Students/KristenZwicker

I am currently in my senior year at UCSD, majoring in ICAM Music. I originally got into the major thinking that it would provide me with a fair amount of sound engineering skills. By and large, it hasn't. However, I've managed to pick up some useful knowledge and along the way have been exposed to some very interesting art practices. It has definitely expanded my view of art, as well as the range of my own work. In this course I hope to explore circuit bending, though I am interested and excited to learn about manipulating electronic devices in general.

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Midterm Project:

For my midterm project, I installed a speaker box that tells a narrative based on the song “Mary Had A Little Lamb” in a jacket. I removed the apparatus from a book with a little stuffed lamb that read the story aloud. Originally, a magnet embedded in one of the lamb’s feet was used to close the circuit, which was embedded in another foot, and ultimately trigger the speaker. I simply cut both of the wires, removing the magnetic component, and attached one wire to each half of the button enclosure on the front pocket of the jacket. . So, when the pocket is closed, the circuit is closed also, prompting the speaker to tell the story. In hindsight, I could have kept the magnetic component, attaching it to one half of the button, but alas, this occurred to me all too late.

The jacket, appropriately, is lined with a material that simulates sheepskin. If possible, I would have preferred to use a piece of clothing that incorporated actual sheepskin, or wool. Ideally, I would have loved to use a pair of Ugg boots. Unfortunately I do not own any such items. Aesthetically, however, I feel that this jacket makes the proper point. It puts a new spin on the words, “Mary had a little lamb, whose fleece was white as snow. And everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go.”

Final Project Proposal: In lieu of the recent budget cuts, I would like to comment on the rising cost of education. To do this, I would like to install a speaker in a textbook that will emit an S.O.S. signal, signifying the distress that public education is currently in. This will require wiring up a speaker to one of the digital out pins on the Arduino. Musical notes can be specified with code. I will hollow out a portion of the inside of the textbook to house the electronic components and somehow install a switch on the outside of the book to trigger the sound.

Final Project Write-Up

In lieu of the recent budget cuts and increase in tuition costs, I've decided to comment on the current peril of public higher education. I've installed a speaker in a textbook and programmed my Arduino to perform an S.O.S. signal a number of times, which turns into the sound of a cardiac monitor, followed by a simple rendition of the Funeral March.

The Circuit:

When I first wired the speaker up with the Arduino and the breadboard, the signal was very weak and produced a very quiet tone. I decided to add the TIP120 and the diode to increase the volume of the signal. I wanted to make the piece self-contained and not require a laptop for power, so I powered the Arduino with a 9V battery. In doing so, I discovered that my DC in on my Arduino didn't work, so I clipped a micro USB plug from and old cell phone charger and soldered it to the wires from the battery. I then cut out a section of a textbook to house the electronics. Finally, I added a push-to-break switch so that the program could be triggered without having to open the book. The switch shuts the Arduino off momentarily, causing it to restart the program.