When i got to take the Makey Makey home i decided to do some experiments with it so i could get to grips with using it.
I found you could do this very cool thing where you create a keyboard using paper and a graphite pencil. The graphite in the pencil is conductive so if a thick enough layer is used you can use the drawings as buttons.
I created a simple gaming keyboard with an up arrow and a left and right arrow which allows me to play games online using only a sheet of paper and my Makey Makey.
After some more experiments with my Makey Makey i want to try and find a way to have the clothes become more a part of the actual electronics. currently my idea is to create pressure plates that when stepped on create a sound, however this seems a bit basic and doesnt connect to the clothes very well.
Video of how Jumper switch works
After some further experiments i have worked out how to make my jumper conductive using paper clips. So now when you touch the paper clip on the jumper the sound begins to play, making this far more interactive than it was before. Im starting to feel really excited about this project as electronics like this are something i’ve never worked with up until now.
After some more work on the wiring i have managed to get the show working with the same paperclip design, however for some reason that is slightly confusing the entire shoe works if pressed and it shouldn’t as its leather.
however after some research apparently leather can conduct depending on the finish used on the leather. This is a surprise to me but something that makes this shoe a lot cooler if you can touch anywhere on it and it still works
On the day of the exhibition i moved the Plinth and the laptop into a room in the studio so i could have the plinth in the doorway and then have all my electronics behind it.
I found a really cool way to not have to hold the earth switch everytime someone wants to touch the shoe. I laid down this big white sheet that was covered in tiny sequences connected by very thin metal threads, meaning the entire sheet was conductive, so when i left my earth cable connected to the sheet it meant that i wouldn’t have to connect it to myself or have my audience have to hold the it. This improved the usability of my piece ten fold and ment that my piece retained some of the mystery of how the shoe was making a sound
The final piece worked really well! the look wasn’t exactly how i would want it for a full scale version of this but im just really happy all my electronics worked the way they did.