Week 9: Building & Crafts Tasks, Monday - Wednesday

Besides my programming tasks, I also took over a few building & crafting tasks to help with the progress of the installation. Finishing our installation is our most important goal now.

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Monday

On Monday, we painted the maze that is going to be used for the Doing D. In this maze, there will be a metal marble that can be moved through a layer of plexiglass on the front of the D by using a magnetic pen. While the letter itself is white, the maze has the same dark red shade that the roses on the Nature N have. This shade had to be painted by applying several layers of a mix of red and black acrylic paint. I helped with this task: Dzhulia and I both painted approximately half of the maze parts. (Later, when I had already gone home, Dzhulia had to paint another layer).

Also, like everyone on the team, I was involved in preparing the pedestal and letters for the demo and for listening to Boris and Harry's feedback. Luckily, we got a green light for our installation!

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Tuesday

On Tuesday, I helped with some decoration tasks, the first of which consisted of assisting Dzhulia in attaching the sticky white foil to the C. The letter C stands for culture, and we want to enable the user to draw some artwork on the C, which is why we need the whiteboard foil. Dzhulia wanted to attach the foil in one piece and I helped her hold the letter while she was attaching the foil.

Then, I got involved in the task of painting the side pieces for the Doing D and the Eating E. They had only been painted with primer so far and we also had to apply the acrylic paint layer.

Last but not least, I helped Dzhulia attach the fabric to the S after she cut it. We tested different ways of wrapping it around the S and attached it with paper tape. The tape was just a quick fix though. We thought about a few permanent solutions, including magnets and buttons, but none of it was suitable. Then I had the ida to use safety pins. Dzhulia agreed, but now we still have to buy the safety pins.

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Wednesday

Before we met today, I went to the city centre in Gronau (Germany) and had a look for some safety pins and a cheap fragrance that smelled like roses. We need the safety pins for attaching the fabric to the S, and the scent for our Nature N. During the demo, Boris had suggested to make the nature more immersive by adding a scent and a grass mat. With the grass mat, we are still a bit unsure - I took a look at the Internet but they are either very expensive or have long shipping times. But I got a nice scent for €5 that we can spray on the roses. Unfortunately, I did not find any safety pins although I looked in four shops. Marije got them from Enschede then.

In the evening, I stayed long to help my team mates finish their tasks. I glued the LED equaliser into the Events E , helped Nina cut the prints for the food gears on the Eating E, and cut the printed pictures for the History H. Then, I also glued the pictures to the H, which took longer than expected (90 minutes).