Lunch with Resonant Dishes should be an engaging experience. Instead of a mindless, hurried routine this lunch should be worthwhile, interesting and playful. It should allow the user time to rediscover themselves and reconnect with themselves, the tableware and the food during every meal. To make this happen the lunch will be enhanced with rich tactile, visual and auditory stimuli. They will come from pottery itself and from digital or digitally enhanced sources.
Tactility
I want the pieces to respond to touch and to trigger certain events such as the playing of a sound. For ceramics to become part of such an interactive system they need to have conductive properties. I’ve experimented with lustre, a glaze which contains gold, a highly conductive material. The video below shows how conductive pieces can interact with a surface.
To capture touch I’ve experimented with the Adafruit CAP1188 Capacitive Touch Sensor. It has 8 channels for touch input. In this approach touching the conductive part of the porcelain is detected by the sensor. However the sensor is so sensitive that just being near the probe (black cable) is detected. This input can be used to trigger an audio event. For demonstration purposes this is just one tone.
Another way to activate the system is by using conductive objects as a switch. They close the loop and send a signal to the microcontroller. This input can be used to trigger an audio event. For demonstration purposes this is another tone.
I’ve also experimented with different clay textures and glazing. Handling the objects will create unexpected sensations and promote playful interaction.
Audio
Interacting with the objects and touching the textures will create different sounds. I’ve attached contact microphones which use a piezo element. One homemade and a Korg CM-300 BK clip-on mic. They amplify the sounds during interaction making them more intense and engaging. One of the non-functional objects has a bead inside and can act as a simple instrument. I really like the mystery of this object and want to make different variations on this interaction. The video above shows different ways of interacting with the objects to create sound.
The user will unconsciously create a soundscape while having lunch. They don’t need to achieve anything, just eat, play, relax, reflect and waste time.
Main insights
- It is possible to integrate ceramics in a circuit, use different types of sensing and trigger an event.
- The capacitive sensor is very sensitive. I will need expert help to fine tune this.
- The contact mics attach well to the clay and amplify the sounds well. I will need to explore different ways of attaching which are more robust.