Networked Object: The Exploding Twit Bird
'Project' => 'Use a physical object/sculpture to create a fun and interesting visualization of tweet volume around topics and users.',
'Challenges' => 'Connect the sculpture to the twitter, find a means to control an air compressor on command, and construct an object that is thematically tied to Twitter while remaining open for users to test different tweet volume around a range of topics and users.',
'Solutions' => 'I chose to build a big Twitter bird with a body (made out of a balloon) that expands to represent Tweet volume around a topic or user of choice. Perched atop a cloud, it has its mouth around a giant USB connector. An air compressor is operated via an Arduino board, controlled by Processing via the Arduino Firmata library, which draws on a PHP script that calls upon the Twitter API. People can interact with the bird by tweeting “@explodingtwit” and a topic or username of their choice. Then, make sure there’s a fresh balloon, and press a button on the bird’s foot. The PHP script will grab the latest tweet with ‘@explodingtwit’ in it, grab the search term that is paired with it, and count up all the tweets with that term from the past week. Processing grabs that number, and the Arduino board operates the air compressor to expand the balloon body. , please see my paper from Interface Studio.'
'Documentation' => ' The Exploding Twit Bird: Twitter Blows Up a Bird: The full paper about the Twitter Bird and its creation, created for my MFA Design and Technology “Interface” studio at Parsons.', );