Week 4

This week has been a productive and reflective one. I’ve made good progress with my physical project, particularly with annotating my EasyEDA circuit and finishing all my soldering. That step really helped me understand the connections between design and functionality. 

One takeaway from this week is the importance of documenting both creative ideas (such as representing spring through flowers, the sun, and my rainbow LED strip) and technical data side by side. The balance between creativity and technicality is something I find challenging but rewarding. I feel more confident as I start seeing things physically come together, but I also feel the pressure of making design decisions that will influence the whole product. It’s important to link creative aspects to these technical projects, something that was mentioned in the group tutorial this week.

Alongside the hands-on work, we had a lecture by Lawrence Daykin from LABB, which really expanded my thinking. His approach to creative tech, spanning everything from Harold Fisk’s river maps to hybrid web installations and bubble architecture, showed me that “space” in art can be interpreted and constructed in many ways. The idea of “spaces as ecosystems” resonated deeply with my own work. It also encouraged me to consider more conceptual angles in the next stages.

I want to explore more about artist collectives like Troika and Marshmallow Laser Feast, particularly how they use nature and algorithms. Their work could inspire how I visualise data or interactions in my own piece. There’s a lot of potential here to deepen the thematic layer of my design. Below are some pieces from Daykin’s lecture that I looked into a little further.