Working out how it should work
To think of a project for this year’s Fab Academy, was a bit difficult for because, I had no starting point nor the experience of making / inventing. I settled on making my own design of existing projects, out in the community. I came across two projects: Open Bionics and Bare Conductive .
For my current skill level, trying a bionic arm would be too much and hence I decided to go with a conductive paint project.
The Sketch you see is, based on the Les Paul Gibson 1957 body, heavily modified to be a bit more interesting (edgy…-lord?).
This is not the final design and am not happy with it, but it will do for now. I will need to understand how the touchboard controller from bare conductive works in order to try and make my own version.
Thanks to my fellow student John van der Zijden, I have the opportunity to play with the kit.
The design should be compact, portable and lightweight. The materials I am considering are cardboard, plywood or cured wood (bamboo, kalebas). This, of course depends on the material I can find and the time constraints. The idea of the electric conductive ink guitar (E-C Guitar)
is in this stage to be simple MIDI guitar, which will function as a toy/tool for enjoyment.
My hope is that, this will be used as a template to build it into a learning tool, for children and maybe even the physically disabled. Inspired by Vahakn Matossian from Human Instruments.
The main biggest challenge for me at this current stage is to be able to process the bamboo, in order to use a laser cutter or mill to create the body. My backup plan is to either cut it from plywood or MDF or cardboard.
I do want to use the skill acquired during these months in order to learn more, on how each machine it’s process works.
At first, I wanted to make a guitar, where the strings are painted onto the body with an electric conductive liquid/paint and this still holds true.
I think it is important to keep it compact lightweight, making it easy for portability and handling. And one way of doing this, is by making it modular.
I actually thought of this during the weeks 6 and 8. Late into the game, yes I know, but it started to make sense.
If I want to make it a learning tool for a younger audience, I need to make interesting and interactive.
If I want to make it customizable, make it modular.
Though this time around, I will just make one modular kit for the guitar and work on the design from that point as a reference.
My main goal for this year's FabAcademy is to make a working concept of a MIDI guitar with electric conductive ink for strings.