In this lab you will use your:
The goal is to create a generative art installation in the fifth floor Milstein. This is a collaborative installation project that we will complete as a class. We will hang everyone’s ESP32 in a small paper envelop in the hallway with the elevators. The devices will run off a battery and be up for the duration of a clas period.
From a software perspective, you will write a single ESP32 program that visualizes a text of your choice on the screen of the ESP32.
(2 pts)
Deadline listed on courseworks
Start by running the example code shown in class on Tuesday 2/1. Record a video of your device running this example code, upload to a public video hosting platform, and submit the link on courseworks.
(18 points)
Deadline listed on courseworks Code due Thu 2/10 before class (in class installation)
This is an open-ended, creatively driven project. There are two main goals. The first goal is to introduce you to the challenge of working with an underspecified problem and writing code that is creatively driven rather than driven by specifications. The second goal is to get you comfortable with showing you art to the world in a low stakes way.
Submit a link to your blog post on the course blog. That post should contain:
(8 pts total - see below for breakdown)
A link to your git repository with a program that runs on the ESP32 TTGO T-Display to generate a visual for your display. The program must meet the following criteria:
(5 pts) Be generative as discussed in class (i.e. cannot be (effectively) a .gif). (2 pts) Uses a context-appropriate text (1 pts) Is in the spirit of the class as broadly interpreted by the instructors. Art is subjective, we want you to get comfortable with this ethos.
(10 pts total - see below for breakdown)
In addition to the project specific deliverables lists above, you must also meet the following “standard documentation deliverables”. Throughout this course, we will ask you to document your work in order to slowly build a portfolio of your projects. Going forward, these types of standard documentation deliverables can be assumed to be required for all assignments unless specified otherwise.
(5 pts) A blog post
Using a blog site of your choice (github pages, hackaday, medium, notion, etc) make a blog post describing your art. The post should give an overview of your artistic vision. In particular for this assignment, you should address how you have specialized your generative art to the space. What creative decisions did you work lead you to, and which decisions did you take? How were your decisions motivated by your larger creative vision for this project. In the same vein, also address any technical issues you encountered in your work. Particularly focus on issues that other artists may encounter when developing with your hardware setup.
(3 pts) A README
On your github repo add a readme that contains a short description and key information on reproducibility/installation/usage. This key information should be sufficient for a knowledge third party, outside the class, to replicate your design. This readme can be a subset of the material used in your blog post.
(2 pts) Visual documentation of your art (and in this case, the installation as a whole)
Both your blog post and the README should have some amount of visual documentation. Typically the blog post will have a video. The README can have some lighter weight visuals (e.g. a still image). The video can be a simple video shot on your phone - assuming you use basic best practices as discussed in class. You can host the video wherever you like as long as the hosting platform supports in-browser playback (e.g. YouTube, Vimeo). You may also choose to embed a gif in your README in place of a video link.