Goal: make music with things you find on the garbage
1) Drawbot
So, the first thing we did as soon as we arrived at Scrapyard Challenge was to build a DRAWBOT. What? I don’t even know how to turn on my dvd and you want me to build a robot? But it was much easier than I imagined. All you have to figure out is that switches, when they are linked, they conduct energy and it makes everything work. So we created a very nice robot using just two plastic glasses, some sharpies, a battery and a very tiny motor. Actually, in less than ten minutes it was already ready!
2) Let’s make some noise
Next step was to make an instrument that could play sound using only junk. This was more confusing. I was kind of suspicious, but Jonah told me that all I had to two was to take two wires. One part of them would be connecting to the computer platform; the other two parts should connect to each other using any kind of conductor material. I had some great stuff in my hand, like a flan, a phone and a walking-talk. I wanted to use them all and I found some way to make them work, but it was never too fixed or too easy to work.
Finally, I had to opt for the simplest one. I used a VCR tape as a base to my flan between two wires stations. In the flan I attached a hairy wire chain, so, when I made it rotate by connecting it with the battery, the wires above it touched the other wire stations creating a circuit that could generate sound. This was so much fun! No I feel like opening all my electronic stuffs to see how they look like. And I have new ideas that I want to put into practice. I cannot wait for the next challenge!
Isadora Dantas 