The main purpose of this first project is to make an interactive (with sound or movement) portrait of someone met before in class. For this project, I learnt to know Elisa.

We began with a discussion with few questions :
Something you overcame? Something you achieved? A story you achieved? A story when you help somebody? And give 5 personal values. Thanks to those question I learnt more about Elisa.

she wanted to overcome her fear of oral presentation, trying more new, go out of her confort.
Product design student. brand identification. In the future she wanted to create prototype and experiment.
An achievement, studied one year at design academy in Eindhoven. Top 10 of the best design schools of the country. She prepared a portfolio in order to integrate this school during one year at an Art school. But finally she left the school after one years because she realized that it’s not for her.
One of her best friend in high school was anorexic. She help her a lot and being there for her.
1- Optimism : Positive attitude. Don’t worry be happy
2- Friendships : once important things in her life
3- Happiness : She’s not always happy but she try to. —> Optimism
4- Creativity : creative side of product design. For shape of things, nature is the source of inspiration. Minimalistic and back to the essence of the product.

First of all, we made an exercise. Draw our partner without seeing him. After that I decided to scan and laser cut my drawing in order to use it for my final project. For this first object I chose to scan the body and after that, cut the face to make a contrast between those two parts. To make it stand upright, I decided to experiment a new technic: "the snap fit technic". I began by laser cut two small pieces of MDF with the help of Loes, with different size in order to find the perfect size so that the two parts fit together perfectly.

In order to make something interactive, I chose to laser cut and scan five different logos and use it as a button. Those five logos represent four personal values of Elisa and her main achievement. To make those buttons interactive, I covered them with conductive material. I downloaded some songs and sounds effect for each buttons. I uploaded those file on an sd card that I inserted in an electronic touch bar. At the end I connected each buttons on a port the touch bar thanks to wires and alligator clamp.

At the end to gather all the elements, I tried to make a structure with foam, cut whit a cutter. To covered all and make something cleaner I tried to use the vacuum form. The result was not as expected. Bubbles have been created between the plastic and the foam. The rendering looks like a drape or cake icing, but is not completely smooth. I used the glue gun to stick each part. 

WHAT DID I LEARN? 

TECHNICS:
- Snap fit
- Interaction with sounds

MATERIALS:
- Foam/plastic
- MDF 4mm
- Conductive material
- Wires with alligator clamp

MACHINES:
- Laser cut
- Vacuum form

MY PARTNER?

Elisa

For this first week I didn't have much research to do. Shirley and Loose showed us an electronic circuit with a touch board. I reused this technique by researching how to use conductive materials in my project. Regarding the data, I used Elisa's answers and anecdotes.

This week, I worked with Elisa. We quickly got to know each other through discussion, imposed questions and a drawing exercise. In the first part we exchanged a lot and the rest of the week we worked individually on our projects. At the end of the week, we were able to see the work of our partner. It was very interesting because I was able to get feedback on what Elisa thought of my work and if it was in it. I too was able to see my interactive portrait and what it had retained from me after the first exchanges.

First, I learned how to use the laser cutter, to import a file into the software, how to cut and engrave. I learned to use a touch bar. To use conductive materials. Moritz showed me how to import sounds into the touch board memory card. At first I wanted to cover the base of my structure with paper but Shirley taught me how to use vaccum foam.