Sneak peak of (one of) our latest project…

July 12th, 2011

While some of us are busy setting up the new office space, Mark and Adam are having a little too much fun working on-site with the exhibit fabricators. Here is the first video of what will eventually be a permanent exhibit in Calgary titled “Looping Table”, which is sort of a riff on our last piece, “Sound Playground” but with different interaction and musical elements.

Yeah, hot!

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We are moving!

June 28th, 2011

Today is our packing day, can you tell we’re totally ready?

It’s been exactly two years since we started out in this space, and we love it for all that it has given us. The location is perfect for downtown Toronto, lunch options are plenty, and everybody else seem to also be working in the vicinity. And it’s a great spot for working on the weekends then going out to get fancy dinners (yay Chinatown!).

But in the short period, we’ve out grown our space and it’s finally time to move into a space that we own. We’re looking forward to having a proper wood shop in the back, a kitchen with sink AND running water, store front for experimentation, and an entire 1000sq ft. basement to store stuff! We’ll now be away from the hip downtown core, but we hope that the East end of Toronto will get hip in time.

See you around!

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New project in the works: SMILE

June 22nd, 2011

It’s been a busy bit from spring coming into summer (we can’t believe it’s already end of June!), but we’re excited to share the news about our up-coming project that will be installed at Nuit Blanche Toronto: SMILE. We’re collaborating with Dashing Collective to do this oversize interactive lighting installation at Fort York!

Given the scale of the project and the time frame, this is quite a feat. Especially for the fact that we’re also crunching to get all our work for the Calgary Science Centre out the door around the same time! But true to the Aesthetec style, we only do difficult work, actually “challenge” seems to be our specialty.

Check out the blog for more information on the project: http://dlyt.me

First outdoor prototype testing with our customized software –

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More MMF Video

May 12th, 2011

Ryan Varga, the creator of “We Make Things” interview short, was also at Maker Faire and did an amazing job capturing the event and many makers this video:

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Thank you Toronto Maker Faire!

May 11th, 2011

The Mini Maker Faire Toronto was a smashing success! We’d like to extend our gratitude and congratulations to the organizers and volunteers who managed the event very smoothly. It was a perfect testing ground for all of our exhibits. We had a great time, and judging from the audience’s reactions, we think they did too.

Some more photos are on our Flickr feed.

We brought four prototype exhibits we’ve been working on for the Calgary Science Centre: Light Rope Walker, Magnetic Generator, Solar Panel Music, and Paint with Music. Dana, our exhibit designer from the science centre also joined us from Calgary and helped out at the event. After the end of the two days, we’re proud to report that nothing broke! (a big, giant YAY!) The Mini Maker Faire was a great way to get people’s feedback, observe their interaction with the pieces, test the robustness of our softwares, and learn some lessons about on-site, out-of-studio set up. All in all, it was a great experience for us, and we’re very happy to have received such positive responses.

Here are some videos:

Light Rope Walker

A solar panel robot that keeps traveling along a rope as long as the visitors help him out with some lights. Yes, it is actually generating its energy from the light!

Magnetic Generator

This hand-crank flywheel is a two-in-one device: a magnetic generator and a persistence of vision LED display. As the viewer cranks up the wheel, electricity is generated to power the LEDs which are programmed to blink and display a pattern.

Also check out our Magnetic Generator page for a detailed info of how a magnet generator works!

Solar Panel Music

Make music by shining lights on each solar panel.

Paint with Music

Paint with Piano! This was the star of the booth, receiving almost non-stop traffic throughout the entire event.

’til next time!

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See you at the Toronto Maker Faire

April 26th, 2011

We’re excited to announce that we will be part of Toronto’s first ever Maker Faire! Taking place at the beautiful Evergreen Brick Works building in the Don Valley on May 7-8, the faire will feature more than 70 booths with hands-on interactive projects and various making-things workshops throughout both days. It’ll be a great mother’s day activity for the whole family!

Since we’ve been busy working on projects for the new Calgary Science Centre, we thought this is a prime opportunity to showcase some of the prototypes we’ve created and get feedback from people. At present, we are poised to show 3-5 projects.

Here is an early prototype of one of the projects we will be setting up at Maker Faire:

Get your tickets in advanced here: http://makerfairetoronto.ca/tickets/

See you there!

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Creative coder wanted

March 8th, 2011

We are looking for a creative coder to join our team in Toronto, to help us on our current project: developing interactive exhibits for the brand-new Calgary Science Centre.  All work will be done in our Toronto* studio, with occasional travel requirements to test and install the exhibits. The work includes creating custom firmware and software, installing, testing, and seeing the projects thru completion. The project duration is from now (March, 2011) until October (total of 8 months).

You must have some experience and be comfortable working with:

• C++ / OpenFrameworks
• Arduino
• Objective C / Cocoa
• Audio programming
• Electronics and hardware hacking

You should also have a good visual and design sense, be detail oriented and willing to own the projects like they are your babies. Some knowledge of industrial design process and CAD software is a plus (but not required).

* Sorry, but you do have to be in Toronto or otherwise willing to relocate at your own expense for the duration of the job.

A little bit about working with us:

Aesthetec is a small interaction design studio based in downtown Toronto. We create engaging interactive experiences for museums, exhibit designers and other unique clients. Our 3-person team work in a very relaxed environment, but we work hard and always make sure that the end result is something we’re proud of.

Please send an email with your resume & online portfolio to us at aesthetec dot net, with a subject line “Programmer job inquiry”.

Thanks!

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2011 Update!

February 21st, 2011

We know it’s already mid-February and a little late for our new year update, but, hey, it’s still the first quarter!

Some updates from the studio:

1. Our handmade holiday cards:

Just before we took our holiday break, we made these cards and mailed them out the old fashion way. That’s right, with stamps and everything. The cards were laser cut and then, staying true to the Aesthetec style of doing everything ourselves, we went the extra mile of hand-assemblying, personalizing the notes, and addressed each one by hand. Hope you had a happy holiday.

2. Trip to Japan & Catching Maywa Denki

We spent a few days hanging out in Tokyo in the beginning of our holiday. Besides satisfying our years-long craving for authentic Japanese ramen, we did pack in some really quality interactive nerdy time, namely:

* A visit to Miraikan! Miraikan is Tokyo’s science museum, and we had been wanting to check out their giant LED globe display for some years now, but alas, it wasn’t there. Here’s our field report on some exhibit techniques and things.

* Maywa Denki’s annual holiday party & performance! See our notes on the party & performance here.

* Shopping session at Akihabara Every time we visit, we collect more and more LED matrix. Photo report and update to come.

3. Work-wise

We’re proud to announce that Aesthetec is officially part of the production phase for the New Calgary Science Center, which we also helped design all last year (see our early prototype documentation here). We are designing and producing customized electronics for several exhibits. The NSC is due to opened in the fall of 2011. More details/updates to come later this year.

Happy 2011!

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We Make Things.

November 15th, 2010

Wow, look, a documentary featuring Mark, our blue LED ticker and studio space in the background! Our buddy Kate Hartman and a bunch of other Toronto cool-kids are in it too. Enjoy!

Superbly done by Ryan Varga.

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Our “donor wall” project is finished!

November 6th, 2010

We recently finished a big installation at the University of Waterloo, and now finally have some media to show / talk about the project.  If you haven’t already seen, the Donor Alcove (aka Donor Wall – but it’s really not a wall) project is here:  http://www.aesthetec.net/catalogue.php?WLOO.

Over the short course from around mid July to mid October we went from pencil sketching to building a customized aluminum frame fitted with robotic parts. The frame itself is just a bit more than a semi-circle, with a 10′ diameter and stands tall at 8.5′. It holds up more than 300 acrylic panels (12″x3″), which are strung on a pair of aircraft cable and held in place by shaft collars. There’s 28 servo motors, 11 presence sensors, several custom-cut aluminum parts, and lots of lots of wire. Putting it all together felt a lot like solving a gigantic puzzle.

Here’s more fun photos from the installation process. Check out the project page for the video.

Thank you to all our friends who came out and lend a hand with this whole process. It was really great to have so many people being busy in our studio, even just for a few days. We’re looking forward to do more in the future!

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