My Second Soft-Circuit

Again, I trekked downtown for this great workshop on soft circuits, with Grace Kim. Again, it was tons of artsy-geeky fun!

Among all the cool concepts introduced in the workshop, my favorite may be that simple things like velcro, snaps, and zippers can function as switches in soft circuits. For example, each half of a metal snap can be connected to the ends of a circuit with conductive thread. When the snap is closed, power runs through the circuit.

In this project, we used conductive velcro as the switch. I've got to get some of this stuff. It's a pain to sew through, but the results are wonderful.

In the workshop, Grace taught us how to make our circuits, and then helped us troubleshoot our individual versions. Piles of colorful felt were on the table, as well as scraps of various fabrics. We had lots of design options.

It was amazing how creative everyone got. The talent in the room certainly humbled me. Still, I'm pleased with how mine turned out, especially for my first try.

The tricky part was to make sure my led's were wired correctly. If not, the lights wouldn't work. Since the pins poke through the felt, it wasn't simple matter of twisting the pins around. Good fun!

what are they playing?

So, I'm watching a rerun of Monk...yes, I love Monk...and there's an ad for a local radio station. The ad suggests that they play lots of classic 60's rock. So, I look up the site...and I'm surprised.

I browse around a few minutes, and I don't find anything that backs up the tv ad's claim of playing classic 6o's rock.

I figure that if I click on something they label "schedule" and it takes me to the page with the screen shot shown here. While this page may make sense to those making the schedule, it says nothing to me. I don't listen to 103.7 Kiss FM. I haven't the faintest idea what they play. I just looked up a website based on an ad I saw during a Monk program. (by the way, not much of Monk is actually filmed in San Francisco itself..maybe nearby?).

Anyway, I'm looking at this page, and it has all these pics of djs...but no indication of what genre of music they play. Now, maybe they're thinking that only regular listeners visit their website. And their regular listeners know who these djs are, and what music they play.

But I'm not a regular listener. And why should I consider becoming one, based on their website?

My First Soft Circuit! A modern sampler.

My First Soft Circuit! A modern sampler.
Originally uploaded by galaxygoo1

Such a great day! I made this soft circuit in the fist session of a workshop at GAFFTA. It was so much fun to combine electronics with embroidery.

The stitching is done with conductive thread, which is very cool stuff.

GalaxyGoo Flashathon Begins Jan 22!

The latest incarnation of the GalaxyGoo Flashathon begins Friday, Jan 22nd on the GalaxyGoo network. Registration is moderated, so please be patient.

Many of the Flash community's greatest talents have been invited to contribute to the GalaxyGoo Flashathon, and they've sent in some fantastic works! Invited artists include Hugh Elliot, Branden Hall, Seb Lee-Delisle, Keith Peters, Jared Tarbell, Andrew Tedford, and Cody Tolmasoff.

But they're not alone. This time, we're doing things a little differently.
1) We're publishing a book, with images generated from the works contributed to the Flashathon.
2) We have two types of contributors: Invited and Inspired. Yes, that means we've opened contributions to the public.

Each week, we'll post an Invited work, with source code. We hope the community will be inspired by these pieces, and post their variations. The best Inspired pieces will be invited to contribute to the upcoming GalaxyGoo Flashathon book: Particle. This book is made possible by a generous donation from Influxis.

Particles. They come in all sizes and shapes. They aggregate into complex structures. We ourselves are made of them, even as we exist as particles in a larger system.

Particles can form simple swarms with simple behaviors. They can exist in a complex system with simple rules, generating complex behaviors. They can be active individuals and steadfast obstacles. They can wear disguises, and trick us into thinking they are something else.

A single particle may be the tail of a comet, the extrusion of a point, they can act under the surface without ever being seen directly ...so many possibilities.

--Kristin