Getting the Timings Right –
Having reversed the concept of how humans perceive AI art, to how computers perceive images, I decided to consider potential designs. At this stage I am still thinking in terms of a large mobile. However, I would like to base the mobile’s design on binary code. The binary code will conceal a hidden message relevant to my overall project.
Using binary code might at first appear to be a superficial idea, but actually the concept goes much much deeper.
Early Experimentation
In my early experimentation I used a circle to represent the zeros and I cut out holes in the ones. I am not convinced that this works particularly well and it is extremely time consuming! Below is an image of some of the prototypes I made.
Further Experimentation
I felt the above prototypes were quite bland, probably wouldn’t move very well and didn’t leave a much surface area for designs.
I decided that an oval shape was much better than a circle for representing the zeros. I used layers of recycled cardboard and recycled printer paper along with some of my own black and white designs. I think that the second image works much better as it looks more like a zero. However, I suspect that once the zero and ones are together this will be less important as visually the structure will look like binary code.
A Small Digression
Although the following designs aren’t completely related to the mobile, I couldn’t resist playing around with some collaging and framing. Below is a small gallery of my experimentation.
Exploring Timings
The whole project will be a mammoth undertaking because I need approximately 100 binary components and each one will need a face – so 200 faces to produce. But the project doesn’t stop there. This mobile will be augmented, which means more work coming from each character.
This week I will try to make a few binary characters, gauge timings and generally work out how realistic this is as s project. It could be that it is simply too big an endeavour for one person working alone. However I should know more by the end of the week.
Cutting Cardboard Against the Clock
In order to make each component of the mobile relatively robust, each zero will need approximately 3 cardboard ovals. The 3 word sentence will require approximately 50 zeros which translates into at least 150 cardboard ovals! I was becoming increasingly nervous about how long this would take to make. Therefore, I decided to time myself cutting out cardboard ovals. Surprisingly I managed to produce 67 ovals across a two hour period. This cemented in my mind that the project was potentially viable. This is because I want to leave enough time to produce a decent cardboard prototype and then source a more robust solution. Below is a time-lapse video condensing down 2 hours of activity into 23 seconds.
The Downside
After a mammoth 2 hour cutting session I didn’t exactly come out of it unscathed. Whereas I was really pleased at my 67 cut ovals my finger wasn’t so happy.
The Result
I now have 67 recycled cardboard ovals to sandwich together to form the core of the zeros for the proposed mobile. As my finger is quite sore I will take a break from cutting and move on to sticking together the cardboard.
Off Cuts
I hope to use as much of the recycled cardboard as possible so I am saving the off cuts. One of my aims is to turn a load of old packaging into a beautiful yet meaningful mobile.
Sticking Cardboard Against the Clock
Now that I had managed to cut 67 ovals within 2 hours the next step was to time how long it would take me to sandwich the cardboard together. In order to make a nice solid core for the oval designs I calculated that I would need at least 3 cardboard ovals to make one solid core. Below is a video showing the process. I managed to stick enough cardboard ovals together in an hour to make 10 solid ovals cores ready to have designs transferred onto them.
The sticking process proved to be immeasurably slower than the cutting process. I could only stick together 10 cores in an hour, whereby I was able to cut 67 in 2 hours. Given that I’ve currently only spent 3 hours so far on the project, I’m still quite optimistic that a large mobile is still viable. As we approach the weekend I should have more time to spend on the project. My aim is to produce at least 50 cardboard cores by the end of Sunday evening.
