(re)form follows function – presentation at PKN Coventry

If you’ve been anywhere within earshot of me for the last couple of weeks you’ll know that I’m currently on a placement with the Bikes and Bloomers research group at Goldsmiths, and very excited I am about it too.

I’m particularly excited about their emphasis on the use of stuff to understand stuff, and also how we can get messy and inventive in our communication of our new understandings.

It was in this spirit that I gave this presentation for Pecha Kucha Night, Coventry.

Unfortunately their usual videographer was unable to make it to the event, so this is the footage I got from my compact camera propped up on a makeshift tripod made from an empty glass and some mobile devices… Exposure and sound are suboptimal, but I’ve added captions which you can switch on (recommended), by clicking on the [CC] button. Full screen’s probably also a good idea.

(re)form follows function from nikkipugh on Vimeo.

Ride: Hardware, Software and Wetware testing

Last week I had the opportunity to join some friends on part of a cycling tour in Wales.

The tracks from the cycling I did. (Click through for a larger version.)

I wasn’t able to make all of it, but I thought the bit I could do would be a very good opportunity to test out a few things for my upcoming project Ride (Birmingham – York), in which I will be cycling and camping my way via a 200-or-so-mile route to York whilst live-streaming data back to a reactive sculpture here in Birmingham.

The Welsh trip was my first proper experience of bikepacking. I’m please to report that, bar a few broken spokes and a comedy last-minute puncture, my bike and camping kit held up to the weather and geography. There was plenty of both!

My first day took us over the mountains above Corris. It was cloudy and very steep…

Linking back to the Ride project, I also got to sample some more cycle paths along former railway lines (also alongside current ones).

These were altogether more civilised gradients!

So, I now know I mostly have knees, cycling kit and camping kit up to the task.

Next time however, I might forgo the toad in my tent…

More of my photos from the trip are in this Flickr set.

Many thanks to Peter, Kim, Megan and Wendy for an excellent few days, good cycling and plenty of cake.
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Back in Birmingham I’ve been working with programmers Jez Higgins and Mike Cummins to put together an Android app and a database system to power the reactive sculpture. The idea is that the sculpture will change colour/shape/speed in response to the amount of effort going on at the other end with me journeying on my bike.

The Welsh tour was also a chance to test the app software under serious conditions similar to what it will have to perform under next month. I’m a big fan of testing, and this was a brilliant way of highlighting further improvements and modifications that needed to be made.

We’ve since tackled a bunch of those and, along with a databasing session with Mike yesterday, I’m happy to be able to report that we now have the following chain all working together:

Me on my bike -> app on my phone on my bike -> online database -> Arduino -> blinkenlights and other physical outputs.

My next task is to develop the physical outputs and construct the sculpture.

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The ride to York, and therefore the time during which the sculpture will be active, will probably start on the 16th of September and continue until the 22nd.

The sculpture will, all being well, be housed at the new Longbridge campus of Bournville College and I’m toying with a gentle bike ride down the off-road cycle path from Cannon Hill Park to Longbridge as part of a launch event on Saturday the 14th.

Watch this space for more information as it gets confirmed…

Cause and effect

I’ve been commissioned by Andre de Jong at the artist-led space VINYL to produce a piece of work for this Autumn, the set-up being that I’ve been paired with artist Nita Newman and Andre’s leaving us to riff off each other and see what happens.

A while ago Nita and I went for a stroll around Digbeth looking for inspiration. We explored a few different spaces and ideas, but we kept coming back to the Duddeston viaduct: 355 yards of futile endeavour.

Duddeston viaduct

… originally built to connect the GWR‘s B&OJR line to the LNWR‘s Curzon Street station. As stated elsewhere, the GWR fell victim to the LNWR’s politicking which meant that whilst the LNWR stopped the GWR gaining access to their station, the LNWR still demanded the viaduct be built even though they knew it would never be used.warwickshirerailways.com

Nita’s developing a site specific audio composition (call for participants currently on her website at http://nitanewman.wordpress.com/news/), so I’m taking my cues as being the following:

• effort
• journeying
• separation
• railways and engineering

I have some proto ideas that I’m investigating for feasibility since they’ll involve some data-streaming from a moving bicycle.

In the meantime I’ve also been doing some exploring of old railway lines and cunning mechanisms.

Waypoints

Last weekend I went for a loooong cycle ride with a bunch of strangers. Having recovered enough to get back in the saddle today – and keen to learn the route to Clent Hills for myself – I retraced part of the journey.

Green! This is why I want to learn the way to Clent!

Thanks to the ride leader having provided some GPX files ahead of the loooong ride, I was able to study the route and equip myself with the necessary high-tech navigation equipment:

But it turns out that, for the 13 mile ride out, this was all but unnecessary: there were enough located memories along the route – sarky comments, llama farms, junctions with spooked horses – that I was able to recognise where I was and where I had to be. I think that’s pretty interesting! (And a measure of how lively the group was – thanks guys!)

Also interesting was how disorientated I was by comparison on the way home (going back the same way). Here the main instance when the landscape looked familiar to me was when I managed to take a wrong turn and loop right back round on myself. That was very disconcerting in a deja vu stylee!

I’m blaming the fog.