Branching Out
Branching Out is a time measuring object that measures time through birthdays. It is based on a classmates' observations of "frozen time" during the COVID quarantine period. With my device, you can send birthday wishes from afar by pressing a button on your device, which lights up one of the branches on your friend's tree. When every friend sends a wish, the whole tree will be lit.
Branching Out
2023
Annie Dong
How it works:
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You and 5 friends have a birthday device each.
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When one of you has a birthday, each of the other friends press a button on their own device, which will each spontaneously light up one light on the birthday person's tree.
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When every friend had wished the birthday person a happy birthday, every light on the birthday person's device will be lit.
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The birthday person will blow on their device to "blow out" the lights.
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Since I made one prototype, I will simulate birthday wishes with button presses.
How I started:
In 2021, I analyzed a collection of journal entries of MIT students during quarantine, and then during their transition back to in-person learning. There was a common thread of loneliness and stagnation.
One of these students dubbed this feeling as "frozen time" - since people "feel [time] passing as a series of events" rather than "linearly," "in the absence of many large life events… people have felt a sense of no time at all passing since the beginning of remote learning." Frozen time inspired my idea for a timekeeping device. Rather than count time with numbers, it would use tangible events - birthdays.
My initial idea:
This "birthday cake" design was too literal
Part 1 - prototype prototype prototype:
My favorite advice from my instructor is, "you've been thinking for too long, just make something!" I spent so long brainstorming what the perfect design would be until Marcelo, my instructor, told me that I wouldn't get anywhere by just thinking, and that he wanted me to have a prototype ready by the end of class, not matter how crude it was.
Behold perhaps that ugliest thing I have ever made - but it crucially got me started on my project.
My cardboard prototype
I looked into more abstract designs for my object by studying candleholders. I knew I wanted the controllable aspect of my device to be the lights, so the next step was to figure out how to display those lights. I decided on an elegant tree-like form that would make the device a stylish addition to living spaces.
My next step was using Rhino to CAD a higher quality form for my device. I 3D-printed a low-fidelity prototype that I split into pieces to fit the printer bed.
My 3D-printed prototype
The base for the device is made out of wood with a removable bottom to attach the breadboard to, a drill pressed hollow space to fit the electronics, and a hole at the top to thread wires through. I then painted the whole thing white to match the white plastic of tree. I liked how the wooden base made my device a blend of organic and inorganic material - the wood of the base reflects and juxtaposes the plastic tree-like structure attached to it.
The base before I painted it white
Process of using the drill press to hollow out the inside
Although I liked the rough texture of the 3D print, I wanted my final object to be high quality and structurally sound. I resin printed the body using a similar model and the result was smooth and sturdy. I used superglue to join the pieces together.
I also resin printed the hollow flame caps on top of the branches using a Rhino model I made. I chose to resin print because I needed the flame caps to be translucent so the LEDs on the inside would shine through.
The process of resin printing
The Council
A close up of one of the flames still with structural supports
Testing the translucency of the flame using an LED and a battery
Part 2 - electronics:
This project was my first time building with electronic parts and an Arduino. I started off with a simple function to make an LED blink, and built off from there.
I connected 5 LEDs and which turned on individually using button presses. I also connected a microphone that when activated (blown on) would turn the device off.
The picture on the left shows how we connected the breadboard in the base to the LEDs in the branches by threading wires through the hole in the hollow base and up the branches of the tree.
And, how the final result looks put together - fastened to the base, flame caps glued on, and electronics connected.
In Action!
