Evaluation PDF and Gallery Plan

Brain Mapping Julia Cowell (My Role)

Brain Project Blueprints (Gallery Plan)

A Finished Working Prototype!!!

This project was certainly challenging form me, and brought me out of my comfort zone of just exploring digital media. Although I was faced with problems from the clay modelling through to the vacuum forming and sticking together, I learnt a lot from this project (even if it was by my mistakes!).

How I got to this prototype

For the gallery I plan to re make the brain differently. Im going to make the design more basic and focus on the practicalities, rather than making it as detailed as possible. This was make it easier for me to vacuum form and also make sure both pieces are the same size. I am also going to look for a way to make the sensors.

We worked well as a team all having our separate roles to get the project done efficiently. We stayed well communicated via Facebook chat and made sure to check up of each others blogs to see everyones progress. We also peer assessed each other a lot until we were happy with the final outcome, both the model and visuals.

Technical Design: Inside the brain (My Role)

My role within the group was to create the clay brain, get it vacuum formed (so it would then become a plastic model) and then wire up the insides so it would connect to the screen depending on what area you would press.

We thought of a number of ideas of how to get a human touch to signal what image was shown on the screen for each area, including a number of sticks which when would be pressed down on it would push a key on a keyboard. However considering how much time we had, and the effect this would have on the audience, we thought it would be best if we use a MakeyMakey.

Because we want the person to put their hands around the brain and feel it rather than just push a button, the MakeyMakey was best for this, as just a touch on a conductive material will trigger the button on the keyboard via a electric current on the circuit board. It sounds fairly technical, however below is a simple diagram of how it works.

But instead of a banana and the man holding the other wire in his hand, they will be replaced by metal pins in which will be embedded into the plastic brain (flat side facing up). This means the participant would have to hold most of that area of the brain for it to work. 

I done this for all 4 areas of the brain. I also added lights inside to represent the neurones that are inside the brain that allow signals to journey around the body.

Making the brain - Plastic vacuum forming

I think out of the whole project this was the most nerve wracking part, as once the brain was vacuum formed it would then determine the final result of the model part of our project. Being a prototype it allowed me to experiment with the equipment and materials before our work gets put in a gallery. This has been a real eye opener to the time and effort that goes into sculptures and modelling, and that you have to be very patient and prepared for it going wrong!

I was really happy how the top of the brain came out as you can see the details, however a major problem that rose was the two pieces fitting together. Because the brain was so detailed it meant the vacuum forming did not work as well as we liked, and it actually caused one of the pieces to pop half way through it being vacuuming meaning it did not form all of the shape. Also me having to redo the top affected the shape. With this two factors it meant the two pieces did not quite fit together.

Because of this we had to rethink our plan slightly. We still wanted it to be in the shape of a brain so the participant could hold it with both hands and feel it, so we came up with a slightly different design to over come this problem. We are going to slightly separate the two pieces so they appear the same size. Even though I have made a mistake this time, I now know what not to do, and have a better design for when I recreate the brain for our gallery space (don't worry the gallery version will look very professional!).

Brain Problems - Having to get my hands dirty!

Looking at the top of the brain that had been created for us, I realised that the top was too flat. Therefore I had to rebuild one of the halves myself. This was fairly challenging, as I had not done clay modelling since secondary school! However despite of my lack of skills in the sculpture area, I think I managed to create a accurate clay model of a brain.

Making brain attempt 2

Due to not being very artistic in the sculpture world I found someone to help me with the brain model. Chloe kindly said she would help, and after a few days she created a really artistic looking brain. It will take a few days to dry, but when it does we can test out the two pieces and see if they fit together well. The reason it was created in two pieces was so it could easily be vacuum formed and the electronics could be placed inside.