Open Blog 2

Melanie Reel
Apr 6, 2018
2 min read

For the progress of my make-makey instrument, I have been looking around at videos and also just drawing out how I am going to make it work, to visualize everything. While I was looking at videos, I found one where someone made an interactive instrument with fabric and it reminded me of dream catchers. He had some circular structures inside one large circle that were conductive. I was thinking that if the harp structure doesn’t work, I would like to make my own twist with using dream catchers that have conductive thread. Here is the video:

Interesting idea:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uF9hYWDkmI

Also, here’s a video of how to make dream catchers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vmtkc7FOWLw

I am not completely giving up the idea of the harp structure, but I think i would have more fun with creating the artistic looking piece with the dream catchers inside it. With the harp, I was thinking of laser cutting layers of thin wood that would be glued together and sanded down so that it is rounded out. The only problem with that is that I don’t think it would look as good and also I would need multiples of large pieces of wood and use only parts of them.

I could also 3D print the harp, but I am still leaning towards the dream catchers because I just think they would look interesting and I’ve never seen interactive dream catchers before.

However, I am keeping an open mind and willing try both of them out.

In the mean time, I have just been trying to figure out how to get all of the thread into a bundle without touching each other so that I could have the wires separate from the structure so that it doesn’t seem cluttered. This would go for either structures. I know that I want to have as many “notes” as the makey-makey will allow with the alligator clips. I’m going to ask Jordan about how she made her conductive thread project.

Next I will try to figure out the sounds that I am going to have in scratch. It will help to look inside of other projects that other people have made in scratch, that way I know how they created it.

Here are some pictures of dream catchers that I found on the internet; I like the idea of it hanging from a branch.

And then there are some pictures that I took of the large wooden loop that I found and some of the dream catchers that I have been practicing making. The last picture is one from my notes. I was just writing out some of the things that I might come across as a problem.

I can’t wait to see how this project works out!