tag:www.awesomefoundation.org,2005:/hy/projects?page=150 2012-05-23T03:41:10Z tag:www.awesomefoundation.org,2005:Project/1157 2010-04-07T00:00:00Z 2012-05-23T03:41:10Z Grassroots Mapping (grassrootsmapping.org) is a series of participatory mapping projects involving communities in cartographic dispute. This January, Jeffrey Warren of the Center for Future Civic Media worked with a series of organizations and communities to produce maps with children and adults from several communities in Lima, including the Cantagallo settlement of Shipibo on the bank of the Rimac and the Juan Pablo II community in Villa El Salvador. (Read more at http://grassrootsmapping.org/tag/lima) Seeking to invert the traditional power structure of cartography, we used helium balloons and kites to loft our own "community satellites" made with inexpensive digital cameras. The resulting images, which are owned by the residents, are georeferenced and stitched into maps which are 100x higher resolution that those offered by Google, at extremely low cost. In some cases these maps may be used to support residents' claims to land title. By creating open-source tools to include everyday people in exploring and defining their own geography, we hope to enable a diverse set of alternative agendas and practices, and to emphasize the fundamentally narrative and subjective aspects of mapping over its use as a medium of control. We're currently starting to collaborate with a group of environmental activists in West Virginia, who are protesting mountaintop mining operations. They need to be able to map the environmental damage and health hazards with aerial photographs, but can't afford planes or satellite imagery. We propose building a cheap UAV based on tools developed by the DIYDrones.com community (several of them have agreed to help us) and have recruited 2 MIT researchers with UAV control system experience. We will be using an ArduPilot Arudino-based autopilot and a $73 remote control airplane with a $50 canon digital camera. But we also need support to travel to West Virginia with the equipment and work with Jen Osha of AuroraLights.org and other local activists to perform the flights and make sure they know how to continue flying. Going even further, we're collaborating with Nadya Peek of the Center for Bits and Atoms to develop a simple plane design to be built by activists and hobbyists at even lower cost. Nadya has created simple techniques to use household materials like potato starch and vinegar, or protein shake powder and natural jute fiber to make non-toxic, biodegradable composites. The resulting fiberglass-like material is ideal for cheap and lightweight planes, and its ecological composition fits well with our agenda of high-tech but sustainable practices. This is an exciting opportunity to repurpose a military technology (UAVs) to support grassroots activism in a community in need, as well as a chance to get DIY electronics enthusiasts involved in environmental advocacy where traditional academics and researchers cannot or will not. We are already organizing workshops in different communities to teach folks how to make their own balloon-based 'satellites' and would love to be able to teach people to make DIY-UAVs as well. http://grassrootsmapping.org/ http://wiki.grassrootsmapping.org/show/GrassrootsMappingCoalRiver Jeffrey Yoo Warren Grassroots Mapping http://grassrootsmapping.org United States Boston, MA https://www.awesomefoundation.org/hy/chapters/boston tag:www.awesomefoundation.org,2005:Project/792 2010-03-09T00:00:00Z 2013-04-10T20:53:35Z Pipe organs are incredible, awesome instruments. One incredible aspect that contributes to their awesomeness is their ability to play a space. Each space an organ resides in reacts differently, creating different tones, and essentially allowing room for an infinite variety of instruments. Unfortunately nearly every pipe organ in existence is bolted irrevocably into a wall staring longingly at fornications all day. This is why I'm creating the Anywhere Organ. I've designed a system where each note, each pipe of a pipe organ is attached to a central air supply through a hose. The air to each organ pipe is controlled by a solenoid valve articulated through Arduino. I'm writing modules to take MIDI keyboard information and translate it to the valves. Each hose is independent making for an octopus like instrument where each separate pipe can be installed with care and consideration relative to the space. This means the instrument can be installed anywhere; a park, a fire escape, an abandoned warehouse, a secret underwater cave. The pipes can be distributed to take advantage each location's specific character and personality. It also means that anyone can participate in the project and take a turn. I'd like to get people playing with the Anywhere Organ so they can see the effect space has on music and sound, so they have a public venue to fool around with music, and to have an opportunity to collaborate with other musical artists to create new sounds with it. Churches are switching over to digital music. This means they're saving the expense of cleaning, tuning, and clearing dead pigeons out of organ pipes. It's sad to see such a cool instrument phased out for the sake of cost and convenience but it's inevitable. This also means that there are entire registers of pipes for sale on Ebay for a song. I'm slowly buying these up. I'm also reaching out to the awesome music and hacking scene in Brooklyn to begin finding collaborators who want to help create new music with the system and help me find amazing venues to install the project in. Here is a picture picture showing my conception of the system installed in a park: http://sinbox.org/whereverorgan.jpg Thank your for your time. I hope the idea of this project makes you as excited as it makes me. -M@ Matthew Borgatti The Anywhere Organ http://anywhereorgan.tumblr.com/ United States New York City, NY https://www.awesomefoundation.org/hy/chapters/nyc tag:www.awesomefoundation.org,2005:Project/1117 2010-03-01T00:00:00Z 2012-05-23T03:25:10Z I want to develop a set of bioengineered inks to be used with various pen types ranging from gel pens to fountain pens. As an intern at ginkgo bioworks and avid DIYbiologist, I have access to a number of bugs engineered with proteins that result in colour production. I want to make special cultures that can then be packaged as ink cartridges to be used with ordinary pens. This would allow artists and enthusiasts to draw with awesome engineered inks. The great thing about using bioengineering to produce the colour, is that you can engineer them in circuits so to create "conditional inks". For example, using a promoter activated by high temperature in front of the colour producing gene, we can create a colour that will only be expressed when the temperature reaches 35 degrees centigrade. Besides creating different conditional inks (temperature, presence of heavy metals, milk ...), I would like to use the money to make different viscosity inks. I want to make the ink using a mix of glycerol and culture media. This means that the ink itself is a food source for the engineered bacteria ensuring that they grow well on the paper. Because normal paper contains a certain amount of bleach, it could kill the bacteria when drawn on. Should that be the case, me and Mac have already used coffee filter paper and seen the success. The money would also be used to develop new types of paper, making sure that it stays cheap and DIYable. I really want to develop this project as a DIYbiologist to be accessible by everyone. I think that if funded this project is a great segue way to teach people about the fundamentals at task: we are growing cells that produce a colour and we need them to grow. To summarize I would like to use the grant money to create a library of inks of different colours and also some conditional(e.g: become visible in the presence of metal or milk etc.), develop different viscosity inks to suit different pen types (gel pen, fountain pen...) and finally use this project to teach people about DIY bioengineering and allow them to make their own pens. Charles Fracchia DIY Bioengineered Inks http://charlesfracchia.com United States Boston, MA https://www.awesomefoundation.org/hy/chapters/boston tag:www.awesomefoundation.org,2005:Project/818 2010-01-23T00:00:00Z 2013-04-10T20:56:24Z How many projects are part lightsaber and part Magic School Bus combined into an awesome science adventure? First, I will build a laser tractor beam on board my BioBus. Then, during normal BioBus school visits, students and teachers from underfunded schools in the Bronx and across the country will perform their own experiments by poking, prodding, and perturbing cells using the tractor beam. I will document and publish the construction process in an open-source science education journal, allowing schools and science nerds around the world to build tractor beams of their own. Every time someone uses the laser tractor beam to hold a bacterium still while they produce a movie of cell division, and then feeds those bacteria to a ravenous amoeba, they will have no other choice but to blurt out, "Awesome!" With extensive experience building laser tractor beams and as founder of the BioBus mobile science lab, I am the only person in the world prepared to do something this awesome. I started the Cell Motion BioBus two years ago after finishing my Ph.D. at Columbia University. While at Columbia, I built two different laser tractor beam systems (a.k.a. laser tweezers) for my research on cell move, one of which is currently used in the undergraduate physics lab. After graduating with honors and building the BioBus, over 10,000 students at 50 schools across NYC and the country have come aboard our hands-on, high-tech, microscope lab and computer classroom. I've been told the introductory video on the BioBus website, http://www.biobus.org, is pretty awesome, so you might be interested in checking that out. Do-it-yourself experiments like building an economical laser tractor beam is possible because of breakthroughs in inexpensive, powerful diode lasers (e.g. skylasers.com). Most optics can either be purchased used or donated by our collaborators at NYU and Columbia. I will publish my protocol for building a cheap laser tractor beam via the open-source PASTE project journal (http://www.wepaste.org/journal.html). Safety is a concern with lasers. To forgo any possibility of student exposure, we will completely enclose the laser beam, visualizing the laser tractor beam on flat screen monitors connected to digital cameras mounted on our microscopes. Thus, actual danger will be completely mitigated while preserving the guise of danger (think big yellow DANGER LASER RADIATION signs), adding to the 'awesomeness' surrounding the project. Budget for Laser Tractor Beam ($1000 total) 100mW red laser - $399 Laser mount & enclosure - $75 Telescoping lenses assembly - $100 Focusing lens assembly - $50 Adjusting mirrors - $175 Safety goggles - $100 Misc. hardware - $101 The BioBus has proven to be an innovative, effective, and attention getting vehicle for science education. I have been named "New Yorker of the Week" by New York One and have been recognized in regional, national, and international press for this innovative approach to bridging the "science achievement gap." A laser tractor beam will be an awe-inspiring addition to our repertoire of excitement generating yet sophisticated tools and experiments. Ben Dubin-Thaler, Ph.D. Laser Tweezers http://www.biobus.org/ United States New York City, NY https://www.awesomefoundation.org/hy/chapters/nyc tag:www.awesomefoundation.org,2005:Project/721 2009-12-15T00:00:00Z 2012-06-06T04:23:45Z I am currently working on a series of "Tools for Improved Social Interacting", which consists of various wearable devices that use simple technologies to condition the behavior of the wearer to fit better with expected social behaviors. I will then wear the devices over an extended period of time, documenting my change in behavior over that period. One intent of this project is to explore the potential for feedback and technologies to shape how we think, feel, and act. Another is to question our social expectations, trying to better understand the function and worth of them. Are there alternatives ways of interacting that leave more space for individual expression, thought, and connection? I have finished one device, a hat that trains the wearer to smile more. ( http://www.lauren-mccarthy.com/happinesshat/) While the video on this page illustrates a more humorous take on this idea, my intent is to alter the algorithm to provide more of a periodic reminder to smile than to require constant grinning, and then wear it for a while, observing the effect it has on my daily behavior and emotional state. I have two other wearables I would like to make. The first is a shirt that requires the wearer to maintain frequent body contact with another person in order to hear the world around her. If the wearer stops touching someone for too long, all the surrounding sound fades to silence. The purpose of this device is to explore the effect touch has on conversation and interactions. Linking skin contact with sound forces the wearer to make an explicit choice between heightened isolation and heightened connection. The other device is an anti-daydreaming scarf. The scarf contains an IR proximity sensor that detects if the wearer is engaged in conversation with another person. If she is, periodic reminders to pay attention and stop daydreaming play quietly from the part of the scarf that wraps around the ears. This device investigates the use of technology to shape our thoughts. The wearer's daydreams are interrupted as her attention is returned to the conversation at hand. I am currently a grad student in the UCLA Design | Media Arts program. As a student, resources are always limited and all project expenses must come out of pocket. The Awesome Foundation grant would be used to help offset the cost of materials, production and testing these devices. Though I am not currently living in Boston, if awarded the grant, I would love to find a way to share the finished work with the Boston BetaHouse community (perhaps arranging some kind of mini-show or talk about it). This is a primarily an art project, but I think it will ask some important questions that technologists, scientists, students, and everyone should be considering as we design for the future. More information about me, including a portfolio, bio, and resume can be found at www.lauren-mccarthy.com. Thank you for taking the time to read this proposal. Lauren McCarthy Tools for Improved Social Interacting http://www.lauren-mccarthy.com United States Boston, MA https://www.awesomefoundation.org/hy/chapters/boston tag:www.awesomefoundation.org,2005:Project/608 2009-11-15T00:00:00Z 2012-07-15T08:20:44Z A fleet of aquatic phytoremediation interactive mobile pods has just been launched onto the East river. Each pod was built of a remote-controlled speed boat, wooden rods, empty plastic bottles, a fishing net, hydroponic plants and some duct tape (ok, a glue gun was somewhat involved as well). The pods are intended to provide an example for a DIY water remediation device that can be easily assembled and released into the polluted waters that surround us. They employ Phytoremediation – a process that uses plants to clean up pollution in land and water. Plant roots absorb toxins and pollutants and metabolize them into nutrients. The pod operators will used remotes to navigate the pod along the water’s edge, as they travels south with the currents. The boat performed as the pod’s motor, carrying around the hydroponic plants supported by the wood-net-duct tape structure. The plants were specifically selected to perform phytoremediation in the river waters. Plants such as Arabidopsis halleri and Arabidopsis thaliana are naturally equipped with extreme metal tolerance. In fact, the feed on heavy metals found in the ground or water that they grow in. What they do is also called Rhizofiltration – when water is filtered through the root mass and the roots absorb the toxins from the water. Rhizofiltration is a long process, but the little fleet of pods can be launched repeatedly (preferably on the weekends) until it cleans the water, or better yet – gets the message across. Launching and operating the pods is a recreational public activity – anyone can build a DIY pod, and launch it in the nearest body of water. Lee Altman Eco-pod Armada http://tempdesignresearch.com/index.php/projects/eco-pod-armada/ United States Boston, MA https://www.awesomefoundation.org/hy/chapters/boston tag:www.awesomefoundation.org,2005:Project/475 2009-10-15T00:00:00Z 2012-07-15T07:56:32Z I've been building cotton candy making devices since I was ten. After a number of failed attempts, I finally produced my first (standard-output) cotton candy machine in 2007. Since then I've been working on two new designs - the insane-output cotton candy machine and the cotton candy gun. This summer I've nearly perfected the cotton candy gun design, which extrudes a constant stream of several cotton candy fibers from everyday sugar and is hand-held. Right now it's still under development, but I've proven the concept of operation through several working prototypes. Regardless, I want to take this to the next level - I want to give my sweet-shooting blaster a higher output and a longer range. Say... the ability to coat a rotating human in a cotton candy cocoon in one-three minutes. I want to color the streams of cotton candy. Three buttons will dispense food coloring into the sugar just before it's extruded. Color mixing should be possible, giving the artist machine-gunner a full palate of tooth-decaying paint. I want to see canvases painted with an edible media, people dressed in cotton that's hard not to chew on, and smiles all around. Josh Gordonson Cotton Candy Cannon United States Boston, MA https://www.awesomefoundation.org/hy/chapters/boston tag:www.awesomefoundation.org,2005:Project/188 2009-08-13T00:00:00Z 2012-07-15T08:07:31Z There is a rich cultural history of hammocks within the arts, as a woven net or fabric cloth, they are simple in gesture, form and execution. Situating a hammock within a public park can elevate the social implication of that object. The Big Hammock is intended to serve the community as a simple lounge space as well as a sculptural expression. The Big Hammock created new ways to interact with and admire the urban and historical setting, complimenting the greenway as space of public leisure. The 8’ x 33’ wide hammock was located at Parcel 19 in the Fort Point Channel Parks area, on a self supporting steel frame and hung 36” high from the ground. The new suspended common ground where the individual’s weight, size and position were in concert with other bodies on the hammock. It was a social ground. The Big Hammock was woven out of 100% recycled PET rope. The rope’s length is 2550 feet (warp) and 1728 feet (weft), with a total of 4278 feet–which makes it 5.5 times longer than the Boston Hancock Tower is tall. Hansy Better Barraza The Big Hammock http://studioluz.net/post/work/the-big-hammock/ United States Boston, MA https://www.awesomefoundation.org/hy/chapters/boston