I'm taking a course in the art department this semester called "Interactive Objects and Environments." One of the first things we're covering is basic electronics and
Arduino. Arduino is a little board set up with input and output jacks that you program to do something... you can attach sensors as inputs and motors, lights, etc. as outputs. You write a simple program, and it executes that logic.
Here is my Arduino setup:
The Arduino is the blue circuit board near the top. It's small enough to sit in the palm of my hand.
It has a thick, black cable plugged in that's coiled on the right side of the photo- that's a USB cable, which is connected to my computer. It is used to upload the program to the Arduino and to supply the Arduino with power. After I've uploaded the program, I could switch that to a USB wall plug, and the Arduino will still retain the uploaded program... If I want to change what it's doing, I change and save the program on my computer, then re-upload to the Arduino.
The object near the bottom is a small Servo motor, which is a black box with a white disc attached (you can see the round white disc). There's a motor inside which simply rotates the disc. The Arduino connects to it via the red, black and yellow wires and sends signals to the motor to tell it to rotate or pause.
The white semi-circle is a paper dial that I've taped onto the body of the motor, and the black trapezoid with cutout is taped to the rotating disc.
Now, here's what I've done so far with this setup...
It's a tradition/convention when you are learning to write computer code that the first thing you try is to make the program write the words "Hello World." So, I created a "Hello World" program for my Arduino + Servo motor assembly...
I chose an interesting anagram of Hello World to display on the dial: "droll whole." (
droll: curious or unusual in a way that provokes dry amusement. Amusingly odd or whimsically comical. While you may have seen it used to mean 'dull,' that doesn't seem to be an official meaning,
according to Grammarist).
While I chose it mostly because it made more sense than anagrams like "doll her owl", I think we can still find some artistic meaning in its use... I see it as a comment on the entire exercise; the "hello world" tradition could be seen as droll in the way it anthropomorphizes the computer. Or perhaps it's the computer's opinion on the world to which it's said hello...
Please suggest any other interpretations you come up with!
