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Love this (partly) analogue modular live coding sy...
# thinking-together
a
Love this (partly) analogue modular live coding system for 3d printing by Maas Goudswaard
What if the future of coding is analogue?
g
EE. The analogue kind, not the digital variant. Lots of pre-existing literature and notations. A phase shifter guitar pedal is based on analogue EE. Early music, patch-board synthesizers were based on analogue EE. Line6 amps probably use both analogue and digital EE - analogue for the amp, digital for the digital modelling (FFT code running on DSPs and CPUs). Analogue EE involves massive asynchrony. Software involves massive synchrony.
a
ee as electronic engineering?
g
Yes. EE dealt mostly with analogue. Then, a portion of EE swung to the other extreme with digital. Maybe we need a middle ground mix of both?
a
Yes agreed, I think you can't really have one without the other so analogue people are in denial of the digital and vice-versa
g
Maybe it's simpler than that? Maybe It's just a need to remember that pure research not= viable product. A generalist (aka "production engineer") stands between bench prototype and viable product. My guess at the above photo is: Bench prototype: Analogue Potentiometer -> Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) -> laptop -> stepper motor driver -> 3D printer (Guesstimated costs): $0.25, $10.00, $1,000.00, $5.00, $100.00 = $1,115.25 Versus, production engineered: Analogue Potentiometer -> Analog to Digital Converter (ADC) -> Arduino-> stepper motor driver -> 3D printer (Guesstimated costs): $0.25, $10.00, $5.00, $5.00, $100.00 = $120.25 (probably much lower with some more thought) The actual UX is the potentiometer, i.e. 0.02% of the cost of the bench prototype, or 0.2% of the cost of the product. You could control something like 50 pots before the cost of the pots was 10% of the product (as guesstimated).
a
not sure that the pots are a great example there, though... you arguably get a much better similar interface (plus bypass the need for the ADC) by just using a high quality rotary encoder
a
no laptop involved, probably an arduino in one or two of the modules and pure analogue stuff in the others
this is really a philosophical investigation though and not evaluating different kinds of pots
I think what you're hinting at Paul is that this is probably neither viable product or prototype for one, but different category - a research product
According to Odom et al, research products have four features: • _*Inquiry driven*_: a research product aims to drive a research inquiry through the making and experience of a design artifact. Research products are designed to ask particular research questions about potential alternative futures. In this way, they embody theoretical stances on a design issue or set of issues. • _*Finish*_: a research product is designed such that the nature of the engagement that people have with it is predicated on what it is as opposed to what it might become. It emphasizes the actuality of the design artifact. This quality of finish is bound to the artifact’s resolution and clarity in terms of its design and subsequent perception in use. • _*Fit*_: the aim of a research product is to be lived-with and experienced in an everyday fashion over time. Under these conditions, the nuanced dimensions of human experience can emerge. In our cases, we leveraged fit to investigate research questions related to human-technology relations, everyday practices, and temporality. Fit requires the artifact to balance the delicate threshold between being neither too familiar nor too strange. • _*Independent*_: a research product operates effectively when it is freely deployable in the field for an extended duration. This means that from technical, material, and design perspectives an artifact can be lived with for a long duration in everyday conditions without the intervention of a researcher.
In summary I'd say this is totally a final product, just one for living with as research rather than scaling up as something marketable.
m
I think it is great! Is there any link to the original source?
a
I didn't find anything online about this experiment, I met him in-person and took the photo. I did see he has an ACM DIS paper published
m
thanks!
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