The hardware for SOAPSE consists of an Arduino Diecimila as well as the official Ethernet Shield purchased at RobotShop.ca.

The poems are generated using a PHP script hosted on a home machine and 2 public APIs, one for Twitter as well as one for words. The poems generated will not always make sense, but will always be syntactically correct (as far as the English language is concerned). This is done using basic linguistic rules about sentence syntax and applying them to a pool of words seeded from a small initial list.

Here are some pictures about the development. The captions detail what’s going on in each photo.

Because this piece of hardware is extremely network dependant, I made a short video of the SOAPSE in action to prove this is not all a hoax.

Last but not least, for those who would like to do something similar, I provide the source code for the project (minus the usernames, passwords and API keys). The code running on the Arduino itself is mostly the example that is given for the Ethernet library, Client class.

Beloware some of the photos we took during development. Descriptions are in the captions.

Chirpees

Also, videos

So the idea of these was to emulate a function of nature by using technology, but also to be able to invade public spaces and create a sonic environment similar to the one found in nature. This project was originally based off the LED Throwies, developed by the Graffiti Research Lab.

In order to properly do this, we needed to replicate birds. Which meant making the ATTiny chirp and not only produce a single note. This was achieved by having each Chirpee have an array of frequencies that each one would play. We later arbitrarily decided on a few bird types so that we could easily tell one from another.

• Gentoo. This Chirpee reacts to light. It has a fixed chirp. As its environment becomes illuminated, the chirps will become far apart. But you enclose Gentoo and cut its light source, it will get claustrophobic and start chirping at shorter intervals.
  Code for Gentoo
• Turacao.  This Chirpee reacts to temperature. As it gets colder, its body functions will attempt to keep it alive by reacting strongly and nervously, therefore having it chirp faster. When it gets warmer though, the chirps are farther apart, sign of comfort. Also, each chirp and its duration is slightly affected by the previous chirp, as a sign of the birds short memory span.
  Code for Turacao
• Hoatzin. This Chirpee does not have any sensor. It does its own thing. It will alternate between a chirp that descends in pitch and a second, shorter chirp that consists only of one repeating note.
  Code for Hoatzin
• Lorikeet. This Chirpee senses light. It will use one very short chirp which it will repeat a number of times. If Lorikeet receives more light, it will repeat the chirp more, but then take a longer rest before chirping again.
  Code for Lorikeet
• Manakin. The MANAKIN reacts to light. When it chirps, the tone of the chirp is directly related to the light it receives. If it get less light, the chirp’s pitch gets higher. It if gets less light, the pich gets lower.
  Code for Manakin

So those are the Chirpees. The schematics for the circuits are coming after the break.

• Rare Earth metal magnets ($ 0.20 ea.)
• ATTiny microcontrollers ($ 0.87 ea.)
• Piezzoelectric speakers [ $ 0.53 ea. ] [ $ 1.71 ea. ] [ $ 1.38 ea. ] [ $ 0.94 ea. ]
• Photocells ($ 2.64 ea.)
• Temperature sensors ($ 2.51 ea.)
• Button batteries ($ 0.33) from Dollarama

This will allow the chirpers to be cheap, throwable and durable.

So i thought….if I could remix the Throwies and slap en IR LED on there, a mini solar panel to recharge the battery,  a photoresistor so that it would not be on during the day and the magnet as well, I could have Throwies that would only appeasr on photos of buildings taken at night. What’s more, this Throwie could be self-sufficient and (almost) never run out of power.

There are a few problems with that idea:

• People have flashes on their cameras, rendering the IR LEDs harder to see on the end result, thus minimizing effet.
• We would need to build a LOT of those. Considering the cost of the extra material, each Throwie would end up costing close to 3-4$.
• Most buildings people take photos of (in the Montreal area) are in the old port and are build of stone. (no magnetic surface)

So here is another idea that has less barriers. Chirping Throwies.

After quite some reflection, I’ve decided that proprietary software is like going to the restaurant [in keeping with the recipe metaphor]. First of all, it costs generally more money to eat out. It is often times more cozy and comfortable than eating a home cooked dinner. Secondly, you do get a *taste* of the meal, but you are kept in the dark as to how the meal is prepared. Thirdly, you can easily share a bite or two with the people at your table, for the sake of tasting. Sharing your food with someone from the other end of the restaurant is not likely to go as smoothly though.

With Free Software, the user has the 4 freedoms that are guaranteed to him by the GPL. It is a more human way of seeing things.

As I am commited to Free Software as much as I can, I will compose solely pieces of art that are made with Free Software. If there is code included in the project, I will do my best to comment it so it is easy to understand and of course publish it alongside the works. That means that over the course of the coming semester, you should not expect any Flash or iPhone applications coming from me. As much as I respect the power of these two platforms, their values do not align with my conscience.

With that said, let’s get things going! I wish a happy and creative semester to all my colleagues in CART 453.