A test render of the re-designed exterior shell of MXR_011.

A test render of the re-designed exterior shell of RDO_002.

Test renders of the re-designed exterior shell of TST_003.

An early test of the chassis/electronics for TST_003:

TST_003 Promotional Material

We have been working on TST_003 – our ToasterBot for the “Teahouse for Robots” exhibition (The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan. Friday, July 9 – Sunday, August 22, 2010). We have a working set of prototype electronics and we have a first draft chassis built as a proof of concept. The CAD models for the robot shell are about 80% done. Bosses, ribs, intake slots and mounting brackets are next. There also needs to be some branding on the side which is looking very blank at present. The front end of TST_003 is shamelessly ripped off from a Dualit toaster merged with an Airstream trailer on tank tracks.

CAD models of products

We are working on a project for the following exhibition:

“Trouble in Paradise / The Ethics of Survival”
Date: Friday, July 9 – Sunday, August 22, 2010

International Symposium: “Creative Engagement / The Ethics of Survival”
Date: Part I: Saturday, July 10, Part II: Saturday, July 31
Location: The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto

It is a speculative space in a ‘home of the future’ where domestic appliances (robots) can go to recharge, update their firmware and generally get away from it all. The starting point (see image above) for our robots are over-engineered, emotionally-durable, iconic products. You could say we are suckers for ‘Raygun Gothic’ – but we prefer the term ‘SodaPop Chic’.

Karl Daubmann is working on the tea-house structure.

‘Nora & Torvald’
By rootoftwo (John Marshall and Cezanne Charles)
Birch plywood, Arduino micro-controllers, sensors, speakers, audio.
‘Nora & Torvald’ embeds sensor-controlled digital media in custom-designed pieces of furniture. The starting point of this work is a re-reading of Henrik Ibsen’s play “A Doll’s House” (1879) to explore user-object relationships.

There is a photocell embedded in the seat of the armchair ‘Torvald’. This sends a message when it registers darkness (i.e. when someone sits down). This triggers a randomly selected line of dialogue (one of ten) from the play to be played as audio. There is an accelerometer in the rocking stool ‘Nora’. When she is rocked this triggers a randomly selected line of her dialogue (also one of ten) to be played as audio.

A&D 5th Annual Faculty Exhibition, Slusser Gallery, 2000 Bonisteel Blvd. 1st floor.

‘Nora’ and ‘Torvald’ both use the Adafruit Wave Shield for Arduino Kit.

Sample dialogue (when 2 people are sitting):

T: This time I needn’t sit here and be dull all alone. You have just come at a fortunate moment.
N: It’s wonderful! Wonderful things don’t happen every day. Take this armchair; I will sit here in the rocking-chair.
T: Has anyone been here?
N: What a thoughtless creature I am, chattering away like this.
T: You can depend on me.
N: It will make me so happy to be of some use to you.
T: Don’t disturb me. Look straight at me.
N: I am in a silly mood today. Come and sit down here, and I will show you something.
T: How unreasonable and how ungrateful you are. What sort of madness is this! Can you not understand your place in your own home?
N: What do you want of me? Have you been sitting here waiting for me?
T: I may as well tell you plainly, we were once on very intimate terms with one another.
N: You don’t understand me, and I have never understood you either.
T: Explain yourself better. I don’t understand you. Can I never be anything more than a stranger to you?
N: You must simply listen to what I say. I have existed merely to perform tricks for you.
T: You are right, it has affected us both. Something ugly has come between us. Where are you going?
N: Isn’t there one thing that strikes you as strange in our sitting here like this.
T: Here you shall stay and give me an explanation.
N: Does it not occur to you that this is the first time we two… have had a serious conversation?
T: On the contrary, I feel extraordinarily lively. And you? You really look both tired and sleepy.

A selection from our v1b3 project is playing at the University of Michigan School of Art & Design and on Michigan Television (PBS, WFUM) and Michigan Channel. See http://playgallery.org/

There is a little photocell embedded in the seat of the armchair ‘Torvald‘. This sends a message when it registers darkness. The webcam then takes an image. There is an accelerometer in the rocking stool ‘Nora‘. When she is rocked this triggers a randomly selected line of her dialogue to be played as audio. A line of text from the play is also uploaded to the website via Twitter. There is a passive infrared sensor on the underside of the table ‘Krogstad‘. As the table is approached the sensor triggers a randomly selected line of his dialogue to be played as audio. And the lamp ‘Mrs. Linde‘ changes color from white to red.

Thanks to PLY Architecture and Metropolitan Architecture Practice for collaborating with us and designing ‘Mrs. Linde’ and ‘Krogstad’. Thanks also to Michael Rodemer and Sherman Finch for help with coding and electronics. We are also grateful to Trust for Mutual Understanding for supporting our travel to Macedonia and everyone at Line in Skopje for all the help.

This is Krogstad talking. He is speaking selected lines from the character of Nora (Helmer from the Henrik Ibsen play ‘A Doll’s House’). The project uses the Arduino Wave Shield from Adafruit Industries. The table will get a custom-designed top that will hide most of the gubbings. The next step is to hook the motion sensor into this set up…

Torvald and Nora are now complete. We are now working on the electronics for the piece and on Dr. Rank.

Roger and Kyle have been working on Krogstad:

Karl has been working on Mrs. Linde:

Here is a picture of a test of the electronics for Krogstad:

This version is hooked up with a passive infrared sensor – this might change for the final version.

More work on the ‘Et Dukkehjem’ project. The first picture above shows ‘Nora’ and ‘Torvald’ with ‘Krogstad’ (or at least a prototype version of the table that will become ‘Krogstad’). Roger J. Berent and Kyle Hulewat – otherwise known as Metropolitan Architecture Practice are designing and making ‘Krogstad’. We recently saw Roger and Kyle’s FIT Furniture on a visit to their office and thought it would be perfect. So we invited them to collaborate by designing a custom table for the exhibition. We have also invited Karl Daubmann and PLY Architecture to collaborate with us by designing ‘Mrs. Linde’ – a lamp. We have still to resolve the details of ‘Dr. Rank’ other than he will be a rug. We are beginning the process of prototyping the electronics that will connect the furniture to the audience, each other and the Internet.

TORVALD, an armchair.
When Torvald is sat on a webcam is activated and begins streaming images to the project website.

NORA, a rocking stool.
When Nora is sat on and rocked lines from Ibsen’s play are uploaded from a database via Twitter to the project website. Nora also ‘twitters’ for the present audience by playing pre-recorded audio clips.

Mrs. LINDE, a lamp.
Mrs. Linde changes from a warm to a cool light quality/color and back again in a timed sequence.

KROGSTAD, a table.
Krogstad plays pre-recorded audio clips triggered by the audience and determined by the present state of Mrs. Linde.

Dr. RANK, a rug.
Dr. Rank acts as a switch changing the state of the objects from passive to active (with an audio cue – a doorbell) The rug will be used to define the extents of the work and cover any trailing wires.

Sherman Finch is helping us with the hardware and software.

We began cutting out Nora and Torvald. The material is half inch thick European Birch plywood (9 ply). The profiles were made in Rhino, nested with the Mosaix plug-in, and sent to Mastercam as IGES files. The parts were CNC routed (thanks Josh Bard) almost the entire way through the material and then manually separated from the sheet using a trim router and a laminate cutting bit – this was to prevent the smaller parts flying off and screwing anything up. The last image above is a dry fit after a light sanding.