Beltane Fire Festival

Basket weaving with grass and rafia

Learning how to weave with grass in the Woodland Workshops at Beltane Fire Festival.

I've never camped in such cold conditions before - all the tents were covered in ice every morning.

Came back with a didgeridoo...

Foot pedal button

We visited Skanda Vale again on Saturday to catch up with Valli.  Brother Stefan has been making her a hosepipe football - she's been having some fun with it, but only plays when there is someone else joining in.  She looks like a gigantic puppy.  http://www.skandavale.org/elephant-plays-football/

Foot pedal button

This time, we were testing a giant button made from an old sewing machine foot pedal. 

This would normally provide a variable output, but I simplified it to ON/OFF and we created a wooden housing that surrounded the case so that Valli wouldn't be able to grasp the button with her trunk, only push it.

The button was bolted to the fence across the balcony. 

Valli explores the button casing

Wire out the back (on the non-elephant side) connected Arduino to my laptop and activated  a Processing sketch that played a 1 second audio sample.

We tested a low rumble, didgeridoo, tuba, double-bass and contra-bassoon.

Valli seemed interested in exploring the shape and contours of the new button, but was reluctant to push it.  Brother Stefan thinks that an alternative embedded sensor that just requires touch will be more successful with acoustic stimulation.

Valli and the pink button

Valli meets the boys

Half-term trip to Skanda Vale to meet Valli and test out the water valve system.

I constructed a simple plastic button from layers of tinfoil with foam sandwiched in the middle - similar to a dancemat - requiring a gentle press to make the circuit.  We fixed it to the ceiling next to Valli's enclosure so she could reach it with her trunk. 

Pressing the pink button

On the floor above, the button was connected to an Arduino input pin.  The output activated a water valve via a relay switch, sending a strong spray of cool water along a hosepipe and down onto the rubber mat where Valli usually has a wash.

The water was on for a 30 second burst, then had to be re-activated.  She was persuaded to use the button a few times, but moved sharply away from the water spray - obviously not a strong motivation!

Brother Stefan will plumb in the pipework properly so we can test different interfaces that she might (or might not) like to use.

EMF Camp 2014

ElectroMagnetic Field 2014
Near Milton Keynes, last weekend of the school holidays.

The light saber workshop kick-started the weekend and broke the ice with all the kids - swimming pool noodles + tape.

Kite-mapping was fun - we attached a camera to a picovet hanging from string of kite and launched it from the field.  The resulting photos showed the landscape emerging every 3 seconds as the camera rose.





There was a very popular retro gaming tent where kids tried Pacman ("it's great!") and Indiana Jones pinball (I had the top score) for the first time.

A gigantic LAN tent with Free Quake for Linux; a badge made from a micro-controller with LCD screen -  TiLDA MKe -

We hammered silver rings, played with makeymakey, learned how to pick locks and tasted freshly made Dutch waffles.

Laser-cutting was cool - perspex dragons sketched on paper, drawn in Flash, exported to Inkscape and tidied up for the hardware.  These were inspired by hanging birds and mobiles.



Press comments: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/03/electromagnetic-field-camp-emfcamp-drones-arduino-burning-man

laser cut dragon pair

Student Environmental Enrichment Course

I attended the 17th S.E.E.C. (Student Environmental Enrichment Course), run by The Shape of Enrichment, from 4-7 August 2014.

We attended lectures and did some practical workshops in rope splicing and fire-hose weaving at Lakeview Monkey Sanctuary, followed by a design and production session to create new toys and environmental enrichment for the inhabitants.

Here we are, installing some new devices - dynamic branches, seesaw, herb baskets and hammocks.  The best part was standing back to watch the capuchins and macaques enter their enclosures again and begin to explore all the toys...

I

Capuchin exploring packet of ice and strawberries

Macaque on the swinging branch, playing with rope

Edible Physics

Kebab sticks and midget gems - build as high as you can!

3D Printing Minecraft

It was Mozilla Festival on Oct 26 2013, halfterm weekend.  My children were very excited to create and then 3D print models using Minecraft as the development tool. 

The person running the PRINTCRAFT server is Paul Harter, who used to work with my old colleague Simon Schofield on Simon's art algorithms.

Clyde created an elephant which was then saved and exported as an STL file.  The original Minecraft blocks were reduced to 2mm cubes for printing on a Makerbot 2.

We snapped off the strands holding up the trunk, cleaned out his ears and he was ready to play.

Technology Will Save Us DIY Synth

My sons are way better at soldering than me after about 5 minutes...

We went to Technology Will Save Us and Little Bits Global Make-athon at Limewharf, Vyner Street.  DIY little synths were very successful, and we also constructed Snowkilla the Iceman with revolving chainsaw...

Robot workshop with Year 4



Simple circuit

Putting the bits together

Year 4 at Chesterton are learning about circuits at the moment, so I went in to spend the day doing a bristlebot / robot workshop.  We looked at a commercially produced hexbug and the kids figured what was inside - battery, switch and vibrating motor.

No sensors, no intelligence, but cleverly designed legs.

 

Then we looked at some home-made versions, using larger toy motors and simple slide switches.  One was made with wire legs and the other had a brush for a base.



Plastic cup Dalek

The children worked in pairs, listed all the parts they would need and stripped the connecting wires.  We used pliers and sticky tape to secure contacts; matchsticks and sticky tape to scupper the motors.   

They created all sorts of great stuff.



Brush beast

Helicopter



Brush aeroplane



Octopus

Cardboard record player

 

Wood Festival 2013, DIY cardboard record player workshop from www.ifoundsound.com.  We left them on car roof but more to follow...

LEGO decal

First attempt to create Lego decal, using a template from http://www.minifigcustomizationnetwork.com/templatecentral.  Linton wanted Captain Cody and Black Spiderman; Clyde decided to do own custom design:

These are the Lightning Lads, who subsequently starred in their own photo-cartoon story.  Here are a couple of scenes:

Ready for action

Raiding the bank

EMF camp 2012

The first EMF Camp (https://www.emfcamp.org/) in Pineham Park - blacksmithing, soldering, hammock-knotting, SuperCollider, lock-picking, stoves from beercans, hacking the Tilda (http://blog.emfcamp.org/) - otters running along the canal underneath the M1... 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/greenrocket/sets/72157631365691028/

Basketcase

Willow basket

Proudly displaying my first attempt at weaving willow, crafted over several hours at Shambala.  Now sits in the kitchen, holding onions.  Just wait for my Wicker Man...

Soft circuit t-shirt

Mztek workshop at Shambala 2012 - making soft circuit t-shirts.  We finished this one when we got home - it has a pocket for the battery, a fabric on/off button and a stretchy conductive fabric resistor that alters the pitch when you play with it.  buzz buzz

Pipecleaner Olympics 2012

Inspired by Olympians... created by kids, aged 6 and 8

Life Project Exhibition at Space

Debut for "life but not" creatures in Space this evening, showing off their craftwork, flashing lights, squeaks and tweets.
http://www.spacestudios.org.uk/whats-on/courses/openlab-the-real-game-of-life-project
http://lifeproject.spacestudios.org.uk/

Creatures

Habitat

Playing with exhibits

Creatures tweeting

Vibrobot Saturday

Homage to Evil Mad Scientist.  We scuppered old motors from toy cars instead of using mobile pagers.  The manufactured track is from a Hexbug Nano set.

Flawed Code 39 scarf...

More experimental interactive knitting

But look here - someone managed to do it successfully a few years ago - LK lendorff.kaywa.com - with space invaders!

Knitted QR Code

Created for The Life Project

pH ART

A day at Chesterton Primary showing Year 2 kids how to make their own litmus paper using red cabbage.

Chop and boil the cabbage for 10 min, then paint the dark red juice onto blotting paper.  Leave it to dry, or warm very gently in oven.  When it's dry, you can cut it into strips.

Children painting with lemon and bicarb

Use the strips for testing various liquids - try milk, oven cleaner, lemon juice, baking soda, saliva etc.

The children numbered their strips and wrote down what they had tested.  When they went back to class, they did a presentation and explained how some things are acid, some are alkali and some are neutral.

Red cabbage litmus test strips 

At home, we used lemon juice, bicarbonate of soda and tea as finger paints.