Making Things Move

These are mostly notes for a discussion section I’m leading at ITP Camp, but I thought gathering them with links here would be useful.

In this 1.5 hour session we’ll talk about motors, torque, and how things move. Then we’ll open in up into a studio/discussion so we can talk about the ideas of the participants and how we can turn them into reality. You can come just for the how-to and discussion, but you’ll get more out of it you have a real project idea in mind that could benefit from what you’ll learn.

Mechanisms and Things That Move, Class 5

Making Things Move: DIY Mechanisms for Inventors, Hobbyists, and Artists

Ben and I just launched our Kickstarter project yesterday to raise money for installing SADbot in Eyebeam’s window gallery. We already have four backers in less than 24 hours! Come join the fun at Kickstarter and then come by Eyebeam starting June 8th to see SADbot in action (if it’s sunny).

I also just signed up to teach a session at ITP Camp for grown ups this summer at NYU. It’s a mash-up of an artist residency and a summer camp for adults that spans the whole month of June and there are tons of interesting sessions shaping up. I signed up to teach a 1.5 hour session on Making Things Move on Monday June 7th.

I’ve been hard at work on Making Things Move at Eyebeam lately, and will also be working on an installation for the window gallery over the next month or so. Ben, part of the tech team here, had an idea to install a interactive solar powered drawing machine in the window gallery that passers by can communicate with through sensors on the inside of the glass. We’ve decided to call it the Seasonally Affected Drawing robot – SADbot for short. Since the power for the motors will come from the sun, it will only be active and moving when the sun is shining. It should be up in early June, in time for the Re:Group exhibit at Eyebeam. If you’ve never been, it would be a great time to visit! Open studio hours are 2-4pm on Tuesdays, and the bookstore is open 12-6pm Tues – Sat. We’ll be working through the details of the installation over the next month, so if you stop by you might catch a glimpse of us on the roof installing solar panels and/or mirrors.

I’m currently working on contract at Atair Aerospace 4 days a week while I work on my book, Making Things Move, for McGraw-Hill. I was contacted by Paul Bartlett, the VP of Engineering and former coworker at Honeybee Robotics, because they needed a mechanical designer to stand in for their full time employee that took a 4 month sabbatical to work on a research project in Antarctica. Random coincidence, yes, but it’s working out very well. It’s pretty amazing to work on guided parachute mechanisms while watching sunsets behind the statue of liberty in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

As I mentioned, I’m also working on a book for McGraw-Hill. Check out www.makingthingsmove.com for more information on the book, as well as a blog I’ve just started to cover the process of writing a technical book as well as anything related to making things move I come across in the process.