Making-of: Wish Lab
June 2013
As part of the Making Lab at APAP in Anyang/South Korea, Wish Lab is a 3-day laboratory for building custom handmade electronics based on wishes collected from the Anyang community. Together with local artists, designers and engineers KOBAKANT will work to make these electronic wishes come true.
We would also like to thank the following people from Making Lab/APAP for all their help and support in making this project happen: Taeyoon, Achim, Jinseong, Jiwon and Bongu!
Links:
Wish Lab project page >> http://www.kobakant.at/?p=566
Making Lab wiki >> http://www.apap.or.kr/makinglab/wiki/index.php?title=WishLab
APAP Facebook page >> https://www.facebook.com/AnyangPublicArtProject
Making Lab Flickr set (2013) >> http://www.flickr.com/photos/makinglab/sets/72157638786862586/
Making Lab Flickr set (2014) >> http://www.flickr.com/photos/makinglab/sets/72157641597113454/
Mika’s Flickr set (2013) >> http://www.flickr.com/photos/14412219@N04/collections/72157634040123478/
Mika’s Flickr set (2014) >> http://www.flickr.com/photos/14412219@N04/sets/72157641543021994/
Hannah’s Flickr set >> http://www.flickr.com/photos/plusea/sets/72157634097628129/
Wish Lab – Day 3
Sunday June 16th
Wishes worked on:
– Umbrella that makes sound when it rains
– Dress that lights up to make long hair even more appealing
– Cupid bracelet that tells who you like
– Stone, scissor, paper game gloves with “shocking” outcome
Wish Lab – Day 2
Saturday June 15th
Projects are starting to get finished! And new project started!
Wishes worked on:
– Teddy bear speaker (Uncle Melody)
– Propeller shoes that motivate kids to get to school on time
– Dress that lights up to make long hair even more appealing
– Remote control pencil case
– Jewelry that swears for you
– Couple shirts
– Device to wake you up when you fall asleep in class
Wish Lab – Day 1
Friday June 14th
A slow first day with a handful of great participants. We started the day by introducing ourselves and our skill-sets to get an idea of who had experience doing and making, and how these skills could be applied to make wishes come true. We selected three wishes to work on, and divided up into teams and task forces to get different things done. Making wishes come true takes time, and so on this first day we did not finish any of the wishes, but everyone was excited to come back to continue the work.
Wishes worked on:
– Teddy Bear Speaker (Uncle Melody)
– Umbrella that makes sound when it rains
– Propeller hat that motivates kids to get to school on time
Second Hand Shopping in Seoul: Cloths and Toys
Thursday June 13th
We went to the second hand market area to buy cloths and toys for the Wish Lab.
GaOk Presentation
Wednesday June 12th, 7pm
Wednesday evening we presented our work at GaOK, a space that brings together and hosts cultural producers in their practice. Thanks to Taeyoon Choi and members of GaOk for inviting us to speak and organizing the evening!
FabLab and Shopping in Seoul
Wednesday June 12th
On Wednesday we visit the FabLab Seoul which is located right in the middle of the electronics district, and right next to the fabrics markets. Hun Min Goh and Hyun Park, founding members of the FabLab Seoul showed us around the Yongsan electronics market and we bought tiny motors, tiny servo motors and vibration motors for very cheap. After that we went fabrics shopping in Dongdaemon market where we picked up lots of free samples.
FabLab:
Yongsan:
Dongdaemon:
An Death’s Studio Visit
Monday June 10th
Visiting An Death‘s studio in the Art Factory.
Day-Long Skill-Share
Sunday June 9th
We took the oppertunity of this first full-day gathering of artits, desginers, activits and engeineers to run a beta-test of the Wish Lab scenario we have in mind for the following weekend. In 3-hours four teams prototyped various wishes taken from the local community. While each team was able to present some outcome at the end, we realized that this was too-short time to really make somebody’s wish come true. So now we are thinking about how to organize the Wish Lab so that there is time for the lab members to get involved making the wishes come true and be able to make something that we can proudly present as a result of Wish Lab manufacture. Maybe there should be a Wish Lab CE certificate:-)
Mika’s Flickr set >> http://www.flickr.com/photos/14412219@N04/sets/72157634025218481/
The wishes we worked on during the skill-share include the following:
Tender Box
Wish: A box that tames wild animals to be pets
Outcome: We all contain wild animals within ourselves. And sometimes these wild animals become violent as you get upset or stressed. The Tender Box calms you and your wild animals down by putting your head into isolated dark box and engaging you to the “calming” activity. Therefor you can tame the wild animals within yourself.
Makers: Seungbum Kim, Bittna Choi
Face controlled Robot
Wish: Robot controlled by face
Outcome: A mask that includes fabric sensors to detect the wearer’s facial movement. The mask can be connected with a robot to control its movement.
Makers: Mika Satomi, Eunyoung Park, Taeyon Kim
To Steel from TV
Wish: To be able to go into the TV and steel Iron Man’s suit
Outcome: A farting costume of a super hero. This way, you do not have to steal a costume from the character in TV, but you have your own copy of it.
Makers: Donghee Park
I Want A Boyfriend Too
Wish: An armband that detects the person you are in love with and shoots an arrow at them…
Outcome: A bracelet that lights up when you see your love and get excited. The cupid sees the light and shoots the arrow to the person you love so he/she will fall in love with you.
Makers: Hannah Perner-Wilson, Narae Kim, Soo Yon Song
3 Hour Workshop: Intro to E-Textiles
Saturday June 8th
In this 3-hour workshop participants were be introduced to basic e-textile techniques to build a simple button or contact switch that can be connected to a hacked game controller in place of the original controls. Each participant connected their button to one of the controller’s buttons, and then two teams of 8 played a round of Tekken against each other.
Mika’s Flickr set >> http://www.flickr.com/photos/14412219@N04/sets/72157634039150482/
Demos and Space
Saturday June 8th
Setting up the Wish Lab space to show examples of soft electronics.
KOBAKANT Presents
Saturday June 8th
In an hour-long presentation (translated by Jiwon) we talked about the motivations for our practice and how we came to be doing and making what we do. We showed a selection of past projects and introduced the Wish Lab project which brought us to Anyang/Korea.
PDF of Presentation slides >> http://nerding.at/download/wishlab_GaOk.pdf
