Thank you All!

One thing I regret about the presentation was that I was not able to adequately thank everyone who I meant to, as the time went by so quickly, and one gets swept away with the excitement of it all.

However, I cannot wrap up this project without thanking some people who were so integral to the process of it!

Special Thanks goes out to....

-My Family, whose support spans a lifetime.... I love you all! Thanks for the talks, the emails, the connections and the love!

-My Friends: thank you for assisting me in every way, for giving some of your time to helping me put things together (you know who you are), and for giving me those wonderful words of encouragement, as well as serving as moral support whether at the show or every step of the way!

-My boss and my coworkers: thank you for being so supportive in my efforts to get my degree, and for all of the positive encouragement!

-Luke and Heather: thanks for being my teachers, and providing your ideas, your wisdom and your intellect. Luke, thanks especially for letting me pick your brain every now and then.

-My classmates: you guys are amazing! I have gotten to know most of you better, and I am truly amazed by your talents and your generosity!

-The Tech Staff, the staff, and the Administrators at ITP: I have to extend my thanks to you for helping me grow along the way, and for lending me your expertise and your facilities and your support.

AND, MOST OF ALL, I have to thank all of the women and young ladies who volunteered their time to let me document some of their most intimate, personal and, at times, emotional experiences in regards to their hair. I appreciate all of your stories, and all of your wisdom. Thank you for opening your hearts and voices for me.

Jitter Patch Woes

I continued to have problems with the Jitter patch because the PIC sends MIDI signals in a fast-paced manner over and over, that tends to reset the signals. I used a "change" object, but this would not account for the multiple movies that needed to trigger. Thus, I ended up having to work with Luke, who was extremely helpful in assisting me with setting up an equation to deal with the multiple levels of triggering I needed.

However, another issue surfaced soon after, which was that I could not use the fact that the touch sensors being held down would trigger the movie. The problem with this is that they do not send a signal for more than 20 seconds because they eventually equalize (see post on this). Thus, I had to change the patch back again, so that they only triggered the videos, but duration was not the catalyst for keeping them running.

Touch eventually "Equalizes"

One of the more problematic and unexpected findings with my project was discovered shortly before having to present it at the Live Image Processing show on Friday, April 29th. This was when I discovered that the touch sensors eventually stop sending a signal to the PIC chip, even when held. Since my project's interaction was supposed to depend on whether the touch sensors are being held or not, this came as quite a disappointment, and I had to alter the Jitter Patch to compensate for it. Today, I spoke with a representative at Digikey who informed me that the human charge and the touch sensor's charge "eventually equalizes," meaning that purchasing another kind of touch sensor will not solve the problem. Thus, I have to alter the interface similar to what I did for the Live Image Processing show, in the sense that touch triggers the videos, which will eventually expire (through a timer prompted by Jitter when touched) if one does not continue to caress the hair intermittently throughout the experience. Additionally, I have decided to splice the videos into smaller bits for this reason as well as for conceptual reasons, listed previously.

Seeing it all changes Perspective

The Live Image Processing show, which occurred last Friday, April 29th, went very well overall, and featured many fascinating projects. It was also the first time that I was able to view my own at a distance, with others interacting with it in various ways. One thing that I noticed was that multiple people wanted to see its capabilities at the same time, but the narratives ran for several minutes (which can seem like hours during a show). I had edited the videos down from over half an hour each (in most cases) to about four minutes, but viewing it in a show experience made me realize that the narratives had to be shorter, because, many times, others would come and interact with the piece, and interrupt a narrative that another individual was immersed in. I, purposely, did not want the narrative to start where it left off because I was anticipating various individuals coming in at different points and wanting to see it from the beginning. Additionally, there are several possible narratives that can come up for one hair choice, meaning that the next time one hair style is touched, a different narrative may begin. However, this caused a good amount of frustration for many viewers, who, for the most part, just stayed and stood back, hoping for a time when they could hear that one narrative again.

I was approached by some friends and family who had viewed the piece and they recommended that I cut down each of the individual narratives into two or more smaller parts that begin with different parts of the dialogue. I have decided that I will do this before the thesis presentation, and discuss some of the pros and cons to adopting this kind of approach.

The Politics of Buying Hair

It wasn't until I had to purchase hair that I realized the extent of the politics involved. As a black woman, I have always known that purchasing hair in some form, whether it was real or not (but especially if it wasn't) was a source of shame, with the exception sometimes being if you were purchasing extensions for hair braiding (because this allowed the braid to hold for a longer amount of time). So, as I was looking for the right synthetic wigs at the right price, the experience became a multidimensional one -- I realized that most of my fellow shoppers would come in and out quickly, and try not to stare at the wigs for too long. Many times they would look through the hair care sections when too many people not buying wigs would come into the store. Two of the fellow wig buyers I noticed were wearing a baseball cap, with thinning hair peaking out underneath; one of the other ones wore a wig herself and was less ashamed in the process, and spoke openly with the clerks, who also appeared to wear wigs or extensions, and spoke with what sounded like a West African accent. When I did start inquiring about some of the wigs, who were all given female names, I could tell that the clerks as well as my fellow wig or hair care shoppers would examine the hair on my head at a distance, trying to determine, presumably, if my bun was real or an add-on, or if I needed a wig. I found myself doing the same when I saw younger girls coming in the store, looking for extensions.

I also found that it was hard to find really curly wigs, or wigs with braids or locks. Many of the curly wigs had bigger, looser curls that usually hung down in a wavy pattern, not sticking out to the sides or above the brow line, like really kinky or curly hair would. I asked about wigs with dreadlocks, which I had seen once before a couple weeks back when I was looking, and the clerks looked at me in a strange way, then one of them inquired with who appeared to be the head manager, who stated that they did not carry these kinds of wigs. I asked about wigs that contained braids, and they had only one that contained crimson-dyed braids that were unraveled (as part of a style) and the emphasis was not on the braids, but on the lose, wavy hair, which made up most of the wig. I was able to find one really curly style wig, but this was an Afro wig, and I was a little apprehensive about the purchase, but, being as it was one of my only options for curlier hair, I went ahead with it.

If I could afford the more expensive wigs, which contained real hair, I would have purchased them because part of my project is to defy the myths about curly hair texture, which is usually thought of as coarse and brillo-like, though that is typically far from the truth. However, using synthetic wigs can only add to the myth because they really do feel dry and coarse. I assume this is something I should talk about during my session when I bring up future versions of this project.

However, as I left some of the stores, I would get looks, and sometimes comments that I could not understand. As I passed three women sitting on lawn chairs outside of a storefront, they all looked at me displeased, and said words under their breath. One of them jumped up and started telling me, in a very animated way, that I did not need to "do this" (referring to my black bags, whose contents she must have known from a distance, particularly since they were pretty hidden inside). She was very upset, as if I had committed a crime by buying these things. I tried to explain to her that this was for a project, and it wasn't for me to wear, but instead she told me that I should just go and get my hair done, because they could give me all of these styles and make them look more natural. I took her card, and thanked her, but then turned the corner into another wig shop, looking for my locked or braided wigs, certain that she was shaking her head outside.

My stepfather's comments

I was very delighted to received an email from my stepfather, one of the closest parental figures in my life, who has cared for me since I was a child. He is also a white man, so it was very interesting to hear his comments on the subject.

"> Sounds great. I learned things I had not
> understood about the interactions between you and mom about hair when
> you were a kid. I was fairly oblivious at the time.
>
> About the statement, my suggestion is that it would be good to give
> the issue of touch some more treatment in the personal statement or
> background
> stage. Touch comes in as key to the project under
> the technical description, but isn't mentioned before.
>
> For any artistic subject, touch may be useful as a way to "touch" the
> viewer more personally, vs.
> looking. But, do you also suggest that touch has particular
> significance for the topic of hair? I tend to think of the cultural
> significance of hair as mainly an issue of how it looks, not about
how

> it feels when you touch it. Hair that is curly, esp.
> with tight curls, looks larger than straight hair and by taking more
> physical space, may raise touch
> as a larger issue. Touching hair with tight curls
> feels diferent than touching smooth hair, it has more resistance, it
> holds it shape.
>

Worked it out ... with the PIC

So, it appears that I have finally solved one of my major problems on the pic (chip) side. After a few nights of frustration, I finally have cleaned up my code such that it is only reading in MIDI signals from one switch at a time. Previously, my code was reading that one switch (attached to one of the pins of my pic) was turned on, but also reading that the others were turned off, and sending those messages as well. I was able to do some cleaning up with a repeat loop, but it wasn't as short as I hoped it would be. I still had to use a lot of conditional (if/then) statements, but, at least I was able to finally have it such that one corresponding light would go on and one MIDI signal would be transmitted.

So far, I have been able to successfully read in these signals with the MIDI monitor (into my Mac), but I am having problems on the Jitter side, which I hope to work out with my teacher. It appears that I keep getting some kind of port error, so I can't receive signals serially. There must be some kind of setup that I am missing.