Hi! I’m Akshay, and I’ve always been unsure how to introduce myself. Maybe it’s just because I’m bad at articulating myself — especially through writing. I’ve always been envious of artists, and people that knew how to express themselves.
In high school I found myself constantly reading up on the history and works of architects, following new concepts and seeing how these artists told stories of the people they made buildings for. Not only that, but how they played with wild, new and innovative concepts to accomplish their goal. At the 2019 Bay Area Maker Faire I presented a project (purely functional) alongside artists that made crazy projects — animatronics and huge puppets, wild vehicles, video games with wild concepts, awe inspiring glass blown figures, and detailed miniatures.
That is why I took Prof. Rosenstock’s Interactive art class, I wanted to learn to make things to express my ideas. My final project was meant to communicate the frustration of being told not to communicate. I made a noisy mechanism that would only stop if two people worked together to stop it, but the two players would be told “Dont!” if they tried to communicate. The only solution would have been to brave through being told not to communicate in order to solve the problem.
What I lack in artistic experience I believe I make up for in technological experience. I have created a general purpose robot control software that abstracts away complex coding for robots, called LLAMA-Q which I am planning to use for this project. LLAMA-Q got funded through the MIT THINK Project, and enabling hobbyists and artists has always been a goal of the software.
I think this term will be fun, and I hope to get to proof the software I’ve built, as well as learn how to fully develop and communicate my ideas.
Hi Akshay,
I will give you the ‘shiny’ badge! I always associate technical art with being shiny because of the hardware and components! This is really cool 🙂
clever – gears can be hard to work with so good job
Clever- I believe that many of you past inventions, such as the machine that will tell you to not communicate, are very clever and really make the user have to think about their actions and whether or not they should be brave enough to take action.
Inventive – I like puzzles and I like the idea of making art that is also a puzzle.
Inventive – I think this is a very inventive way of creating an interactive art piece that challenges the participants to overcome their social conditioning and cooperate with each other.
Badge ~ “Inventive”
In the first image, I like how you can collaborate with fellow artist to create, the personality of each artist is apparent.
Hi Akshay, I’d like to give you the inventive badge as well because of your immense technical background!
Hi Akshay!
I’d like to give you the – Thought Provoking – badge. I love the meaning behind the puppet being brave and doing what you are told you can not do to accomplish your goals.
inventive – I loved your project. I feel like it clearly explained the message well!
Very thought-provoking post, Akshay! Looking forward to share new ideas with you!