Video Documentation

Hello everyone,

I made a few documentation videos outlining Leonard at this point. The three videos are as follows:

1. Putting Everything Together: Shawn tries on Leonard and I describe the next steps we will take to make Leonard wearable



2. Leonard's Head: I describe construction of the head



3. Leonard's Jaw: I describe construction of the jaw



I also added a few pictures since that seems to me a major theme.

Leonard in stages...

Sewing Leonard's ears so that they pinch together:

Eye Issues: This is what it looks like when the Lycra pulls. I had this problem from over stuffing or not stuffing the eye socket enough. As you can see the whit Lycra ends up pulling in toward the eye and loosing its circular shape:

Just to give you a preview for the next blog, I am almost done adding the components of the costume that will make Leonard wearable. Hopefully you will see the costume completed and worn with out the aid of several hands holding things. Also, there has been a big twist in the Leonard plot, which I will describe next time - so keep your eyes peeled.

My semester is almost over. It is my goal to have the costume completed before the semester is done. Then, I will be hiding in a dark room with a few fellow collaborators (namely Stjepan and Christopher) and we will be developing the sounds for the costume. All good stuff.

Jessica

Leonard has a skin! (And it's green and furry)

In our latest days of Leonard construction, we have ventured away from Chapter 1: the foam and, moved toward Chapter 2: the fabric. These two chapters in The Making of Leonard had a bit of an overlap as you can see in the below pictures.

As these pictures show, we added the center piece to the dome that Shawn will secure to the top of his head. The four triangle-like shapes surrounding the center piece keep it and the dome structure supported. It's pretty sturdy if I do say so myself.

As you can see in the pictures above, we have started to add the fabric to the dome and the jaw. Here are some more pictures showing the fabric laid (but not yet glued) to the dome and jaw.

Top of Leonard's head (aka the dome)

Leonard's head with paper cutouts set where his eyes will be (They will be giant plastic googly eyes - and yes, these paper cutouts are the actual size, ha ha ha.)

Leonard's Jaw

The body of Leonard not yet sewn and not yet with arms

A reminder of what the small Leonard puppet looks like

I have been working side by side with a wonderful and amazingly talented couture fashion and costume designer, Galina Mihaleva. As you can see, we have set the fabric where we want it, but we are waiting to secure the fabric until we have all of the parts with sensors built and added to the costume (ears, teeth, etc). We just finished the ears and added the sensors, as you can see here.

These fabric bend sensors are here so that when people scratch Leonard behind the ears or play with his ears, he will make sounds. We plan to cut slits into the foam, stuff the bottoms of the ears through the slits, and glue it down with the same adhesive glue used for the dome. The bottom half of the ear sensors will be sandwiched in the foam, and the top half will be in the exposed part of the ear...

We will use a similar design for the teeth, which will also have sensors.

We originally planned to use the conductive thread/fabric to transfer the sensor signal down to the Miditron Wireless transmitter (this would mean less wire). However, because we have several sensors connected to different detachable pieces of the costume (the dome head, jaw, and body) we are now planning to simply use wire. As you can see in the pictures below, I soldered crimp tubes (usually used in jewelry making) to the ends of the wires. I am using these hollow, metal tubes to sew the wire onto the conductive fabric connected to the sensor. I used the conductive thread to sew on the wires. The wires will be strung down to the Miditron Wireless transmitter, which will be secured to the back of the football shoulder pads in a mini pouch.

Crimp Tube Soldered on Wire

Crimp Tube Soldered on Wire

Bend Sensor before its sewn and trimmed. I found that when I sew with the conductive thread, it tends to fray a lot. I use a small pair of scissors to trim away the frayed pieces of thread that you can see here.

Bend Sensor after it's sewn

Bend Sensor after it's sewn

I suppose that is good for now. Just to give you an idea of what is coming up. We will be making GIANT googly eyes out of 12" diameter clear domes, which you can see here. They should be coming in the mail within the next couple of days. We will either use painted foam balls or rubber balls to make the bouncy part of the eye inside of the clear domes. (Lots of domes in this project.)

We will also be making the teeth with sensors, securing the fabric, and sewing the body of the costume. Heck, the next time you hear from me, the costume might be pretty darn close to done! (Well, then comes the programming part - ha!.....done.....Shya)

Jess

The continuation of the DOME (aka - Leonard's head)

So two weeks ago we took our cardboard model and began rebuilding it with the foam. To our surprise, this wasn't quite as hard as we had expected. We figured that some modifications might need to be made in order to compensate for the extra inch of thickness not accounted for with the cardboard; however, this was not the case. (yay!) Here is a super speedy video documenting the process of building the top portion of the dome and the lower jaw.

WARNING: This looks much more productive than it actually was. Really.




Leonard Head Construction Day 1 from Ryan Spicer on Vimeo.

Last week we began exploring ways in which to fasten the head and jaw to the football shoulder pads that Shawn will be wearing. We were quickly inspired by good ol' Abe and built ourselves a foam Lincoln hat to attach to the inside of the dome in order to help support the shape and keep it from collapsing. (We think this may become a problem once we add the weight of the fabric, eyes, teeth, etc. to the foam structure.)

We also began playing with the Miditron and the fabric bend sensors via a breadboard - the Miditron progress is moving a little slower because we are waiting to see what the length/thickness of the joint areas needing fabric bend sensors will be before we make all of them (We are not yet sure how long the teeth, ears, arm joints will be. Also, the thickness of the fabric we use to cover Leonard will influence how long we need to make the bend sensors.) I will have pictures in the next blog.

That is it for now. Just to give you an idea of what is next - We are currently in the process of connecting the Lincoln hat to the dome, reinforcing the whole dome structure, and buying fabric to begin building the body of the costume this week...pictures and descriptions soon to come!

Jessica

Leonard Mock-Up

This Monday a bunch of us got together and started to design Leonard's head. We will be making the head out of dense foam, but we started with a cardboard model connected with duct tape. (cheap and easy) Here are some pictures from our workshop meeting...

Our plan is to make a giant dome for the top of the head and a separate jaw that will hang from the shoulders and rest on the front of the torso. In other words, when worn, it will NOT look like this...

It will look more like this..

(The guy in the cardboard is Shawn - he will be wearing the costume.)

We bought football shoulder pads for the harness because of their snug fit to the body and wide surface area for connecting the costume pieces. We will modify the pads and attach the different pieces to them...How you ask? We don't know yet. This upcoming Monday we are gathering for Leonard workshop #2. We will be 1. constructing the actual head and jaw with foam and 2. deciding how to attach everything together. More pictures and updates to come next week!

Jessica

PS. If you want to check out more pictures from our cardboard meeting - click here.

1st Blog for the Miditron Wireless Competition

Hello fellow dance-techers! This is my first official blog for the miditron wireless project I will be working on the next six months-ish. I hope to post more than once a month with small updates, images, and video – so keep an eye out for it. To start, I thought that I would give you an overview of the project and how it fits into a larger piece currently under construction. This first blog will be a bit lengthy, but I’m hoping to keep future blogs shorter with more pictures and videos.

Leonard!

MidiTron Wireless Control for a Life-Sized Puppet

I am working with a team of designers to construct the costume of a life-sized puppet named Leonard. The wonderful people involved with the project are as follows…

- Jordan Golding , professional costume builder/sculpture/visual artist
- Christopher Martinez, composer/media artist/programmer/visual artist
- Stjepan Rajko, programmer/dancer
- Shawn Cook, programmer/media artist/sweet man who volunteered to wear the costume

The Leonard costume will be equipped with sensors that 1. detect costume animation by the actor wearing the costume (Shawn), and 2. detect costume animation by outside actors and audience members who are interacting with the costume externally. Leonard will be modeled after the following hand puppet…

Blue = Sensors for actor/wearer manipulation

Red = Sensors for manipulation by external actors/audience members

Sensors!!!

We plan use two types of sensors for Leonard.

1. 3-axis accelerometer
2. Fabric bend sensors (These are amazing, cheep, and homemade! If you are interested in making your own check out this instructables website by Hannah Perner-Wilson -- they’re really easy to make)

Sensors used to detect costume animation by the actor wearing the costume

1. A 3-axis accelerometer and compass placed in the body of the costume will report movement and orientation data. We will use this data to model Leonard’s general whole body movement and traveling through space.

2. Two fabric bend sensors installed at the seam where the arm is attached at the body will report the relative position and activity rate of Leonard's arm gestures. This data will be used to model Leonard’s arm movement/gestures.

In total, the two sets of sensors will provide us with 6 dimensions of data from which we can infer Leonard’s movement quality and general emotional state. For example, we will be able to distinguish smooth movement from jerky movement, as well as linear movement patterns from angular movement patterns. This information can then be used to describe Leonard’s behavioral state (example: excited vs. calm).

Sensors used to detect costume animation by actors and audience members who are interacting with the costume externally

Actors/audience members will be able to perform the following actions with Leonard (amongst other things)…

* hugging Leonard (Leonard will hug the person back and trigger bend sensors in both hands)
* shaking or holding Leonard's hands (this will activate a bend sensor in one hand)
* playing with, brushing, or adjusting Leonard's teeth (this will generate activity in bend pressures sensors placed in a tooth)
* scratching the underside of Leonard's ears (this will activate the bend sensors located at the crease of the ears)

These sensors will be used primarily to manipulate forms of digital media that reinforce the semantics associated with playing and cuddling a stuffed toy. The resulting media artifacts that emerge are intended to be humorous, child-like, annoying, playful, lovable, and cute.

System description regarding sensing and processing

All sensors inside the costume will be wired to the MidiTron Wireless for broadcasting sensor data to computers for processing. The MidiTron Wireless will provide Leonard access to the entire theater space without loss of interactive capabilities, or the need for cumbersome cables that would prevent seamless interaction and accessibility to members throughout the entire audience space.

We will route the MIDI sensor data to MAX/MSP and custom-built software for real-time filtering and movement analysis. We intend to use the processed data to manipulate audio and possibly video in the performance and audience space.

Case Study: The Performance Context For Leonard

Leonard is one part of a larger funded work titled Case Study. While the online component of the piece is currently under development, the live performance, in which the costume will be used, will take place February 27th-March 1st.

The current plot of Case Study revolves around a woman, Diane Murdock, who is a part of a case study organized by a group of researchers known as Sector 16 (check out the Sector-16 website). Sector-16 is a mysterious psychology research team that performs case studies on unknowing participants to better understand the complicated human mind. Sector-16’s first pet project is Diane. Sector-16 finds Diane enticing as a case study subject because she suffers from a long list of behavioral disorders including social anxiety disorder, dissociation disorder, and intermittent explosive disorder. More importantly, she refuses to leave her house. S-16 has full control over Diane’s physical surroundings; however, Diane is oblivious to their presence in her life. The live performance of Case Study will be Sector-16’s first public lecture/demonstration about their research. (Click here for more information about Case Study and links to the different online portions of the piece)

So who is Leonard in the context of this piece??? Leonard is Diane’s imaginary friend, a life size version of her psychiatrist’s therapy puppet. Diane created Leonard in order to break up the long periods of isolation she encounters while secluded in her home. She also blames him for the messy aftermath of her frequent and violent rages she never remembers performing. Diane treats Leonard as a best friend and a scapegoat, though it is clear that he is more of a nuisance then a good friend. Whiney, excitable, and naïve, Leonard appears to act more like a child than the best friend of an adult woman. One reason for this childlike manifestation is due to Diane’s underdeveloped understanding of a relationship, whether it be friendly or romantic. This underdeveloped concept of a friend will be manifested in the media feedback generated by Leonard. The sounds associated with Leonard will consist of childlike clicks, pops, squeaks, gurgles, grunts, and laughs. The resulting sound will be a mix of child and children’s toy noises.

Other interesting and notable informational tidbits about the Case Study creative/development process

We are using and extending a couple of tools as a part of the creative/development process. The first tool is Rehearsal Assistant which we are planning to use to play media in rehearsals as well as record rehearsal footage. The second tool is MetavidWiki, an extension to MediaWiki, which we are planning to use for archival and collaborative annotation of rehearsal footage.

In our blogs, we will share our experience in using and extending these tools. So far, we have experimented with some uploading of rehearsal footage to MetavidWiki, but need to work out problems in the re-encoding of video. So look for more info and footage supporting this aspect of the piece in future blogs.

I suppose that is it for now. We are in the process of building the internal foam structure of Leonard’s head, so pictures will be soon to follow!!!

Jessica