Assignment due July 30!

ESSENTIAL ELECTRONICS | 30% | 3 weeks | due July 30

Working with electronics may seem daunting at first, but like any other medium, a few essential components subjected to permutation, combination and variation, can yield complex syntheses. With this first project, you will be introduced to a variety of components that comprise the essential ingredients of most electronic circuits. The basic properties of electricity, and how it can be orchestrated and patterned into output through transducers will be explored along with basic interaction.

1. Electronics: Complete a series of lab exercises that will run through basic electronic circuit building, also covering safety and lab rules. You need to video yourself completing these exercises and post these files to your blog.
2. Materials: Basic fabrication techniques (mainly regarding plastic) will be discussed and demonstrated. A quiz will be issued covering these methods along with electricity.
3. Creative: Working from the materials and electronics exercises, create an audio device or instrument, addressing any or all of these qualities: form, pattern, audio transmission, interaction and light.

The goal of this project is to ease into the techniques of physical computing by taking a look at familiar objects and activities that are seemingly distinct from digital design. By seeing these phenomena from a different perspective we can build a bridge leading into the main content delivered across the rest of the trimester.

Each part of this project must be uploaded to your blog using clear and concise entry headings.Your blog will serve more than just an organization and presentation tool for your project; it will act as an access portal for grading – use it to fully describe your research and production processes for all phases of your project. Think of your blog as a ‘hand-in’ basket: If it isn’t on your blog, it won’t be graded.

Evaluations are based on the timely completion of labs and reading assignments, and creativity and mastery of the project . Project due Monday, July 30.