Vox Memoria Documentation

Update on progress in cutting up the back of the heart to accommodate my electronics.  This was where we left off on Saturday, with one hole for one of the buttons. Since then, I've confirmed the placements for my LEDs, and started carving holes for the other buttons accordingly.  The first hole I cut will hereafter be referred to as "Button B". The holes for buttons A and C were relatively straightforward. Not too deep and not too shallow, with a slight ridge at the edge to hold the buttons in place. Button B's spot is a little shallow still, will need to find other ways to secure it. Button C's hole was cut a little bit too close to the surface, and there's a slight tear that I hope isn't too obvious when the button is pressed.  I used tweezers and an Exacto knife to slowly cut the silicone. For Button D, it was quite challenging to cut the hole close enough to the surface that the button could be pressed, since it was positioned at a ve...

If you haven't noticed the gradual lowering of morale throughout these posts, eh I'm here to tell you I've just become so jaded and demoralised throughout this experience. Even though I technically only have the fyp module left, every day has felt like such a chore, and I just want to get the exhibit over with and go home.  So I really haven't been working on my project much lately, and thought it was finally time I had a (literal) stab at putting everything together. My Unity explorations have been unproductive, and I have about 13 days left right now, it's taking a lot of willpower not to panic and give up, and power through all this. I decided to use the first heart I made, the thicker one that's lighter, and cut into it to fit my electronics inside. Peekaboo A clearer view I'm kind of still experimenting at this stage, but I like the visual effect this gives. Back view, wires are v unstable With the lights on, the LEDs still look ...

Part 3 is more results from Section 2 of my interviews, tabulated and annotated. 3.1 Westminster Abbey bells, from Dean's Yard, some birds, movement and traffic - 1972 (2B2,reprocessed) The results for this clip were pretty spread out, only slightly skewing towards positive. Most people were able to recognise it as churchbells. 3.2 London Central Mosque, Regents Park - congregation at Friday prayers - near end of prayers, with chanted responses from congregation The sound of Friday prayers is something I'm personally familiar with, since in Malaysia it's broadcasted pretty loudly. Most respondents for my study were unfamiliar with the sound, describing it as "mysterious". Made some of them uncomfortable.  3.3 Evening prayers, end of ceremony - animated chanting 4'08" chanting stops, bells and then leader solo (some noise from child) The clip describes the chanting as "evening prayers", but those familiar with Buddhism would re...

Have I mentioned that I've so stressed out recently and feel like crying all the time. I feel really shitty for having been so unproductive all Easter, and honestly it's eating away at my morale. On to part 2 of the survey results! I'll list each track, and its results, and then what I interpret from it. (this post got really long so I've split it into two posts 1.1 Interior, group of children singing 'London Bridge' - 1981 (3C8, reprocessed) There were a few participants who reacted badly to this clip, calling it creepy, with only one person thinking it made them feel a strongly positive feeling. 7 participants think it makes them recollect a memory, but only one participant would want to listen to more of this clip. The word "creepy" popped up frequently when people were asked to describe how this clip made them feel. I think the echo-ey nature of the clip and the fact that the recording is a little dated contributed to this "creepy...

I finally received ethics approval from the board on the 1st of April, and spent the next few days securing room bookings so that I could run the surveys according to my application. Over the next two weeks, I managed to get a total of 14 results, although I'll admit as I progressed through the interviews I was tempted to cut some of the questions for time (I didn't, because ethics). For privacy/ethics reasons I won't go through the results one by one, but in this blog post I'll talk about the questions, interview process, and things I'd do to improve it. I've already listed the questions in this past blog post , but I'll paste the questions here again and sum up my interview experiences with them. Comments will be Italicised, and this colour .  Ethics Approval Protocol Number: cCTA/UG/UH/04069 Interview Questions: Thank you for agreeing to participate in this. This interview will be semi-structured, so there are a few basic questions but we might...

Gonna admit I haven't done much throughout Easter break. After the essay submission on the 11th I was mainly a potato for at least a week, and I really have no excuse sigh. Need to hustle and get shit done. Yesterday I opened up Unity, and basically realised I have forgotten how to use Unity. Spent the day looking at tutorials online on the very basic stuff. (AbleGamesDev, 2016) (Raggz Tutorials, 2017) Found this 2nd one more directly applicable to what I'm making. Managed to get some basic changescene buttons going on in a very rough prototype.  References: AbleGamesDev, 2016.  Unity 5 2d - Start Menu And Changing Scenes - Mobile Platformer Series - Part 4 [Online Video] Available at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xse_FAxfQvc  [Accessed 24 April 2019] Raggz Tutorials, 2017. Switching Between Scenes in Unity 3D using UI Button (2018) [Online Video] Available at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xse_FAxfQvc  [Accessed 24 April 2019] ...

While mixing up the silicone with the paint to paint my first heart, I had bits of leftover silicone already mixed, and decided to brush that into the now-empty mould to see how it might turn out. This is also partially to see if I could make a heart with more evenly thick walls, since the first one turned out very bottom-heavy. Since the first layer was from leftovers I didn't quite have enough once again, but tried to keep it along the seam lines More silicone! A third layer to seal things in. Also hey Dickens Close up~ Spent more time really pulling up the mixture to the sides to avoid it pooling At this point I wasn't happy with the thickness, put it back in the mould and added one last layer Drag drag the material up How it turned out in the end. Haven't painted it yet though.  This 2nd heart is much closer to what I pictured, and since the colours are less realistic, potentailly more viable to display if people find the ...

Went out to London on Wednesday to catch Phantom of the Opera! Totally not relevant to my project but I enjoyed it lol.  On Thursday, after the programme committee meeting, I managed to catch Ian and get his permission for my project modification aka removing the suspended mannequin part of the proposal. He said it's fine, and that I don't need to email him for confirmation. Still gonna record here in case he's forgotten about it.  Finally I removed my Heart from the mould! Anna helped take the video, it was very satisfying.  Looks like a piece of raw chicken breast poke poke  The heart turned out thicker than I expected, but Kath said I can cut into it to hollow it out if I want to (slight waste of silicone though). Mixing colours!  After demoulding I began mixing some more silicone to paint the exterior of the heart, to make it look nice and wet and also actually bloody First layr was quite pinkish, but slow build better tha...

After having made the very floppy test heart, I was ready to roll up my sleeves and attempt making the heart that would hopefully be used for my project in the end.  Kath suggested that I started with a lighter colour (like the fat layer shown on my reference image), and then gradually darken it afterwards when painting.  The paint colour I mixed up, mainly white and yellow with the tiniest bit of red. Really reminds me of animal fat.  Bigger batch this time! Mix mix And the first layer is on! Swiped a layer on top of the "AMY" I carved in the corner as a patch test of sorts Next layer, slightly pinker Dirty jeans just means work is being done Layer 2! I did the same turning thing to keep it from just staying at the bottom And again~ No caption needed but eh Awkward attempt at filming the turning process with one hand Mixed a 4th layer because I wasn't sure if it was thick enough At this stage, I think it was b...