For Intangible Interaction, we were tasked with making a Curious Cube — making an inanimate, abstract object evoke feelings or interaction.

The Dragonflies cube evokes warm summer days walking through the grass. Dragonflies get started with your presence, but eventually settle down and enjoy your company. This project beckons the audience’s nearness and curiosity.

Paper

I decided that I wanted to use a finer paper for the construction of my cube, in the style of Noguchi lamps, which use rice paper.

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I thought this would diffuse the light nicely, and would be a nice alternative to plastics.

I went to Talas, a bookbinding and fine paper supplier in Brooklyn. I received a booklet of samples of rice paper, a booklet of samples of yupo paper, and a roll of mulberry paper.

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I decided to use the roll of mulberry paper because it best permitted the light from the NeoPixel while still maintaining a fibrous, grainy texture.

Code

The code has three distance modes: far, close, and touching. Each is measured by the 4-way PIR sensor. At distance state change, there is a unique vibration set off for the vibration motor: quick, anxious pulse when the person is far away, gentle double pulse when the person gets nearer, and a purring/sighing vibration sequence when the person is touching the cube. For the lighting, the lighth flashes quickly and anxiously in a blue hue when the person is far away; it pulses more slowly in a blue hue when the person gets nearer, and when the person touches it, it turns to a warm purple hue with a breathing light sequence.

Here is the code on GitHub.

Result

This video shows the range of interactions described above in the Code section:

https://vimeo.com/688969901

Future direction

Over my spring break, I will be making the following adjustments/explorations with this project: