Below is my reflection along with 3 tips I think new students should know.
My reflection on this piece is quite arduous. I am completely foreign to engineering and hardware, so this class was tough by itself. Furthermore, this piece is full of stress and fear. By the last week of class-time, I had come to the terrible realization that my first concept was not going to result in anything. One of my boxes had broken and the motors did not have enough torque to push a switch. I was panicking at the fact that I might actually have to turn in nothing.
As a last resort, I took the two fundamental technologies from my first idea and considered them.
1.) Buttons
2.) LCD screens
To me, these were two things that I actually had learned throughout the class and felt relatively confident about. With these, I developed the idea of the human Skinner's box.
I think when it comes to success, I am strangely proud of my project. I'm glad I was able to finish something and turn it in on time. I think the concept of the idea was successful. It was going to be a performance based piece along with some new media. I felt like this was a fun way to engage the viewer while also giving me something I was comfortable with (the performing part) along with more challenging parts (the electronic part).
Unfortunately, I think there is more failure than success in this piece. For one, I did not have enough time to really polish this piece. The wood I used was all scrap wood I found in the wood shop since I had no time to get any. When it comes to aesthetics, this project is really really barebones. The wood is not glued on properly and it's slightly tilted. I tried hiding the wires, but still, if anyone looked behind, the wires are very obvious. If seen from a distance, this really just seems like a broken box.
Despite all the issues and undesirable result, I'm once again, strangely proud of myself. From the beginning of this class, I was seriously confused about everything. I didn't get why things worked and how they worked. By the end, I feel like I seriously learned. I understand wiring and the communications with Arduinos better. I feel like if I wanted to make something technological in the future, it would be possible.
I also feel like I really learned that planning is such a huge important part of making an unfamiliar project. If I had planned out my first concept earlier, I may have noticed my limit and started my second piece sooner.
Advice
1.) Plan out your project from the beginning!
2.) Be realistic. Once you plan out your project, you should probably be able to tell if the thing you're making is actually realistic to your ABILITY and TIME.
3.) Concept is more important than implementing electronics. I think it's easy to get lost in the fact that this is New Media and therefore you need something electronic. I found that a lot of successful pieces this semester only had one actual electronic variable.