PublicEngineering

Facts

• What: PublicEngineering
• When: 21.-22. Juni 2014
• Who: Schauspielhaus Bochum, DoES Liverpool, Das Labor
• Where: Rotunde Bochum

Teaser

An interactive art exhibition in Bochum.

Preparations

2014-04-03 Video conference

Participants: Ross Dalziel (DoES), Patrick Fenner (DoES), Marcus Brinkmann (Labor), 19.00 Bochum time

• The Labor@DoES exchange will happen at 9.-11. May 2014. The 10th is Maker Day (10am-5pm), so it should be buzzing with activity.
• Patrick will show his crane to us, and we will discuss idea for its manifestation in Bochum. Patrick is very open to ideas and suggestions to shape it in different ways.
• Specifically, he is looking for ways to reduce barriers for participation by the audience (how to prevent parents from telling their kids that they are not allowed to touch it, etc). Maybe some kind of automated mode where it follows people around, for example?
• Ross showed pictures of the Rotunde. It's best to hang the pulleys for the crane as high as possible, so we will want to extend through the hole in the ceiling to the second floor. There is a second level scaffold beside the lower circular scaffold that might be suitable, but the higher the wider the range of motion is, so the ceiling of the second floor is even better.
• The first level scaffold (circular) is ideal to install sound and light equipment. Ross is a-ok with going all Disco on it! (yay!)
• Patrick is interested in stacking other items beside cardboard boxes, gripping from the outside rather than the inside. Cardboard and foam are safe and fun. Other ideas? White cardboard was previously painted on (it has a matte and a reflective side). Marcus suggested digital projections on the cardboard with an interactive tablet to draw in real-time.

2014-04-14 Video conference

Participants: Ross Dalziel (DoES), Patrick Fenner (DoES), Das Labor (Marcus, Endres, Mati), 20.00 Bochum time

Agenda:

• Suction cup header.
• Rotating header.
• Cube shapes (real-world Tetris)
• Mati's dimmable neon lights and Endres' scrolling LED sign.
• Moving heads can be aligned with crane to automatically follow it.
• Liverpool wiki has a page about Public Engineering now.

Tasks:

• Find out how to create carton cubes in huge quantities.
• Make a layout plan how to put things in the Rotunde (visit the location for this).

2014-05-09 to 2014-05-11 Labor@DoES

Participants: to be announced

• Das Labor visits the DoES Liverpool to kickstart the project in person!
• Are we going to discuss any technical details?Laurenz (Diskussion) 23:06, 5. Apr. 2014 (CEST)

The Crane

Main installation will be an interactive crane by Patrick Fenner. Here is material showing the crane in action.

There are CAD and image files available. Videos of the crane in action: Video 1 and Video 2

Patrick says about the controls: "While I have done the [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trilateration kinematics], in these installations it's actually more fun when controlling manually if you just give the public controls for each of the three motors and let them figure out how to make it work!"

The crane is also visible in this video (at 9:03): Making Minecraft Real

The Place

It has been Bochums main station for only a few years around 1950, especially build for a church congress. Since then it became an old well-known event location (see also: www.rotunde-bochum.com). The Rotunde has the "working charme" we are looking for. It's got a big entrance hall with a round window in the roof (the "Rotunde", see pictures) and a few more rooms, but we would prefer the entrance hall. Using the main entrance there's only one stair, but there's also a side entrance without stairs at all. The Rotunde is near by the Schauspielhaus.

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  Rotunde 1

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  Rotunde 2

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  Rotunde 3

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  Rotunde 4

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  Rotunde 5