Week 3: Creating the Cardboard Prototype for the Letters

Today Dzhulia, Alex and I created the cardboard prototype for the letters and our pedestal in preparation for our sensor and actuator tests tomorrow. The letters were mainly created for this purpose, but also to test the dimensions that the pedestal will need to have.

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Creating the Letters

Last night, Dzhulia had already created the letters E and S in the dimensions 55x35 centimetres. When we calculated that the pedestal would actually need to be over three metres in length in order to fit all the letters on it, we decided to shrink the letters to 50x30 centimetres. Then, we cut out all the eight letters (two-dimensionally) from cardboard.

For the first E, we attached a ground just to see what it would look like standing and to measure its height on the pedestal.

The letters in the making

Measuring the total width of the letters

Alex and Dzhulia setting up the letters against a wall

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Creating the Pedestal

We created a pedestal of 2.75 metres of length and 1.40 metres of height. The depth of the pedestal is 20 centimetres because our letters are only 10 centimetres deep and will fit on the pedestal perfectly. The pedestal took us really long to create and sadly had to be destroyed again after creating it because it was huge! If we really have to build such a big pedestal, we are going to need lots of wood. Dzhulia, the building and crafting supervisor in our team, decided that it would be best to split the pedestal into thirds so we can eventually transport it in Saxion's elevators once we have to get it to the exhibition. We also assume that it will be quite heavy, so we are getting prepared to ask for several wagons on which we can carry it to the site at De Broodbode.

Creating the pedestal side walls

The finished pedestal with E from the front

The finished pedestal from the back

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My feelings about this installation are getting more and more doubtful at this point, to be honest. It is a huge installation that will cost a lot of money and hours to produce, and we've already had to cut down so much on the cool interactions. Also, with Marije gone this week, the hardware part is getting really hard. Alex is the only person on our team who has a clue about physical computing right now, and we are struggling to finish the design document. I feel drained at this early point of the project already, tackling a pile of tasks and juggling responsibilities, unable to remember the last day off I've had within the last four months. I keep getting involved in tasks in the team that are not my responsibilities and have not managed to code a single line for the website, the colour picker or the Spotify playlist. All the different classes and appointments with various consulting teachers keep us from working on a task focused for a few hours in a row. I feel as if it is all a lot right now.