.

It is a really simple form of play.  From that I’ve been wondering what concepts could be drawn from it.  Web applications are becoming more real time, and more collaborative. Remember when Google docs introduced the real time elements of seeing your peers’ cursors and what they typed live? I remember goofing around, giggling as people typed over each other, erased parts, included messages only for a second.  The familiar gestures of word processing became gestures of play.  Their meaning and implications in terms of real time interaction were not yet formed- it was completely new, and play followed so easily.

It’s becoming easier to build gestural interactions, object-based interfaces, and real-time collaborations.  I want to see these technologies implemented in ways to cultivate that same sort of simultaneous playful-joyful-now experiences.

I’ve been working on having my Android phone talk to my Arduino wirelessly with Bluetooth.  I want to do it because I think it is pretty cool how powerful smartphone gesture interaction is- swipes and taps on a touchscreen is compelling- and I am surprised there are not more products and things around us that can talk to smartphones through local wireless communication-  even basic consumer electronics. Once something is connected to a smartphone, the possible functions expands.  Most simply, just consider any electronic object being able to interface not just with touch gesture, but also with the web through tethering.

Materials

I am using an HTC Incredible  and BlueSmirf Silver with an Arduino Uno.

Bluetooth Setup

First – getting the bluetooth set up properly I found this tutorial useful : http://www.mutexlabs.com/r-bluesmirf-silver-intro.html.  Remember that when you first hook up the bluetooth, it will blink fast and then after a minute slow down.  While it is going fast, you must connect to it. Once it slows down, switch it off, then on.  For some reason there is this time limit to connect. Sometimes the connection will just not happen, in this case turn off the module, and then on, and try again.

The default password is probably ’1234′ when you connect to the device in Bluetooth Preference.  To talk to the module, I used Cornflake but you can use other things like ZTerm.  You will need to do this to change the baud rate, which must be the same between the arduino and the bluetooth module (this will be more clear when going through the Amarino tutorials discussed below).

Some Issues

I researched quite a few methods to program Bluetooth connection between my phone and the Arduino.  The creators of the SweetBT share a similar sentiment of connecting mobile phones locally to things around. They created a Processing library for Android Arduino Bluetooth interfacing.  I first tried that route since I’m pretty comfortable with Processing, but I had trouble with my app crashing.  I tried going through this tutorial: http://webdelcire.com/wordpress/archives/1045 on Processing, Android, and Arduino- but ran into similar phone freezing issues.   One issue I noticed was that if I closed my test application after bluetooth connection, my phone would slow down and it took several minutes for any gesture to respond.  The only way out of this was to pull out the battery (since there is not off switch on the phone, and the button did not respond when I held it down).

Success! 

I came across the Amarino toolkit.  It comes with an app to connect to the bluetooth module with your phone, and several example apps to run on an android phone and an arduino after the connection has been made.  The SensorGraph tutorial covers reading values from the arduino and plotting them on the phone (so arduino –> android), and the MultiColorLamp tutorial covers sending data from the android to the arduino (so android –> arduino).   So far the only issue I have found is that you have to hand type in the device address of the bluetooth module into the android app.  In the future I hope to automate this procedure after a device is connected via bluetooth.

In the coming weeks I’ll share updates on what I’m prototyping with the android+arduino+bluetooth+Processing combination.

Note: You may wonder why I did not choose to use an android IOIO board.  I did this mostly because I wanted to use a smaller Arduino- in future iterations I plan to switch to the Nano.  IOIO includes android APIs to communicate with the board, but so far serial through Bluetooth is working fine for my purposes.

One I like is thinking of the startup development as chapters.  I love considering narrative’s as a form of meaning-making.  The reason why he uses the chapters is to keep some distance from the idea- to give some flexibility:

 Freedman calls the successive iterations of his venture chapters. “Entrepreneurs tend to get too fond of their ideas, and that makes them resistant to change,” he explains. “It feels like having to let go of your dream. But calling it a chapter acknowledges up front there will be more chapters. A chapter is easier to let go of.”

There are a few other great ideas, including encouraging serendipity, and surrounding yourself with a community to succeed (i.e. don’t try and be the smartest person on your own).  There is one bit in particular that suprised me.  At the end of the article there are a few startup proverbs that Freeman has developed from his experience as an entrepreneur.  One of them involves new ideas:

If your idea is really unique, you’re doomed. The market is either too far behind you, or it’s too small.

Now I think about what I’ve been told about great ideas and innovations- and most simply it is that they are something new.  Whenever I come up with an idea and share it, I feel others evaluate it on how fresh it is.  Are there others in that space? Would it seem cool? Would it create value? 

This cuts right in the heart of that.

And you think about it a bit and it feels like it makes sense.  Before Apple, there was Xerox PARC (and whoever else) making computers.  There were smartphones before the iPhone.  The iPad looked like an oversized iPod touch.  For Facebook there was Myspace and Friendster.  With Youtube, there were certainly other video sharing sites.  Each of these companies had fantastic technical innovations- but to consumers, the ideas themselves had been present in some form already- they were in part familiar. 

One of the hottest of business concepts right now- Clayton Christenson’s disruptive innovation - involves bringing a product that was only available to the wealthy or skilled to a far wider population.  The idea itself was not unique – but its packaging, interface, or technology is.

It isn’t hard to try and think up products that were truly unique- that came out and were wildly successful.  But I think what is important in the short statement above is that it refocuses your attention to the market and the possibility that you may be too far ahead of it- a scary thought, but wholly possible especially at the edge of innovation- where tinkerers are thinking of all sorts of combinations of new technologies to form products.  You could make something amazing, but only a handful of people would buy into it.

It shouldn’t be frightening. I feel that if there is solid communication with customers, and perhaps even encouraging some democratized (open) innovation, a niche product could develop gain a wider acceptance.

The value hypothesis tests whether a product or service really delivers value to the customers once they are using it.

The growth hypothesis tests how new customers will discover a product or service.

(page 61)

These two assumptions are pretty simple to grasp, and refocus your attention to people who will be using whatever you are making.  It’s easy to get lost in the technical details, or to try and make a high quality product.  What the lean startup methodology advocates is to let go of that desire to make a perfect product away from customers, and begin interfacing with them as soon as possible- even if the product is unfinished.  This way you won’t waste your time build features that you think will be valuable, but which may not be useful at all.

When I think of products, it is easy to miss one of these assumptions, especially the growth assumption.

As I continue reading the book, the case studies are helpful to read, especially that of Ries’ own company IMVU and its early days with slow traction.  It’s hard to come out with a product and have little reception.  Seeing the steps out of this slump- like switching to cohort analysis and in person customer interviews- is very helpful.

I came out with an Android game several weeks ago after a code sprint weekend and uploaded it to the Android Market (now Google Play).  It was pretty exciting to see it up there, but of course, very few people actually downloaded it.  I imagined that the market would present it to enough people, and the $0 price with no permissions would be attractive enough.  I was hesitant to market it, or convince friends to try it out, because it still did not feel finished.  Underlying each of those thoughts  are assumptions.  I wouldn’t know if people enjoyed it or not unless I saw people play test it.  I also assumed the growth would be taken care of by the Android Market.  Finally, I assumed people would judge me based on something that is not as complete as the top games on the market.

The impression I get going through The Lean Startup is that as long as an entrepreneur is receptive and willing to iterate on the product to improve its growth and value, the customer will be happy.  It is not essential that a product be shipped flawless and with full features.  In retrospect this makes sense, when I would show this game to friends they were excited to play it.  They weren’t thinking of what it was missing.

This re-focus is exciting to me.  I think bringing the customers into the development process in this way is natural, especially considering the growing popularity of participatory design, or co-design, and I hope to implement some of these ideas moving forward. Already, as I think up ideas, I consider what metrics I may include alongside the development to measure if it is creating value the way I hope it to.

What I love about this startup immediately:

*Data mining: these prices are pulled from all over the web

*Analysis: the distribution of prices is presented, and used to determine when there is a good deal for a consumer

*Design: all of this is under a simple to use interface- making the tool very accessible and easy to explore with.

*No sign up: I don’t have to sign up anywhere to use this. There is no social element. I don’t have to share. This is so refreshing.

I use some of these skills on a day to day: (1) getting public data from the web (scraping, APIs, or database download), and  (2) running some sort of data analysis.  Yes- I realize that’s very vague, but what I find most compelling is that this startup combines those skills with a simple interface and creates a consumer product out of it. What other products would be useful, following a similar approach: combining public data available on the web, analytics, and clear design?  I would love to see some consumer analytic products come out that are not open ended, that have some target sector, and that make use of publicly available data.

In some ways this reminds me of the sophisticated https://www.decide.com/, which uses machine learning of tons of consumer electronics data to help you know the best time to buy a product you’re interested in.  See this NYTimes Bits article  for more details on Decide.  The company was founded by Oren Etzioni  who is also behind Farecast (which was acquired by Bing Travel)- a company that helped you determine the best time to buy plane tickets.

What other sectors or problems could benefit with this type of product? I imagine it begins with thinking of where we would need it on a day to day- the sort of data we collect, wade through, and decide upon on a day to day.  Where is it frustrating and where can it be made simpler?  With priceonomics, on buying most products, with Decide, on consumer electronics, and with Farecast, on plane tickets.  I immediately start brainstorming in potential areas of opportunity- as jump off points- nutrition, health, education, and jobs.

Somerville open studios is this weekend, on Saturday and Sunday from 12-6pm.  One of the newest studio spaces to open up is the Artisan’s Asylum’s new space- over a hundred studios are there.  Expect to see a lot of work.  I will be showing work I have built in collaboration with New American Public Art, called Neodya II.

The sculpture itself encourages generative construction.  It is built with hundreds of tiny magnets, serving as seeds for tiny metal cities.  We received a grant from Figment to produce the piece, and it will be displayed on the Rose Kennedy Greenway in June.  You can see the piece earlier at open studios this weekend.

I learned a few new construction processes while building this piece: how to use resin, fiberglass, and expanding foam.

The Artisan’s Asylum is on 10 Tyler St., Somerville, Massachusetts.

One of the artists, Mary Sherman, began a conference for artists to share information on international art residencies, providing many connections.  It was interesting to hear that the American representation outside in international festivals used to be much higher than it currently is- giving the sense that there is a demand for american artist representation internationally.

Specifically on the Verbier residency- artists would build their pieces in huge tents, and every day the tents would open up for the locals to check out.  Artists would also have workshops kids would attend.  The town of Verbier is a ski resort town, so in the summer months the population shrinks to about two thousand.

It was cool to hear about the experiences at residencies all around the world.  Some social like the Verbier one, some isolated.  The most exciting ones though were those without fees, that included housing, a stipend, and funding for materials. What a great way to travel.  Some residencies are competitive, some have few applications.  The general advice was that if there is a good fit, just apply.