end of residency: UOW

i was quite lax about blogging the last couple of days of the UOW residency, but i did want to just put a little punctuation into that process, if i could.

the second week of the residency was far smoother and i was able to speak to/with students a bit more. ideally, i would have had an extra week, but i think i've said that a few times now, so should get over it.

and i think it all went well because on wednesday, i hired a car. i'm a staunch advocate of public transport all over the world, but sydney continues to prove itself as a much better city with a  car.


day 7
on wednesday i spoke to the third year students about my practice and found out a little more about theirs. in fact one student told me about the hemi-anechoic chamber that was on the main campus!

gazoogs! i tried to set up a time to hang out in there, considering my previous work on listening to myself and making quasi anechoic stairwells, i was busting to get in there. sadly, it was booked out. boo.... but i think i should go back one day and use it.*

afterwards i managed to sort out some code and had the flex sensor responding digitaly, which is great - it's the structure to my wearable.
as it stands, when the flex sensor bends, a light comes on.

analog input (from either the flex or an accelerometer)
digital output (either from the wave shield, or a wireless headphone digital transmitter)

it's super basic, but as i'm just getting my head around these things, it took me a while to properly conquer it.

on wednesday night, the media arts crew held a dinner for me at jo law's place, with her partner's infamous pizza-making skillz - we discussed all kinds performance, sound, video and media arts things, as well as the various gossipy elements to the northern beaches of Wollongong.


day 8
Thursday was mostly concerned with soldering, although i did have some wonderful conversations with Penny Harris about Hexagram in Quebec, and some second-year students about Flood Slicer, the architectural film wunderkinder.

Just in time for my lecture to first years, i finished soldering my wave shield. i know that it means nothing to any of your who still happen to read this baby, but hot damn i was impressed with myself!






The last day of the residency was primarily about showing the joint off to my geek partner-in-crime Steve Berrick who was in town for the geek-meetup the night before, and packing up both studios: no mean feat.
It was actually pretty ace to pass on info about the place - it felt like an unexpected by nice way to finish off a project by a walking show'n'tell or something.  Of course it was also pretty rad to hang out again and pick his brain about geeky things and programming bits'n'pieces.





As a final hurrah, I did one last listening project with Brogan at 4pm on Friday and had some interest from a couple of students from Engineering and Business, which was enjoyable. they quite enjoyed the idea of us listening to their surroundings, including the possibility that we may have been eavesdropping on their conversation.



One of the best things about the residency was meeting all of the amazing people at UOW - a large chunk of whom are from Perth.

i need to thank profusely Dr Lucas Ihlein, Jo Law, Brogan Bunt, Derek Kreckler, and Associate Professor Sarah Miller, all of whom were totally bodacious in making me feel welcome and relevant in the media arts and creative arts faculty. I also have to thanks Robin Douglass for her generosity in the textile printing studio and to Boni Cairncross and Sarah Rodigari - students who it was rad to chat to and connect with.
I think i'll have to go back for another visit one day :)



* i think i'm now also slightly obsessed with them and have started tracking down other anechoic chambers, including one here in melbourne at swinburne university and at queens university in belfast - as close to the sennheiser headphone factory as i could find (another obsession of mine).


image: UOW anechoic chamber/3D speaker array from UOW spatial sound