Little Projects

Finally a post on all the things we've done so far.
Week 3 we were already making complex things. Like a device that can track and follow a light source. It is really incredible what a group of six people is able to accomplish in one week, not having known one another at all just a short while ago.
I think the most amazing part of this class for me is the way in which we are pushed to do truly amazing things in a very short period of time by combining our skills. We have accomplished tasks I never thought we would be able to.
So after the individual lamp project we worked on this light tracking device. I had a really positive group experience, we all worked really well together. And our device ended up working, too.
However, I realized that the thing we don't plan for always take at least as long as the things that we do. We assembled our light tracking device relatively quickly but spent a lot of time testing and refining it.
This happened again in Week 3, when we had to test and refine the way our heliotropic device worked. I'm sure it will also occur again this week.
This is the reason prototyping is so important. I think what we all need to learn is to stop thinking and start building. This is something that doesn't come up in just this class for me. It's something I think all of us (maybe especially the artists and architects) struggle with. Getting past the concept and actually having something in your hands.
Week 3's device, which tracked the sun throughout the day and reflected its rays with mirrors onto a solar cell, was a really enjoyable challenge. I think my team split up the work really well. In the end, we came out with a well functioning device. Problems of mechanics were solved quickly and efficiently by all team members throwing out ideas. The code was done by the engineers, we did lasercutting and assembly, and troubleshooting together or in small teams.
I think this class is not only valuable for the knowledge we are all acquiring from one another, but for learning to interact productively with people in other disciplines. I think the most fun and interesting part for me is to learn to talk about architectural ideas so that engineers and artists can understand it, and I am sure that the others feel the same way when they have to explain to me how Arduino stuff works.