Concept
The project blends today’s usage of “old” media and technology through the implementation of networked technology, integration of analogue and digital, physical and virtual.
The physical calendar is connected to a web application. With this extension, the calendar as an organisational asset works through multiple media, making it ubiquitous (calendar as an idea/calendar as an object). In addition to the analogue input (handwriting), plans and notes are entered in the physical wall calendar (with colour) via the web application.
How might we integrate analog and digital, physical and virtual?
System architecture
Establishing system and communication language between physical and digital calendar.
Sketching ideas
Every adjustment made on the physical calendar influenced a set of changes on the web app and vice versa — that’s why it was important to sketch and document everything on paper.
Process
The first part of the project was to parse the data from the Web app with JSON, make the Arduino communicate with LEDs and make the hardware work well. I got a lot of help from Gwyan Rhabyt, our guest lecturer from California. Thanks so much!
Printing and CNC milling
The second part of the project was to design and develop the web app, print the A1 format paper calendar, create the model, cut the Forex with CNC and prepare it for hardware installation.
While working with the hardware part, I was designing and developing a web app that will be able to edit the value and update the data in a JSON file.
Conclusion
One of the projects I really had a lot of fun building. Even though there were hard times — e.g. figuring out how 42 individually addressable LEDs will communicate with a web app and synchronise everything with Arduino — I was happy to learn all those seemingly non-related things. It was fun to see how one small project could have such multiple disciplines involved to make it work.
