In the middle of October we were asked to run a 5-day workshop with 20 students from the Royal College of Art's Innovation Design Engineering Program. We split the students up into teams of 3, giving them each a few jars of Bare Paint. The results were fantastic. This group produced a bunch of different audio interfaces which were all fundamentally based on meausuring changes in resistance and mapping that to a series of tones. 

 

This prototype used a series of strips of Bare Paint which maintained the same length, but varied in width, giving each a different resistance across their length. The Arduino was set up to measure the resistance via a wand with two electrodes. These electrodes created a simple potential divider. Each strip gave a different reading through the wand, and was mapped to a different tone.

 

All of the tone mapping was done through processing, and was a great way to highlight the effect that the shape of the strips had on resistance.

 

This group was also interested in creating a "Player Piano" type of musical code using Bare Paint. This code involved a series of potential dividers and switches to create tone and rythmn.

 

First test of code with LED's

 

 

In the experiments above, the variation in tone came from consistently varying the length of width of a strip of Bare Paint.  Here, a pad of paint was applied to a surface and the electrodes were tied to someone's hand. As they move their hands around the surface the distance between the electrodes changes (changing the resistance) and thus the tone changes.

 

A slightly more refined version of the pad of paint. You can see more of this one in the video at the top of the page.

 

This one was complicated! The electronics are from a hacked toy piano, the chassis is a paint roller and the rest is duct tape. The device works by rolling the roller over a surface painted with Bare paint. Depending on the pattern of the surface, an electrical connection is created between the poins on the roller (through the paint on the surface) and a sound is triggered. We'll be uploading video of all of these soon so keep checking back!