Soldering

Last Sunday, I borrowed my friend Emma’s soldering kit to try and solder the wings of the electronic parts of the wings I’ve been working on. I’m not sure just how many safety regulations we may have violated, but I figured out the soldering eventually. I’ve slowly gone from an art project to whatever this is, and I think that these types of interdisciplinary projects could become more common. They remind me a lot of the robotic, moving pieces of clothing I’ve seen on Instagram. One of these creators is Maia Hirsch, who has created designs such as a dress that moves based on hand position. There’s also this version of Medusa inspired dress by Christina Ernst, with snakes that will constantly look at you. Projects involving many different forms of design and work allow for more creative projects, and also is a great opportunity to learn about things like microcontrollers. My current piece is held together with vibes and an ESP32, which is a fairly common, cheap SoC microcontroller that has been used for things such as e-ink readers too. Figuring out a way to fit the components, including a battery and how to work it into the smallest space possible has also been a fun experience despite the amount of time I’ve had to spend in a CAD program. While I’m not pursuing a degree in engineering of computer science, being able to involve all these cool programs and technology in a piece of art I’m working on has been a lot of fun, despite the fact that it has been extremely drawn out. Having skills in multiple fields makes projects a lot easier, and the idea of being able to just do a silly idea I get in the future is extremely appealing. Various photos from the posts: