circuits and mosquitos

Saturday was spent getting my sensor array circuit working well and communicating via wireless serial packets to the iBook. I wrote a Max patch, tweaked the protocol and fooled around with a translation of the accelerometer data into something that can animate a 3D open GL object until my eyes were going to pop out of my head. There's some math I am having trouble with. Otherwise the whole thing works and now I have to try and package it up into something I can use in the field.

Saturday night I took the Hazmat kite out as the wind speed had dropped enough that there was a chance it might fly. As the wind dropped the mosquitos started up with their nightly blood feast. I managed to have a short flight in almost 0 km wind which was really satisfying but as night fell was rapidly packing my stuff up to get out of the field. Winnipeg gets lots of press regarding the mosquito problem but they are ever present here in Sackville. Today I picked up some non-toxic repellant.

Today was spent in the field again testing one of the kites that I rebuilt after taking it apart to ship. I also brought along some recording gear in hopes of getting a good aeolian string recording. I just got the portable Zoom digital audio recorder and wanted to see and hear how it might work out with this project. I'm pretty sure I got sunstroke as I worked through the afternoon so before it got bad, packed up and got inside to some drinks and lunch. I still have a little bit of a headache. I'll be looking for a nice sun hat this week and pick up some sunscreen too.

For those who are just becoming knowledgeable about what I am doing, basically I am trying to record the wind induced vibrations of the kites towline by amplifying them with the guitar body and recording them with a contact or regular microphone. This project title is Against the Wind and the technique and process is known as the Aeolian Kite Instrument. Check this; wind instruments , for more information.

Here is a link to a sound file in mp3 format which I have previously recorded. Kite Song 1