Pixels, Pencils and Three LEDs.

This week we have been working on creating a character using a range of materials and Arduino. Arduino is a PCB with various components that allows you to create a range of things, we used ours to create an RGB LED board to light up our character. I used wire to create a figure shape, then tried to use more wore to perfect the shape yet that didn’t work so instead I created a mouse shape and paper machèd it with tracing paper. I then glued it to a piece of tracing paper that was the same size as the lid of my box, to allow it to sit on top.

Working on the Arduino was very new to me as I have never done coding before, so using codes like pinMode and digitalWrite is a very different language to what I am used to it but instead of shying away from new challenging things like I think I usually do I tried hard and kept trying. The amount of times I failed at it was infuriating. I researched it a lot this past week, reading and watching tutorials over and over and over again trying to get my codes to work and for it to speak to my board and light up and it didn’t. It was very off putting to be completely honest but I kept trying and finally got a setup and code that worked together and meant that my LEDs would flash, therefore lighting up my mouse. In reflection I may have simplified it quite a bit and used a simpler code than others may have but I achieved the lighting up LEDs and made my character light up, so I’m quite proud of it, I feel like I’ve achieved more than I thought I could with coding.

I’m unsure how I feel about working with digital coding and not entirely sure where I stand in a choice between pixels or pencils, which we’ve been challenged to think about during this project, as I know I’m comfortable with working with pencils, yet staying in your comfort zone seems like a cop out. When I’m working digitally, I get confused and infuriated but I’m also intrigued and fancy the challenge of trying to navigate my way around it and through it using the new language we’ve learnt by using Arduino. I’m drawn in by the possibilities it gives me, leaves me wondering how many new things could be designed and made using an incomprehensible combinations of codes, and I think thats what makes me want to put down my pencil and pick up my laptop, its what helped draw me to this course.