Digital Media I: Unseen Harvard: Elements of Ambience

What is an ambiance of a place? Why do you get different feelings from each environment? Are there consistent elements that define ambience? Can we capture these qualities and characteristics?

We will explore these questions by measuring different aspects of the environment at Harvard and representing and translating this data into responsive outdoor installations at Harvard.

The class will learn various ways of measuring and understanding the Harvard spaces that will include spatial sensing, mapping, and creating installations.

Groups will be learning some of the following tools and skills based on project needs:
Molding and Casting. Vinyl cutter. Laser cutter. Input devices for Arduino.
Basic electronics: Ohm’s Law, potentiometers, capacitor charging. Using a multimeter.
Shopbot. Scanning, printing, 3D toolpaths. Output from Arduino: Use of oscilloscope.
Make motion with Arduino. Solder. Make simple boards. Sending data to a computer for processing and display. Wireless devices. Rx/Tx chips. Bluetooth.
Devices to connect Arduino to the web.
Composite materials.

No prerequisites are required. 2223 or 2224 (offered in the fall) meet the Digital Media requirement for students in the MArch program.

The first meeting of 2233 will be held in Science Center room 102. Students will be shown the fabrication lab there at this time.