Posted on

11.10.13 Update

Just a note to let people know what is happening with hyperRitual…

Automagica Theoretica has been going very well; my most popular course to date. I have proposed several more courses to the Arcanorium staff, for later this year or next. I should also be putting on the “Controlling the World with a Magic Wand” class at Jigsaw Renaissance, soon.

I am writing an article about using Conceptual Blending as a ritual design tool especially when mapping between magic and technology.

Edited 2011.11.28.20.39: Still planning the robomancy project. In addition to the Parallax S2, I will be featuring Guilherme Martin’s Farrusco (first mentioned on hyperRitual here) and some other Arduino-based robots.

The robomancy stuff will coincide with a series of demonstrations in (mostly gestural) interfaces for manipulating magic symbols, which will also be developed with Arduino and Processing.

I do not have any new tech to show off right now, but here are a couple of Daniel Schulke prints I recently had framed, that inspire the magical (especially, witchy) aspects of my work.

Daniel Schulke Print 1

Daniel Schulke Print 2

Posted on

Update 2010.02.21

The EPOC and Scratch demos @ Jigsaw Renaissance went pretty well. We may be hosting some Scratch classes in the future, and I am still working on tutorials for Scratch as an introduction to multimedia ritual design. In response to members’ interests, we will be hosting a regular EPOC meetup at Jigsaw. I have been having some problems with my EPOC, including broken electrodes and my wireless connection frequently drops. Hoping to get through to Emotiv‘s support soon. Also still unable to get Neurovault working.

Boe-Bot (more images) I won a Boe-Bot with Gazbot accessory from Parallax, two weeks ago (contest details). A few days later, Michael Parks gave a Propeller demo @ Jigsaw, and we talked about him giving some Propeller classes there. He turned me onto 12Blocks, which is like Scratch for Propeller. All of these experiences are converging on me learning the Propeller platform in the near future. The more I consider it, the more I dig its multi-cog architecture, and the more excited I become for possibilities of creating robots having multiple personalities sharing and competing for the same resources, as wells as multiprocessor robots for rituals.

Omen Antiquitatum (more images) I recently acquired some Elder Sign (Omen Antiquitatum) props from HPLHS, and the old Scary Laboratory set from the LEGO Studios collection, for a common ritual I expect to disclose more about in days to come. An unexpected score from the LEGO set was the Studio effects software which includes a cool interface for manipulating audio, and a bank of horror movie sound effects — will post pics of that, later.

Coming soon: using scents in multimedia rituals.

Question: How would you begin to design an artificial intelligence that could alter a REG‘s output with the “power” of intention?

Posted on

Parallax Propeller

propeller_demo_boardThe Propeller chip makes it easy to rapidly develop embedded applications. Its eight processors (cogs) can operate simultaneously, either independently or cooperatively, sharing common resources through a central hub. The developer has full control over how and when each cog is employed; there is no compiler-driven or operating system-driven splitting of tasks among multiple cogs. A shared system clock keeps each cog on the same time reference, allowing for true deterministic timing and synchronization. Two programming languages are available: the easy-to-learn high-level Spin, and Propeller Assembly which can execute at up to 160 MIPS (20 MIPS per cog). // parallax.com

I love that the Propeller has eight “cogs”; makes me want to build a machine that implements Carroll’s Eight Magics. The Propeller demo board (shown above) seems well suited to interactive multimedia applications, with on-board support for TV, VGA, mic, stereo phones, keyboard and mouse inputs (PS/2, which can be adapted to a variety of devices), eight I/O pins with headers, and RS-232 serial communications.

propeller_block_diagram