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'''FINAL PROPOSAL'''
For my final I want to do a project that relates to me on a personal level, and perhaps, is an experienced shared by many others. I want to address "pressure", specifically a general societal pressure to do what is expected of you and only what is expected of you. At times, I feel like it is tough to be an individual, as if there is no room or capacity for people to perform something unexpected, unnecessary, or unorthodox.
To address this I want to build an art piece that utilizes air as the moving mechanical device. Through a fan, air will be blown into a clear container that holds light, wind-responsive objects i.e. feathers or torn paper scraps. The clear container will have three openings, one large one that is host to the fan that blows air into the container itself and two "outlet" holes that let the air back out another end of the container. Which one, of the two remaining holes, air will escape out of the container will be the variable factor in this project. The two "outlets" will be smaller-sized holes that are each individually governed by servo arms that either entirely blocks, partially blocks, or entirely opens the hole. This servo arm will be dictated by the Arduino and most likely controlled at the random will of Processing. At different times, each of the two holes will be obstructed or unobstructed by the robotic arms that control its air flow. When a hole is covered less, more air will be directed to escape through its passage way, and thus the wind-responsive objects, say feathers, will all animate in the direction of the air flow and thus gather towards the more-open of the two outlet holes (these objects will be big enough so that they don't actually fit through the outlet holes and escape out of the container). The overall visual effect of this project is that the viewer will see the feathers get blown around inside the clear container, crowding around whichever hole is providing the most airflow. Basically the floating objects in this project will always be going with a certain "flow" that is declared at random by Processing.
Aside from the visual elements of the project I also ''hope'' to provide audio by making use of the air escaping from either of the two outlet holes. I am thinking of doing this by attaching a wind-instrument (such as a whistle) to the outlet holes (or shape the outlet holes in a way so that they whistle when wind passes through them) so that with each varying degree of air coming out of the outlet hole, a different note of a different intensity will be played. Thus the project will also project an equally random sound that is synchronized with the random movement of the feathers/objects being animated inside the container. Hopefully the overall effect of this will give off the illusion that the feathers/objects are ''responding'' to the call of the whistles; whichever of the two whistling outlets is being blown the hardest, the feathers will follow!
I am a bit worried that I will have trouble making the whistling happen, so I might look into some other sound alternative. Visuals coming soon!
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'''MIDTERM PROPOSAL'''