Magnesia
Album

Magnesia is an interactive installation with which people can play in two teams using magnetic controllers and steel balls. The goal is to capture the balls into disc-shaped goals on the sides of the playfield, which results in colorful light effects. / CC BY K. Hyyppä, K. Smigla-Bobinski & T. Vilela

Steel balls were one of the main ingredients of the Magnesia installation. Besides being steerable with magnets, they had a reference to gaming, which suited the A MAZE festival where the installation was to be presented. / CC BY K. Hyyppä, K. Smigla-Bobinski & T. Vilela

We did quite a lot of experimentation with magnets and went for a solution where the steel balls were between acrylic glass sheets and steerable with a stack of strong neodymium magnets. Here you can see the set-up, including a prototype of goal (two half-discs which the ball connects electrically). / CC BY K. Hyyppä, K. Smigla-Bobinski & T. Vilela

The two acrylic glass layers which enclosed the playfield were separated by rectangular acrylic glass sticks. As magnetic field decays rapidly as a function of distance, we had to measure the height of the sticks carefully so that there would be enough (but not too much) magnetic force for steering the balls. / CC BY K. Hyyppä, K. Smigla-Bobinski & T. Vilela

We needed altogether 36 acrylic glass sticks for the playfield. Cutting these was quite an ordeal, especially since the plastic was melting quite easily. Thanks to Karina's determined and precise cutting effort, we had all the needed sticks in the end. / CC BY K. Hyyppä, K. Smigla-Bobinski & T. Vilela

The sticks were arranged in the form of a grid in between the acrylic glass sheets. In addition to supporting the sheets, the idea was to light up the sticks as the balls move in their vicinity, giving the impression of a 'brain', which was the theme of the residency. / CC BY K. Hyyppä, K. Smigla-Bobinski & T. Vilela

The LEDs used for lighting up the sticks were harvested from a LED light bulb, as we happened to have one at home where the LEDs were intact but the connector was broken. / CC BY K. Hyyppä, K. Smigla-Bobinski & T. Vilela

We prototyped few alternatives for lighting up the sticks when a ball would move close to them. Here is a picture of our first experiment with aluminum foil rings. We abandoned this idea quite fast and went for Reed switches, which are closed in the presence of a magnetic field, as we wanted to stick to our magnetism theme. / CC BY K. Hyyppä, K. Smigla-Bobinski & T. Vilela

Here the LEDs are waiting for the next steps after the Reed switches were soldered to them. We used switches made of thin glass because they were small and looked cool, but the downside was that they were very fragile and needed extra care. / CC BY K. Hyyppä, K. Smigla-Bobinski & T. Vilela

The LEDs were placed inside thin acrylic tubes in order to keep them in place under the sticks, as rather exact positioning was important for having the desired reed switch behavior. Here the pipes are being prepared. / CC BY K. Hyyppä, K. Smigla-Bobinski & T. Vilela

Keeping 36 LED tubes and a lot of wires in order was quite tricky and we had to use lot of masking tape in order to keep the tubes in ordered groups and the fragile reed switches inside the tubes. / CC BY K. Hyyppä, K. Smigla-Bobinski & T. Vilela

Here the LED tubes are upside down, being placed on the acrylic glass sheets with transparent double-sided tape. / CC BY K. Hyyppä, K. Smigla-Bobinski & T. Vilela

The LEDs used for the goals, as well as for the flashy winning effects were from RGB LED stripes, which included also control electronics for blinking effects. / CC BY K. Hyyppä, K. Smigla-Bobinski & T. Vilela

The LEDs used for the goals, as well as for the flashy winning effects were from RGB LED stripes, which included also control electronics for blinking effects. / CC BY K. Hyyppä, K. Smigla-Bobinski & T. Vilela

We made for the prototype the half-circle discs for the goals using thin foam sheet and aluminum foil, while aluminum sheet was used in the final installation. The idea was that when a steel ball is on the two half-circles of one goal, it closes a part of a circuit which triggers 'winning' light effects. When all three balls of a team are on the goals, the circuit is completed, and the winning effects occur. / CC BY K. Hyyppä, K. Smigla-Bobinski & T. Vilela

The final circuit board contained three separate circuits: one for the LEDs that light up the sticks, one for the LEDs which signal the color of the goals and one for the winning effects. / CC BY K. Hyyppä, K. Smigla-Bobinski & T. Vilela

The schematics for the three separate circuits which were controlling the LEDs in the installation. / CC BY K. Hyyppä, K. Smigla-Bobinski & T. Vilela

The controllers with which people could steer the steel balls were made by enclosing the stack of neodymium magnets inside an acrylic tube filled with clay. / CC BY K. Hyyppä, K. Smigla-Bobinski & T. Vilela

The final controllers got a felt coating at each end in order to prevent scratching of the acrylic sheet that covered the playfield. The controllers were also color-coded by the team colors and more than one controller could be stacked in order to create a stronger magnetic field. / CC BY K. Hyyppä, K. Smigla-Bobinski & T. Vilela

The final effort for finishing the installation prototype was to build a multi-layered wooden box, which would contain all the game elements. Sketching the box required careful measurements, as all the parts had to fit exactly in the box. / CC BY K. Hyyppä, K. Smigla-Bobinski & T. Vilela

As we had only two weeks for concepting and making our installation prototype, it was of great help that Mikolaj from the Polish institute arranged us some plywood from the cellar and helped us to built the box. Otherwise we would have ran out of time! / CC BY K. Hyyppä, K. Smigla-Bobinski & T. Vilela

The box begins to emerge, close to midnight the night before the finissage. / CC BY K. Hyyppä, K. Smigla-Bobinski & T. Vilela

Mikolaj found us also some white paint to cover the old plywood. Here Tatiana is giving a finishing touch to the box. / CC BY K. Hyyppä, K. Smigla-Bobinski & T. Vilela

The inside of the box was covered with mirror foil in order to obtain a depth effect through the reflections of the game elements. The LED stripe for the winning effects was also taped around the inner walls of the box. / CC BY K. Hyyppä, K. Smigla-Bobinski & T. Vilela

As the installation contained three different circuits, there were quite a few power cords, which were hidden with a lot of gaffa tape inside the box. / CC BY K. Hyyppä, K. Smigla-Bobinski & T. Vilela

The installation prototype is ready. Here you can see the red and blue lights indicating the goals (always on) and the lit up sticks turned on by the magnetic field of the controllers. / CC BY K. Hyyppä, K. Smigla-Bobinski & T. Vilela

Karina testing the winning effect of the red team. As the steel balls are on all of the three red goals, the LED stripe attached to the inside walls of the box starts to blink in red. / CC BY K. Hyyppä, K. Smigla-Bobinski & T. Vilela

Mikolaj testing the blue team's winning effect. / CC BY K. Hyyppä, K. Smigla-Bobinski & T. Vilela

The mirror foil created quite an infinity effect together with the sticks, wires and other installation elements, giving the impression of a complex 'brain'. / CC BY K. Hyyppä, K. Smigla-Bobinski & T. Vilela

Here is the final installation at the A MAZE festival in Urban Spree in Berlin. The final version included mostly the same parts as the prototype except that Stephan Bosse and his colleagues built the box anew from black MDF along with new acrylic glass parts and goals. / CC BY K. Hyyppä, K. Smigla-Bobinski & T. Vilela