EyeWall
What’s weirder than a board full of eyeballs you can hang on your wall? EyeWall is a playful piece of mine that plays with viewers’ sense of perception, self, and surveillance.
Materials: 3D printed parts, resin-cast eyeballs
Electronics: Teensy 3.6, PCA9685 Servo Drivers, 5V 20A Power Supply
Computing: Processing, Max/MSP
Eyewall
Video Demo:
Additional Videos:
Early Video Sketch
This video outlines some of my early ideation for trying out different eyeball layouts. Using a video of a single eye, I was able to get a feel for how synchronous, delayed, and randomized movements look and sound.
Mid-Project Milestone
This milestone in the project uses four of the eyeballs to experiment with the sounds of the mechanisms. Rather than try to hide the noise of the motors, I plan to embrace it and use it at the source of sound that will be twisted and manipulated using Max/MSP.
Inspiration:
Robot Show Eye Mechanism
After using Nilheim Mechatronic’s open source design for Juliet Schlefer’s Robot Show, I developed the initial inspiration for EyeWall. I was enthralled with the reactions we would get from showing friends this pair of eyeballs, so I wondered if more eyeballs would induce stronger reactions.
Early Processing Sketch
Early in my Umich career I made this little processing sketch for a creative coding class. I revisited this sketch to use as a prototyping tool when I started working out the details for EyeWall. You can see this work and more on my Minor Works page.
Prototyping and Planning:
Resin Eyeballs
Following another of Nilheim Electronics tutorials, my sister generously created dozens of unique eyeballs, each hand painted and then cast in clear resin for an eerily realistic appearance.
Layout
I experimented with different eyeball layouts by manually placing them, but I ultimately relied on my randomized processing sketch to choose for me.
3D Printed Mechanisms
Although Nilheim Mechatronic’s Eye Mechanism is open source, the 3D files only come in one size. I used blender to modify the original 30mm two-eyeball mechanism into four sizes of single-eye mechanisms.
Machining Jig
Each resin cast eyeball needed precise hole bored in the back along with some flattening. I designed and 3D printed a jig for holding the eyeballs on my mini lathe to further shape, polish, and buff them.
Acknowledgements
Will Cogley (Nilheim Mechatronics) provided the STL files and original design that I edited, mangled, and redesigned to fit the needs of this project. Thank you to Noah Tappen for sharing these designs with me in the first place.
I borrowed the artistic skills of Curnica Landwer, Juliet Schlefer, Meg Schlefer, and Chelsea Schmidt to help with painting irises on many eyeballs.
Chelsea is also the talented artist behind the incredibly realistic and not-so-realistic eyeballs. Without her I would have been drawing pupils on ping pong balls with a sharpie.
Nick Warren, Chelsea Schmidt, Juliet Schlefer, and Curnica Landwer all also helped me immensely with assembly. I don’t know how I was delusional enough to think I could have made 24 eyeball mechanisms on my own, but with their generous help I was able to get most of the mechanics of the original idea finished (including 24 separate eyeball mechanisms). I’m incredibly grateful to have had their help, love, and support on this project.
Come back soon to see the finished project!