355: Favorite Ways to Make Noise
Transcript from 355: Favorite Ways to Make Noise with Helen Leigh, Elecia White, and Christopher White.
EW (00:00:06):
Welcome to Embedded. I'm Elecia White, alongside Christopher White. Have you ever wondered "What do electrons sound like?" I'm happy to have Helen Leigh back to answer that question and give you some ideas for some projects.
CW (00:00:22):
Hi, Helen. Thanks for coming back.
HL (00:00:24):
Hi, nice to be back.
EW (00:00:26):
You've been on the show before and at the time you were writing The Crafty Kid's DIY Guide to Electronics.
HL (00:00:35):
Correct.
EW (00:00:36):
But there was a lot more, you've written many books before that, and now you've done many things after that. So could you tell us about yourself?
HL (00:00:44):
Sure. So for those of you who don't know me, my name is Helen Leigh, which is how you'll find me...on Twitter and GitHub and Instagram and all those things as well. Recently my main thing was I made things and I wrote about them. So mainly musical instruments or things using electronics that you wouldn't necessarily expect to be using electronics. Things like massive plushy tentacles or big embroidery pieces that are also electronic analog synths. So I guess those all fall under experimental musical instruments and I would, write about them for Make magazine for whom I write a column every issue and various other things as well.
HL (00:01:34):
So yeah, writing, making experimental musical instruments, I would also teach, I would lecture on DIY music tech and electronics in general. But now I've just taken a job at CrowdSupply where I'm going to be Head of--, where I am, Head of Community. I'm very excited by it, what that's going to bring to my life as well. So.
EW (00:01:59):
Okay. Questions about all of that, including the musical tentacle? Don't think I'll let that go by.
HL (00:02:07):
That's not even my weirdest make of recent times.
EW (00:02:11):
But we're gonna do lightning round first. Are you ready?
HL (00:02:14):
Oh, yes. Lightning round. Yes, I am ready.
EW (00:02:16):
Weirdest thing you have ever made a musical instrument out of?
HL (00:02:20):
Oh, wow. The strangest thing, probably myself...I guess that's not that strange.
CW (00:02:29):
I mean...
HL (00:02:29):
You know, something I made recently that everybody really quite enjoyed is I made a theremin, I chose a golden disco ball, which I also made.
CW (00:02:38):
Okay. That's pretty cool. Favorite sensor?
HL (00:02:43):
Ooh. Ah, there's so many good ones. Okay. So my favorite one that I worked with a lot, so I worked with capacitive touch a lot, which marries really well with instruments. And I've been in love with this capacitive touch sensor which for me has replaced the MPR121. And it's called Trill and made by an open hardware company in London called Bela. It's got 30 channels. It's so good. I love it.
EW (00:03:12):
What is the best podcast to listen to while on your honeymoon?
HL (00:03:17):
Well, actually listen?
CW (00:03:17):
Every time...
HL (00:03:18):
Well we actually, so as...some of your listeners might know, maybe not, I'm married to Drew Fustini, who's pdp7... who is the purple, the purplest, OSH Park employee of all time. And does lots of open source stuff as well. But yeah...on our honeymoon we did listen to Embedded FM as well as the Amp Hour. So nicely distributed amongst the embedded podcasts. But yes, I mean, I don't want to play favorites, sorry, Chris, but I do prefer listening to Elecia on my travels.
CW (00:03:59):
Favorite professionally made musical instrument?
HL (00:04:02):
Oh, well...I have, I'm very fond of my cheap plastic Danelectro guitar.
CW (00:04:09):
Oh, those are great.
HL (00:04:09):
Yeah, they're so fun. I also have a less cheap and still, but wonderful, Moog Sub 37, which is the prize of my synth collection. So yeah, I do like the banjo as well though. Although it can be creepy. I don't know. Also wistful.
EW (00:04:30):
Favorite dev board or microcontroller kit?
HL (00:04:35):
Oh , hmm, gosh. How long have you got? So I have emotional connections to obviously the Arduino Uno...from like, the way that it led my journey into hardware back in the day. Well, actually, no, my first microcontroller was the Intel Galileo, which was terrible. But the one I got after that was that was the Uno and...that's got, it's very nostalgic for me. I would say that the board I use the most is the Bela board which I use to make micro- which is based on a BeagleBoard, and I use it to make embedded instruments. That's just a real good workhorse.
HL (00:05:21):
What else?...I've been really enjoying all the, oh, you know, Teensys, Teensys, of course, especially the new one. It's just ridiculously fast.
EW (00:05:31):
And it's super tiny, isn't it?
HL (00:05:33):
It's super tiny, yeah, and I'm a big fan of the Teensy. And it's Portland-based, which is where I've just moved to. So, you know, repping my new adopted town...by saying Teensy. So, yeah, is that enough, or can I go for an entire hour about telling you about my favorite microcontrollers and why I like them?
CW (00:05:53):
Well, we'll maybe insert them more organically into the conversation.
HL (00:05:57):
Okay.
CW (00:05:58):
Best way to motivate yourself for a day of writing.
HL (00:06:03):
Do you know what? I actually really hate writing.
CW (00:06:07):
This is why I'm asking you. 'Cause I hate everything right now. And I want you to tell me how to do anything.
HL (00:06:11):
I hate writing. Even though it's how I've made my living for the best part of a decade. I'm a good writer, unfortunately, I just don't particularly like it. The best way to hype myself up is to procrastinate wildly until I hate myself so much that I have no option but to start...
CW (00:06:29):
Oh no, I already do that, Helen. I need a new idea.
HL (00:06:36):
I don't know what to tell you. Actually, I do...I wrote Crafty Kid's. The only way I could get myself motivated for Crafty Kid's, apart from the procrastination and the tears of frustration was to basically just drink...like ridiculous amounts of both Club-Mate and then vodka Club-Mate.
CW (00:07:00):
Oh, Jesus.
HL (00:07:00):
Yeah. Club-Mate...is a beautiful thing. And I miss it dearly. I don't know how I'm going to finish this next book without Club-Mate.
EW (00:07:12):
If you could teach a college course, what would you want to teach?
HL (00:07:15):
I've taught many college courses or university courses as they call them on my side of the pond. My favorite one I've ever taught has got to be...It was actually quite sad that I had to give this up to come to the US. Every, I teach a master's module on a music production course and I teach, my module is about, music tech hacking. And the reason I really like this one is because I get to teach people who've never touched code or hardware ever before in their lives. These are like professional music producers, right? Well, sometimes, performers themselves.
HL (00:07:51):
And I do a two week intensive course. I teach them how to code. I teach them how to make circuits. I teach them how to make noises with those circuits. And then their deliverable at the end of the course, then is to make me an instrument. And then I mark that instrument. So that's my favorite experience. I love teaching non-coders how to use technology as a tool. It's super rewarding. And they often come up with much better inventions than somebody who knows what they're doing does, in my opinion anyway.
EW (00:08:23):
But they don't know what they don't know or how it's supposed to work.
HL (00:08:28):
Quite. There's that great quote from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop...which is "Because we weren't experts, we didn't know what we weren't capable of doing". That's a quote I live my life by and...my unending ignorance of all sorts of technology...does not stop me from using them and making a mess. Sometimes those messes are lovely though. So, you know, I think it works.
EW (00:08:55):
How did The Crafty Kid's Guide to DIY Electronics do? I mean...you motivate yourself through shame, which I don't find motivating, but I know that is Chris's method.
CW (00:09:09):
Don't knock it.
HL (00:09:09):
I feel you, Chris, I feel you. How did it go afterwards?
EW (00:09:13):
I mean, when we talked to you, it was just releasing. So, you know
HL (00:09:16):
Oh, yes, that's right, that's right.
EW (00:09:18):
How'd it go?
HL (00:09:18):
It went reasonably well. I mean, you know, like DIY electronic project books are not going to become the next Harry Potter, are they? But it sold as expected. And it was widely well-received. I got some fantastic reviews for it. I think it was one of the first or maybe the first, anyway... One of the reasons I wrote it was because I was teaching a lot of electronics at the time to...not just, I didn't just teach like undergrads and postgrads, I also really enjoy teaching workshops, generally on a voluntary basis...in hackerspaces or at festivals. I would teach a lot of families how to use, like basic electronics or basic microcontrollers...Just 'cause I think it's a really nice thing to do.
HL (00:10:11):
And I was looking through all the different resources and I saw that there were no electronics books that were, you know, like female-coded. So I wanted to make one that was written for little girls. And with little girls. In fact, I had an advisory board of, I think there were 259 7 to 10 year old girls on my advisory board who chose every single project. So really the way that...like, I know that I had an impact on those people, which was really nice. My favorite thing about that book is, I find out, completely by accident at a meeting, that the book was being used in a refugee center. Across like refugee centers in a couple of different places. In Berlin, to teach basic electronics to recent...refugee kids, which made me cry in a meeting. I was like, "Oh my goodness".
EW (00:11:09):
Yeah?
HL (00:11:09):
So that was lovely. I mean, I still, I get a lot of people who contact me about that book. I guess that was two years ago now, no, really two years ago, maybe? I don't know. Something like that so it has to have been....
EW (00:11:20):
September 2018 was when we last recorded. So, yeah.
HL (00:11:24):
So yeah, two years ago. It's...still out there. It's still doing its thing. I'm quite proud of it, actually.
EW (00:11:32):
You should be.
HL (00:11:34):
I am quite. Yeah.
EW (00:11:35):
I mean, there are lots of these projects that I still want to do. I mean, I know, as we were saying, I know how they're supposed to work, but this looks like so much more fun.
HL (00:11:46):
Yeah. I mean, it's supposed to be fun. I didn't want to write a textbook. I wanted to write a fun project book that teaches electronics through craft. That's all. And you know, I think a lot of people get so worthy about books for children. They've got to be this, that, and they've got to hit these curricular points, but, you know, I think I've done enough formal education and...you know, I've taught in a formal education situations to understand that the best learning sometimes just happens because you're doing something fun and...it's more important to do the fun prompt than it is to make sure that it's extremely rigorous because if that child is then interested in that, then there's, you know, we have the internet now, so they can go and look it up.
EW (00:12:28):
One of the projects you were working on around that time that wasn't in the book, was your collaboration with Imogen Heap.
HL (00:12:37):
Yes.
EW (00:12:37):
Could you tell us about that?
HL (00:12:39):
Sure. So...it's such a weird story, actually. I don't know. I have no idea how they let me do this. But the Imogen Heap team, 'cause it's not just Imogen Heap. There's a bunch of people who work for her and with her. There's one of her teams that does this thing called the Mi.Mu Glove and the Mi.Mu Glove is this wonderful piece of technology, which... they're gesture sensing gloves that are used to control a DAW, a digital audio workstation. So, you know, like Ableton or whatever. So Imogen was like really frustrated or by, you know, she didn't want to spend her life behind the keyboard. She's very hot on music production, but she didn't want to perform in front of a laptop, right? She worked with a team of technologists to create this gesture control. These gloves that would...she'd be able to make these gestures on stage.
HL (00:13:41):
And it would be able to trigger, like sound effects, different loops or whatever, whatever, whatever. Anyway, it's this really cool piece of tech, which I had literally nothing to do with. I just saw them on YouTube, being used by, oh, what's her name? The pop star. Some...oh, Ariana Grande. Yeah. So...I saw them being used...on an Ariana Grande arena tour. And I just thought, "Oof, that would be an amazing lesson". That would be an amazing hook to get some teen girls into doing some embedded stuff. So I messaged Imogen Heap through a music connection, and said, "Hey, can I make a children's version of this? Would you mind if I ripped it off?" Like not as a product, I meant more like to do it in a workshop.
HL (00:14:30):
And she was like super into the idea so much so that she actually got me to make a prototype of what that would look like as an actual product. So I did that. I made that for her. And just as an example, as a prototype for a product launch that she was doing, and everybody loved it so much that we turned it into a product and collaboration with Pimoroni, who were the British Adafruit essentially. But yeah, I mean it was a fantastic experience for me. One I really shouldn't have been able to land, because I'm not a product designer at all. I've done some of my own products before that, but, you know, they're very, like, they were very much DIY stuff, right? It was like hackerspace kits, do you know what I mean? Like DIY synth, or like how to make an electric guitar or like, I did a kit that was, a gesture-controlled robot unicorn, but they were all very...
CW (00:15:29):
Mm-hm.
New Speaker (00:15:29):
For reals.
HL (00:15:30):
But they were all very much like I'd laser cut the, you know, I'd laser cut the iter and then I'd put some like servers in a box and they would all be pretty terrible. You know, I was not a very good kitter. I was good at coming up with the ideas, but in terms of the actual logistics and distribution, I was like, mm-mm (negative), I hate doing this. I hate doing this and I will no longer do this.
HL (00:15:57):
But yeah, so it, it was this Mini.Mu project gave me this opportunity to take my understanding of like, product from like a maker point of view and actually see what that looks like when it goes to actual production. It was really cool. I learned a lot from working on the Mini.Mu glove, and it was really cool to have Imogen, just to trust me and to take the lead on creating that product from the beginning to right at the end. It was really fun actually. And it was such a buzz to see it for sale all over the world. They have them in like MicroCenters, and like, you know, they were on Adafruit and, you know, people in Japan have made them. And it's my hand on the box, which is really funny. So I am a hand model. Have you ever had a hand model on embedded.fm Before?
CW (00:16:58):
No, this is -
EW (00:17:00):
You're first -
CW (00:17:00):
Well, I guess this is the second time.
HL (00:17:02):
That's true. That is true actually.
CW (00:17:05):
It is really gratifying to see. I've only had that experience a couple of times...seeing something you worked on exists, you know, out in the world and, you know, walk into a store and "Oh, I kind of did that". That's -
HL (00:17:20):
Yeah. It's amazing. I actually...I've never seen one of the, people have sent me pictures of my things in a store. But I've never seen, I've never witnessed myself something that I've made in a store. So, sometime.
EW (00:17:38):
Well, you still might. I mean, Portland has enough tech, when the stores open up, you might get to find one.
HL (00:17:45):
That's true, perhaps. Yeah. And I'm not done yet. I'm not going to just like lie down and die after this interview.
CW (00:17:53):
We won't be using that for a title. Tempted as I am.
HL (00:18:01):
This is it. This is the pinnacle of my career and my life. This is like, there is only death for me, no. You see, this is what happens in pandemics when you don't speak to people for a long time and you start saying things that are, not societally acceptable, my apologies.
EW (00:18:24):
No problem. It is weird how we just kind of go from happy normal to the lows.
HL (00:18:35):
Look, I'm British. We have a gallows sense of humor anyway, you know -
EW (00:18:37):
That's true. It's a good excuse.
HL (00:18:40):
Yeah. Yeah. It's definitely a good excuse.
EW (00:18:42):
Are you still working with Imogen Heap?
HL (00:18:45):
I actually just got an email from her the other day...which I need to reply to. We have done, so the... Mini.Mu...in this summer just gone, we gave them out to, well, "we", Red Hat I think, paid for it. But it, we gave them out to like 4,000 kids in the UK as part of like a tech summer camp. And I'm hoping that we're gonna, I'm hoping that we're going to do that again next year. I need to do some work around making that happen, I think...But yeah, so we're talking about that and that she's launching some kind of blockchain thing, I think, which she's invited me to. So I'm going to have a little look at that, although I don't particularly care about blockchain, so don't know.
EW (00:19:41):
One of the threads through your career has been music and tech.
HL (00:19:46):
Correct.
EW (00:19:47):
And you are going to tie all of those up into a book?
HL (00:19:52):
Yes, that's correct. Which I still need to finish, but...I'm a good chunk of the way through. I'm doing a new book on DIY music technologies. There will probably be a slightly snappier title, but that will come. And it's a project book again of all sorts of experimental music things from microcontroller-based makes to analog makes to found sound. Yeah. So I take you through all my favorite ways to make tech, to make noises essentially, and to experiment with sound. But also...I'm fairly astonished that they've agreed to my project plan list. I mean, normally in DIY music tech, you might expect...some simple Arduino, you know, maybe some Arduino theremins and some DIY guitars and, you know, some ordinary things. But my editors let me get away with some incredibly strange makes, which I'm quite grateful for.
HL (00:20:52):
So I've done stuff like, I've done a tentacle that wraps around the side, wraps around my torso, the full length of my torso. It gives me a hug and then it's like a giant plushy tentacle and with headphones coming out of it and you cuddle it up and it's limbs like wrapped around your waist, and then you stroke it, you lay your head on it like a pillow and you stroke it and squeeze it. And when you stroke it, it purrs, it's got this really comforting bassy purr. And they let me put that in the book, which was quite nice. And then also, and this is quite a fun thing, but I did a...one particular make, which was jelly bongos, like made of Jell-o. And I'm pretty sure it's the only technology book that I've come across that includes a recipe.
EW (00:21:55):
Is it regular jelly or Jell-o, or did you go ahead and make Jell-o shots for this?
HL (00:22:01):
I went ahead and so it's...well, I mean, Jell-o, I mean, come on, like I'm not American. Jell-o, like that...it's firm fruit dessert, correct? Jell-o.
CW (00:22:14):
Yes.
EW (00:22:14):
Oh, so there's jam jelly -
HL (00:22:16):
Yes, like wobbly..Jelly is, in America, jelly is, like the stuffy spread on toast, right?
EW (00:22:20):
Yes.
CW (00:22:20):
Yes.
HL (00:22:21):
Okay. So I mean the Jell-o -
CW (00:22:22):
Yeah, yeah.
HL (00:22:22):
And the stuff you put, the stuff you put in a mold.
EW (00:22:25):
Yes.
HL (00:22:26):
Right? And it would wobble on a plate.
CW (00:22:27):
Yeah.
EW (00:22:28):
Yeah. Okay.
HL (00:22:28):
Okay. Yeah. So Jell-o then.
EW (00:22:31):
But do you know, you can put vodka in it and make Jell-o shots?
HL (00:22:35):
Girl, of course I know that.
EW (00:22:38):
And so your bongos.
HL (00:22:41):
Yeah. But then if you put, if you put Jell-O and if you put vodka on the Jell-o bongos, they probably would, they would not be, they would be too sloppy and probably so would I.
EW (00:22:52):
And then there's always the fire aspect.
HL (00:22:54):
The fire aspect? I mean, I've never tried to set fire to vodka jelly.
CW (00:22:57):
I don't think it's gonna work.
HL (00:23:00):
I think it's not gonna work. Yeah. I mean, unless you're using some pretty, some, you know...some extra materials there, if you like, if you've got a flamethrower on it, I mean, it's probably going to burn, isn't it?
EW (00:23:11):
Most things do.
HL (00:23:12):
Yeah. Yeah. I mean...I wouldn't bet on the Jell-o versus a flame thrower, but I might bet on the Jell-o versus a match. So I guess it depends on how one is burning it.
EW (00:23:24):
That requires the Makey Makey kit. Is that right?
HL (00:23:29):
That's correct. Yeah. Yeah. So that's...I did...a chapter on, or a short chapter on, lots of different Makey Makey makes. Makey Makey makes. I mean, it's kind of an older, it's one of the older microcontrollers, I guess now, but it still, it's got a niche and it does really well in that niche, you know, and I, I often break out the Makey Makey and, in situations where people might be intimidated by code, it's a very quick win and you can get super creative with that. And they do all sorts of wonderful things. And it's like really nicely supported with resources for teachers and so on. So you're not gonna use the Makey Makey for that many different applications, but for its specific applications, it's a wonderful thing. So yeah. It's a great teacher friendly little board. They go.
EW (00:24:26):
Now they have a $20 version.
HL (00:24:30):
Oh yes, they do, the GO or something, isn't it?
EW (00:24:32):
Best tech toys of 2014. Maybe not exactly now, but the USB version, you don't have to, it goes into your computer and that's where your sound comes out.
HL (00:24:43):
Yeah, yeah, that's right. Same with the board as well. I mean, it's not an embedded, it's a controller, you know, like it converts whatever you would, it basically converts anything into a keyboard. It's, you know...it's a lovely little board for entry level kind of, entry level music-making. That's for sure.
EW (00:25:02):
Why is music part of it for you? I mean, for me, blinking lights are kind of irritating, sound is kind of irritating, but once you got me to motors, I was just, okay, this is it. But -
HL (00:25:15):
Interesting.
EW (00:25:16):
You, you focus more on the sound. What drew you to that?
HL (00:25:22):
Well, music was part of my life before tech was actually, so I can't believe I'm about to admit this, in public, but, when I was a young lass...I was in choir. I was in the Church of Wales choir. I'm from Wales. So I was in this High Church of Wales choir and I used to go three times a week...singing practice. And I had like a white ruff and a burgundy cassock, like I did the whole like high church situation and I got medals for singing and, you know, all that kind of stuff. And I also played a bunch of instruments as well. So I guess, music for me, was part of my childhood. I've always been really interested in experiment, the experimental side of things. And maybe even...at school, like, and T went to a really terrible comprehensive school, like in...
HL (00:26:28):
I don't know...what that tracks to in US culture, but like just, like, quite a bad school. I went to quite a bad school, really quite rough. And in year seven, which is your first year, I got onstage in a general assembly and I played several instruments that I'd made, which were all very experimental. And my music teacher was sat at the front, like yes, nodding away like it was amazing jazz. And like every single other person in the school was like, wow. So, I got horribly bullied after that.
HL (00:27:09):
Like, you know, yeah, yeah. I was, a...little nerdy. You can imagine a little nerdy Helen at the front. I was a very innocent little kid. I'm like playing all these instruments that I'd made myself in front of an absolutely horrified assembly of a thousand children...I'm like doing the least cool thing possible. So yeah, I mean, making weird noises has been something I've been doing for quite a long time. I guess people just, are laughing a bit less at me now for doing it, but I laugh at myself. So that's okay.
EW (00:27:45):
You tell that story, like it was a scar on your past -
New Speaker (00:27:50):
Not at all.
EW (00:27:50):
But you do realize that you were creating lots of little modern Helens with your work, right? I mean, are you just trying to find a crowd to hide in, or was that really not that bad of an experience and you really do want to share it with everyone you've ever met?
HL (00:28:09):
Well, that was just my, I mean, I don't think it was that bad of an experience and I don't, I wasn't, I certainly wasn't scarred by it. I took pride in being a little bit different and I still do so, no, it's just, I think it's just...a funny story for me, just thinking like, wow, even at 11 years old, I was already making strange instruments with all sorts of junk that I found around. But, it took me like, it didn't, it took me a while to come to music technology. I guess, the first instrument, well, actually, no, no, no. The first...DIY kit I made like at my little hackerspace in London, was...the first two in fact were both instruments...and I would say maybe like between 60 and 70% of all of my output throughout my kind of like maker life has been music-based.
HL (00:29:11):
It's not entirely, it's not entirely music-based, but it's just, you know, I'm also super into music full stop, not just the tech side of things. And I'm also like a massive computer history and general history nerd. So I kind of see myself as part of this long line of music experimenters. And I draw a lot of inspiration from the past weirdos who were making strange noises. And I draw a lot of inspiration...from like the early tech days as well, just that kind of like, spirit of adventure and fun...and slight anarchy. And...yeah, not knowing, not always knowing exactly what's going to happen. I think...that's quite a fun way...to experiment with technology. And I think music lends itself to that, which is probably why I lean towards it, a little more.
EW (00:30:07):
Well, that seems like a good lead-in to asking you about Kraakdos?
HL (00:30:14):
Kraakdos? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. CrackleBoxes. Yeah. Kraakdos. It's a...Dutch CrackleBox. So there's this, I've forgotten the guy's name, but there was this dude in the sixties, who was like super into kind of music circuit bending as you, if you will, like, like in the old days when you had like...radios with like exposed through hole components, you could just like lick your fingers and like touch up the PCB basically.
HL (00:30:43):
And it would start making strange noises. So this Dutch guy was like, used to really love doing that with his dad's radios. And then...started doing that. But with some electronic components, and made these, like kind of, I guess, noisemaker boxes, there's analogs, it's analog sound, but it's yeah, it's what you call a noisemaker rather than like...a more traditional instrument. And in that it makes bleeps and bloops and scratches and crackles and all that kind of stuff. And yeah, it's part of like an experimental instrument tradition which is pretty strong.
HL (00:31:20):
And I guess you're asking me this 'cause I made a CrackleBox recently. I made a fully embroidered CrackleBox. So yeah, so which is -
CW (00:31:32):
Embroidered.
HL (00:31:32):
Yeah. Completely embroidered. So...all of the traces on the PCB...There was no PCB, it was an embroidery hoop filled with felt and all of the traces, all of the wiring was done by me by hand using silver thread. I did not embroider the chip, however, so LM3 - it's based on an LM386 chip, and like some, you know, capacitors and blah, blah, blah. But yeah, they were all sewn on, all...the board as it were...was hand embroidered.
EW (00:32:10):
And so it was almost all soft.
HL (00:32:13):
Yes. Yes.
CW (00:32:16):
Really cool.
HL (00:32:17):
And yeah...I made a soft speaker as well, but it sounded terrible, so I didn't put that in the book. You can make an embroidered speaker. I mean, I'm sure, I'm sure there are people who've had better, so you can basically like make this big spiral out of embroidered thread...and then you put a magnet on it and it will make sound, but I've not yet managed to create one that's good enough to share.
CW (00:32:44):
The LM386 is an amplifier chip, right?
HL (00:32:47):
Indeed. It is. Yes.
CW (00:32:48):
So...how does it make noise?
HL (00:32:53):
So...the way that you do it is that, you, so there's like, it's a very simple circuit actually...to make this little CrackleBox. It's an LM386 and then you've got like one ceramic capacitor. I used a 106, I think. And then one electrolytic capacitor, and those are the only three hard components on the whole board.
CW (00:33:21):
Wow, ok.
HL (00:33:21):
And then, yeah, which is crazy right? And then like all of the other legs on the chip are broken out to these long traces, right? Around the, what, a PCB or around...in my case...around an embroidery hoop. And basically what you're doing is by making and breaking the connections between those legs, you're generating an electric signal, which varies depending on the resistance of your body. So for example, you can get a different note, like it will, create a different signal, the different noise, like...a different frequency, based if you lick your fingers or, depending on who you are. So it essentially using...the resistance of your own, you all are a variable resistor that is creating an electrical signal that the LM386 then converts into sound.
EW (00:34:19):
Is it like different...fingers sound different, or is it just, you know, the resistance of Elecia is this.
HL (00:34:29):
Well, that depends, right? Because the resistance of Elecia might depend on like how much tea you've drunk that day, or how far up a mountain you are, or like, you know, how close to Chris your standing. But yeah, different people do tend to have different sounds to them.
CW (00:34:49):
Interesting.
HL (00:34:49):
I've done a few different analog projects that rely on the natural resistance of a human. I did a really nice one with, you know, Phoenix Perry. She's a really good friend of mine -
EW (00:34:59):
Yes.
HL (00:34:59):
Her and I did a hi-fi synthesizer one time. And that was based on, yeah, that was really fun. And that was based on a, which chip? Oh, it was a Schmitt trigger...that we used for that one. Again, it's like...quite a simple little oscillator synth, but each person, you know, they could, you could hear the differenc .between different people, the noises they would make when they were connected. Yeah. It was pretty cool.
EW (00:35:31):
I'm just, I'm sorry. I'm just a little boggled by that. The idea that there, people have sounds. Okay. Okay...I'm getting over it.
HL (00:35:43):
Different violins have sounds. So why wouldn't people?
CW (00:35:50):
'Cause I'm not made of wood.
HL (00:35:51):
Well, you're made of flesh, which...just as unpredictable.
CW (00:35:53):
If I was made of wood, I'd be a witch.
EW (00:35:54):
Alright, so moving along. There are a couple of the projects in your upcoming book, the CrackleBox and the jelly bongos, how do you decide when to suggest people buy a kit like Makey Makey versus build something entirely themselves, kind of like the CrackleBox where you're really doing most of the work yourself?
HL (00:36:25):
My answer to that is that's up to them. I try and provide as many different approaches to making sound as possible. But the thing is like quite a lot of people, the reason I will use an established technology like Makey Makey, or like the micro:bit or an Arduino, is because a lot of people have them already, particularly in schools or if you've got a family or whatever. And people who are, these are, these are multi-purpose boards, right? So you are not going out and buying a, whatever the ordinary person's equivalent of a BOM is like a, you know, shopping list.
EW (00:37:04):
Bill of materials. Wow. Okay. Making sure.
HL (00:37:08):
Yeah, that's what I meant.
HL (00:37:09):
Yeah, you know, I mean, like, you know, "what's the normal person's version of a bomb?". Alright, Helen. Um, yeah. So, you had to, and they already have it, so I'm trying to think of like interesting things they can do with the kit that they already have. And then there's different, so for example, Makey Makey is you take it out of the box, it's easy, it's accessible. Anybody can do something within like a couple of hours. Easy-peasy right. Whereas the analog synth one...bare metal's a little bit more intimidating to a lot of people. And also the embroidery in that one takes absolutely ages. So it's a much more of an involved, you know, that's...like a rainy weekend's worth of work, stitching all those stitches. Whereas like the Makey Makey is like a fun crafting with your kids style make.
HL (00:37:56):
So, I try and make a balance. Like...when I was coming up with all the different projects. I had like, a big list of...all the different things I was planning on doing. And I made sure there was a mixture of like analog and different microcontrollers and, you know, strange instruments and more conventional instruments. And, you know...I just made sure there was that balance there...to try and show the breadth...of technologies that you can use to start tinkering with sound.
EW (00:38:29):
How much do you think people will be able to look at something and change it? Like, when I think about the CrackleBox, you listed the parts, I have, most of those or I can get them, but I'm not much into embroidery. So can I just use some copper tape, like from the Chibitronics kit?
HL (00:38:46):
Yeah, of course you can. I'm always into, I actually, not so much in the CrackleBox one, but in a bunch of my makes I try and give ideas for how people can riff off of it. So for example, one of the projects I wrote up is my circuit sculpture creature, like the harp thing, I don't know if you've seen that...I'll send you a link to it on YouTube and you can pop it in the show notes, perhaps. And for that one, I use a particular sensor, the Trill one that I said that I really like but I give lots of different options for microcontrollers that they can use if they don't have the microcontroller that I'm using. So I think, you know...there's plenty of alternatives. I think...my job is just to...give a little inspiration, say how I did it. And then hopefully, provide a base for other people to jump off of and do their own fun things.
EW (00:39:45):
When we talked to you before, we brought up the subversive guides for geography, was that it?
HL (00:39:55):
Oh yeah. So...back in the mists of time...I used to work in a, me, it was, I work in a company, that's ridiculous, no, me...and a group of my friends, we ran...a very haphazard consultancy. Our work was very good, but we didn't know how to run a business. And we used to make subversive educational materials to get kids thinking, doing critical thinking, learning outdoors, project-based learning stuff, slightly political stuff, slightly naughty stuff. Yeah...that was really fun. That was like maybe six years of my life that I spent doing that. Before...heading on out to my, to do my own things. The...name of the group back in the beginning was called the Guerilla Geography Collective. And then later it became known as Mission Explore. So, yeah, that was that. That was fun.
EW (00:40:56):
Are you subversively sneaking some music theory in with your sewing art and electronics?
HL (00:41:03):
Of course, of course. There's lots of music theory. There's lots of craft and there's lots of electronics. I don't like to make books that are pure electronics. I mean, so for example, in the Crafty Kid's, when in each chapter I would do like at least one electronic skill and/or piece of knowledge and at least one craft skill or piece of knowledge as well. And the same with the music book, although it's less...I've loosened up a little bit now, so, I've allowed myself to just be a bit more playful rather than quite so structured with this one.
HL (00:41:34):
But yeah, no...there's plenty of music theory...in this book. Think tips for field recording and I've actually put quite a lot more, a lot more story in this one. So I talk, it's slightly more journalistic parts to it as well. So I talk about it. So for example, in the CrackleBox one, I do talk about the origins of the CrackleBox and tell you a little bit...about the instrument that I'm paying homage to. Or for example...in the theremin one, again, I talk about the history of the theremin, and in each of the ones where I introduced a new microcontroller, I spend a little bit of time explaining what that microcontroller is and why I think it's kind of cool. So, yeah.
EW (00:42:21):
And so does, do you get across the idea of why you would choose a Makey Makey versus a Teensy or an Arduino? Because those are all pretty different things.
HL (00:42:32):
Yeah. Super different actually. And you know, I actually haven't, I haven't done like a compare and contrast in each one where I use something new, I would say a little bit about that controller, but maybe I should write something up and...as part of an introduction, talking about like microcontroller selection, and the differences between them, we'll see. That could be a good thing to add in, I suppose.
EW (00:42:59):
I think that's hard for a lot of beginners because they're given so many terms and how do you even compare an Arduino with a Teensy if you don't know what all those terms mean?
CW (00:43:09):
Right.
HL (00:43:11):
True. It's true. Well, the Teensy's littler.
EW (00:43:15):
And, but far more powerful if you're talking about an Arduino Uno.
HL (00:43:19):
Yes, it is. It is. And that depends, you know, this is why context is extremely important. So, I have had lots of these conversations over the years, particularly with my students, when, you know, telling them what an Arduino is versus what a Raspberry Pi is versus this versus that. And I think it can be extremely confusing. I actually, when people are starting out, I do often tell them to stay within one ecosystem. So whether they choose raspberry Pi or whether they choose Arduino or whether they choose Teensy or, you know, the Adafruit ecosystem, I tell them to pick one and stick with it certainly for the first year or so. Or just as soon as they become comfortable with it, it just makes it easier for them, I think, to get a slightly better knowledge of what a microcontroller can do, and then just be aware that the knowledge that they gain using that microcontroller is absolutely transferable to something else.
EW (00:44:16):
I mean, just setting up the tools, that's not always transferable, but once you start being able to differentiate, "Oh, this is the microcontroller part, and this is the tool part".
HL (00:44:26):
Totally.
EW (00:44:27):
You can pull that over to other ecosystems and stuff like
HL (00:44:33):
It's stuff like sensors. Right. Okay. Maybe, well, maybe there might be slightly different things for different boards, but once you know how to use a DHT22 on an Arduino we know, you know, what it does. Right. You know what the, you know, so like, you know, when you...have to get that knowledge, that hands on knowledge of the different sensors...what sensors exist and are easy to work with and how they work.
HL (00:44:57):
I actually think that's something that people...have a lot of trouble with straight away 'cause they think that computers work like humans. Like you can sense the thing that you can sense, but sometimes students have a lot of, do you know what I mean? Like, they just like, well, they can't actually sense, you know, they have to understand how the sensor works in order to be able to work with it intelligently. And I think that takes a little bit of...but...that's absolutely transferable knowledge. Like once, you know, how a sensor works on one platform, at least you've got a good run at a pattern on a different one. You know,
EW (00:45:32):
I love inertial measurement units and trying to explain accelerometers versus gyroscopes has been a good portion of my career.
HL (00:45:43):
Yeah. Yeah.
EW (00:45:45):
When do you think your book will be out?
HL (00:45:48):
Well, you should never ask an author that, Elecia, it's very rude.
EW (00:45:52):
Well, I just wanted to provide your motivation. So, you know, you say February 1st and then you'll feel horribly guilty until then.
HL (00:45:58):
Well, okay. Okay.
HL (00:46:03):
It was supposed to be out for Christmas, but I did immigration on hard mode this year. Well, yeah, immigrating during the Trump administration has been slow, and during a pandemic has been challenging. But, yeah, I've got to give my, I've started a new job and I've immigrated and there's been a pandemic, so yes, I am slightly behind schedule. But...I should finish...in the next, I'm hoping to finish it in the next month. And then of course it's gotta be designed, edited, blah, blah, blah. But it'll be, I think I probably have, early next year, but not like in January, probably February or March.
HL (00:46:45):
And the cool thing is so it's being serialized in HackSpace magazine and it will be published by them too. So they are a Raspberry Pi organization and because it's funded by Raspberry Pi they're actually gonna release the e-book for free, which is really awesome. And one of the reasons I was excited to accept the book commission actually was the fact that they're going to release the whole thing for free. So thank you, Raspberry Pi, even though there's only one Raspberry Pi project in the whole book.
EW (00:47:20):
Well, then you should have plenty of time to finish it. I mean, you just started a new full-time job, so it's not like that's gonna, you know, cut into your time at all.
HL (00:47:31):
No, not at all, not at all...but luckily having been a freelancer for nearly a decade, I can't remember what weekends are. So, I mean, I'm hoping to spend my time feeling guilty about not, about writing on the weekends, so yeah, yeah, no, I'm excited to do it. And I think it'll be fine. It's actually mostly done. All the photography's done. All the projects are done. I've done about 60% of all the writing, so it's just writing up the last few things that I need to do, I need to cajole myself into. Yeah.
EW (00:48:06):
So let's talk about that full-time job.
HL (00:48:08):
Let's talk about my full-time job. Gosh, isn't that strange? It's such a sea change for me. I mean, I've only been in the position three days, so I can't be too dramatic, but it's -
CW (00:48:20):
By the time this airs it'll be four.
HL (00:48:24):
Yeah. Yeah. So I, yeah, I recently started as Head of Community at CrowdSupply. My first job in a decade. Why, why? Wow. But...it's going super well, I didn't just take any job. I spent a long time thinking about who I'd like to work for before approaching anybody. And I really like CrowdSupply. I really like the ethics and it's very much in my wheelhouse. You know, it's open hardware, which is something I do a lot of and know a lot about, and I'm very much like embedded in that community.
HL (00:48:59):
So...it's basically a switch for me. Like, so over the last 10 years basically I've spent, you know, I've been paid for my creations essentially for like, like making things and then writing about them, in different formats or like, you know, doing videos about it or whatever. And then I would do all my community stuff for free, you know, like workshops, attending events, kind of keeping up to date on like, you know, like open-source hardware issues, blah, blah, blah.
HL (00:49:30):
And I saw this as a kind of an opportunity to flip that on its head, I mean, particularly 'cause I was kind of...the way quite a lot of people who make things verging on art feel, which is like, you know, I'm not from a wealthy family. I've never had, I've never had spare money. So I've always had to, the things that I make have had to also sing for their supper, you know? Right. Like I've had to, I've had to be able to sell them into a magazine or whatever, which definitely has, since I've become a lot more competent at making things it's definitely reduced the scope of the things that I make, because if I make something super complicated, I can't write it about it anywhere. Do you know what I mean?
EW (00:50:15):
Oh yeah.
HL (00:50:16):
Yeah. So basically I was looking for a position where I could do my community stuff...and...for money and then do...my art for...me. Just 'cause I felt that that was the right stage of my life.
HL (00:50:35):
As I said, I've been at CrowdSupply for a mighty three days, but I'm really excited about the kind of things I'm gonna be doing...Do you know the Teardown Festival?
EW (00:50:42):
I've only heard of it a little bit, but please tell us more.
HL (00:50:48):
So the Teardown festival is actually how I heard of CrowdSupply in the first place. It's like an open hardware festival, it's a quite small one, it's like kind of comparable to SuperCon, which is one of my faves. But it's sweet in size and in the kind of vibe generally. So it's very hackery, it's very friendly. It's not corporate at all, you know, it's not like Embedded World where it's all booths and whatever. It's very much like an extended hackerspace kind of vibe to it with like really interesting talks and workshops.
HL (00:51:24):
And the Teardown one, it's like a really nice mixture of hardware and art, but also a lot of talks about ethics as well. Which is something that's really interesting to me, like the ethics of hardware and the ethics of open technology and just kind of like the philosophy behind open source as well, I think it's really interesting field. So it was a really interesting festival and I went there and I was like, this is really cool. I like the vibe, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I talked to the team there, and I was like, this is really cool. And they were like firmly on my map from that point forward. But yeah, so what I'll be doing is, I'm going to be running that festival now. So the Teardown Festival, which will, you know, once there are festivals again we'll be running that, that's going to be super awesome.
HL (00:52:09):
And I'm also going to be scouting for really cool hardware projects who want to work with us. So I guess I should explain what CrowdSupply is, with my mighty three days worth of knowledge, basically. So they're a crowdfunding company, the'yre a crowdfunding company who do open source hardware essentially.
HL (00:52:35):
And it's very, I mean...they do have consumer products on there as well, but I would say that the vast majority of products that are on this, on CrowdSupply are engineering focused, right? So you might go there and find, an open source oscilloscope or like...a phone first that's like...for hackers or an open source laptop or these kinds of things, right. So very kind of engineering, very like tech focused and they're all like, so to get onto CrowdSupply, you have to be like ethical and open and all that kind of stuff. So you have to sign up to, in fact, I think they actually like reject like 90% of the people who apply. They have a very limited, focused range. And yeah...I think they're a really cool company. I'm really happy to work there.
EW (00:53:26):
We heard a little bit about them from Ben Hencke...when he was on for talking about his Pixelblaze Version 3. It did seem like they put him through a fair number of hoops, but at the end, he and they were confident that he would be able to produce it.
HL (00:53:42):
Well, that's the thing as well, you know, I think, because we're, like everybody at CrowdSupply is like a total hardware nerd, like we're all open hardware nerds. And we're not just like accepting everything, you know, like, I think every single project that's been funded...on CrowdSupply...has been, shipped or is...on course to be shipped. So basically they are a lot more rigorous with investigating that technology than other, you know, like there's no one who's gone on there and done a scam 'cause you, I mean...it's not possible, you know, you talk about that extensively during the process, it is a lot more involved and it is a lot more rigorous, but...it's a really awesome community. And there's...some really cool products that have come out of that.
EW (00:54:39):
Are there any areas of focus that CrowdSupply will be looking at in the hardware space in the coming few months?
HL (00:54:47):
So there's a really awesome product up at the moment by, you know, Bunnie Huang?
EW (00:54:53):
Yes.
HL (00:54:54):
Yeah. So...he's got a really cool phone up there at the moment, which is one that I've been really keeping an eye on. That has been my favorite one recently, in terms of like focus on the upcoming. So something I personally like to focus on a bit more is open science hardware. I think that's a really interesting field...
HL (00:55:13):
But yeah, basically I think it's open source hardware is a little bit less developed than open source software. Like, you know, in terms of like people being able to make a living from it. So that's something that I'm really interested in focusing on, being able to, to be able to provide with CrowdSupply, right? You know, we want to be, we want people to be making open source hardware in a respectful manner. And...we want to be able to provide a way for those people to make a living. And like one of the cool things I think that I've come across at CrowdSupply is like, so they were, they were bought by Mouser, like, two years ago or so. So now all of the fulfillment is done by Mouser, which means, I mean, I don't know if you've ever shipped a product...and hated doing the shipping process.
EW (00:56:06):
Yes. So much.
HL (00:56:09):
So basically Mouser will just take care of all of that, all the VAT, all the customs, all the blah, blah blah. So I think...that's been a huge advantage. And we just want to be able to leverage that kind of big company distribution network for small indie, open source hardware creators, and also you get like amazing, you know, pricing and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah...because of the whole Mouser situation. So that's pretty cool.
EW (00:56:38):
Feel free to pass on this question, but how do you think people will decide CrowdSupply versus Tindie? Do they work together or are they competing?
HL (00:56:47):
I wouldn't say that they were competing. I mean, I would say, well, they've both got Brits on their team, so there's me and Jasmine. I can't imagine competing with lovely Jasmine. I personally, you know...there are different platforms for different things. And I think that's fine. And the Tindie thing is...like a small shop. It's more like Etsy, right? And I would say like CrowdSupply has that crowdfund element to it, but also it's not strictly like Kickstarter because Kickstarter is just like the crowdfunding, right? But...CrowdSupply also has a shop afterwards, right.
HL (00:57:28):
So...it's I mean like Kickstarter to say like, I'm not a shop, I'm not a shop, but CrowdSupply definitely is a shop. So you kind of, as soon, after the campaign is successful, you get stocked by them. And if you're lucky Mouser will stock you as well. So it's a bit different. It's a bit like, it's a bit bigger scale than Tindie I would say. So it's kind of, so...Tindie is more like small kits. Like I might've sold something on Tindie, but...I've never done a product that would necessarily work at CrowdSupply yet. Yet.
EW (00:58:01):
So bigger scale. Okay.
HL (00:58:04):
Like, yeah, bigger scale. I mean, and that's like a range, like I should say, there's like a range of people...who put projects up on CrowdSupply from people who just like, they're like, "Oh, I just want to build hardware". I don't have to think about any of this other stuff, like the distribution or the, you know, the tax or the, this, that, and the other, or like the messaging and the branding, that kind of stuff, or like, but there's people who also come to us, who've got all of that sorted, which is actually pretty nice to see, there's this big range...of engineers either from the engineers who like don't really know or care about, you know...all the branding and all that kind of stuff, all the way up to people who've got like a real vision for their open source hardware as well. So it's actually quite a privilege to get to see into the minds of all of these creators and all the things, all of the exciting things...that they're doing.
EW (00:58:55):
Let's see. I have a couple of listener questions, although I've asked most of them. Let's see, Andrei from The Great White North wanted to know more about conductive thread. Does the coating wear off and how long does it last for?
HL (00:59:09):
Well, that depends on the thread, doesn't it? You might as well have asked that about wires and also, not all of them are coated, so there's a couple of different ways of creating conductive thread. So for example, there's...a copper brand, one is called Kalgrimm, which is fantastic. They do copper and silver, and those are literally thin strands of copper wound around...a Kevlar core, which are fantastic. It looks beautiful and there's no coating on them obviously. And, but that's quite brittle or you get stuff that's woven in as well. So my current favorite conductive thread brand is, from an embroidery thread company called Madeira. And it's wonderful, but...it's wound in, so that's spun silver with ordinary thread as well. But I don't think any thread that I use is coated. It's usually like spun.
EW (01:00:12):
Okay. And...does it last, does it become brittle?
HL (01:00:19):
Yes. And yes.
EW (01:00:21):
Okay.
HL (01:00:22):
Again, depends on the thread that you're using and how you're treating it. Of course it's not the same as a plastic coated wire. It doesn't have that longevity. I have not yet had a project fail on me because of the thread itself. Maybe the connections have become loose over time or...the knot has undone or whatever, but I've, I personally never had the actual thread itself break. But then I do tend to use relatively decent quality stuff. So, yeah.
EW (01:00:53):
Before we let you go, though, you told us a little bit about this musical tentacle. Which -
CW (01:01:01):
Do you need to know more about this?
EW (01:01:03):
- hugs you and purrs for you?
HL (01:01:05):
That's correct. Yes. What more do you need to know?
EW (01:01:11):
Does it also light up?
HL (01:01:14):
No, I'm actually not a fan of LEDs. ...I think they're tacky.
EW (01:01:26):
Oh, yes.
CW (01:01:26):
Anyway, so -
HL (01:01:29):
Cut to - I'm getting canceled.
CW (01:01:30):
So, no, no, no.
HL (01:01:32):
My LED Twitter being canceled.
CW (01:01:32):
I have no particular love for LEDs. So the tentacle, so first...is this destined for like performance? Like -
HL (01:01:42):
Nah mate, I just did it, 'cause I thought it was funny.
EW (01:01:44):
Snuggly.
CW (01:01:44):
It just seems like the sort of thing needs to be on stage.
HL (01:01:45):
It's been on stage, but just as like, you know...not...as a full performance...I gave a talk wearing it, partially, at Congress last year.
CW (01:01:59):
Okay.
HL (01:01:59):
For those who don't know what Congress is, the giant German hacker festival that happens between Christmas and New Year's every year and everybody should go once. It's fantastic fun...Have you been before?
CW (01:02:15):
No. I'm afraid of giant Germans.
HL (01:02:17):
You're afraid of giant Germans. Well, sometimes they're small too.
EW (01:02:21):
We said it was a giant German festival, so...
HL (01:02:22):
Oh, I see.
CW (01:02:24):
It's the punchy time of the afternoon.
HL (01:02:28):
Yes.
EW (01:02:28):
Punchy.
HL (01:02:32):
Yeah.
CW (01:02:33):
Okay. Okay. So was it like, but, hmm...I guess talking about these things on...audio just...doesn't work that well. I'm going to have to go find it and look at it, I guess.
HL (01:02:49):
...I'll send you a, sorry, I'll send you a video that you can put it in your show notes as well.
EW (01:02:55):
What was the genesis of it? Were you just sitting on the couch going "I wish I had a cat, but I can't have one here".
HL (01:03:03):
The genesis of the tentacle was, so I was doing a residency at a, ALTEN tech institution in Denmark. And then as part of it I was making some studies of different creatures. And I started sewing a whole bunch...of different sea creatures...just for experimental purposes. And then I made a tentacle and it looked quite pleasing. So I made a bigger tentacle and I discovered that I could cuddle it. So I made it again, but with conductive thread embroidered down the center of it and I was like, hmm, I think I can do something with this. But I was on my way out of the door at that point. 'Cause...I was, where was I going? Oh yeah. I went to LA...for Supercon.
HL (01:03:53):
...And I took it with me and so many hackers at Supercon, I couldn't get it back, basically. Everybody loved it so much that I thought, well, I better put some sounds in this then. And I thought for a long time, I was like, Oh, I could do, at that time, I had called it a sensical. And I thought for a long time, I was like, what can my sensical do, right? So it was like, oh...I could, you know, I could make it whisper, vague, British reassurances. Like "You're not as bad as you think you are". Or -
EW (01:04:27):
There there, let's get a cup of tea.
HL (01:04:29):
Yeah. "Don't worry. Nobody else noticed." Or, you know, like the...British platitudes I was thinking. And that's what I was thinking originally...And then, actually I started suffering from quite bad anxiety, after I got back from Supercon, and I wanted something that, and I wanted them to kind of riff off of the tentacle and I thought, 'cause it's quite a comforting thing. And I was having like, quite a lot of mental health issues at the time. And the process of making itself was very calming. So I started making these tentacles and then the sound that I would put into them was just the most calming, loving sound I could think of, which was a cat's purr, and that's the story of my tentacle. People liked it. And then I got depressed...and made it purr.
EW (01:05:31):
There's an amazing number of stories...that are: "And then I got depressed and suddenly it was awesome" as far as making things go.
HL (01:05:40):
Yeah. Well, you know...a lot of the things that I make are absolutely responses...to my humanity, I guess, without sending to art school about it. You know, I make things that are, you know, like I make things that make me laugh or give me joy or comfort me. I'm quite an emotional and emotions based maker, I think. But yeah, the tentacle one, especially, I bet you weren't expecting me to tell you about my depression, but yeah, I was pretty depressed last year as...in this past calendar year, as probably quite a lot people were...And then this...the purring tentacle was definitely part of that and it actually helped quite a few other people as well, which was nice. But yeah...it was definitely...part of that period of my life. I just needed that softness, that presence. I needed some comfort, you know? Yeah. So that's, that's what that's born out of.
EW (01:06:41):
I do know. I totally know.
HL (01:06:43):
Yeah.
EW (01:06:45):
Well, Helen, we have kept you as long as I think we can, given that we're on the same time zone now and it's time for dinner.
HL (01:06:55):
It is time for dinner.
EW (01:06:56):
Do you have any thoughts you'd like to leave us with?
HL (01:07:01):
I would like everybody to know that all music is made up and all instruments are invented. So you should feel empowered to make as much ridiculous noise as you possibly want to. And also if you are interested in making, your hardware that you're playing with more widely available, you can message me on the old Twitter, or you can drop me an email. I'll leave my details with Elecia as well. So yeah. Make some noise.
EW (01:07:35):
Our guest has been Helen Leigh, Head of Community at CrowdSupply, author of The Crafty Kid's Guide to DIY Electronics and an upcoming book on DIY music tech.
CW (01:07:47):
Thanks, Helen. It's good to talk to you.
HL (01:07:49):
Thank you. That was really fun.
EW (01:07:51):
Thank you to Christopher for producing and co-hosting, thank you to our Patreon listener Slack group for questions. And thank you for listening.
EW (01:08:01):
Did I already say that?
HL (01:08:02):
It doesn't matter.
CW (01:08:03):
I don't think so.
EW (01:08:06):
You can always contact us at show@embedded.fm or hit the contact link on Embedded FM. And now a quote to leave you with. Truthfully Helen's last bit was kind of the quote I was going to use. And she already said the part about the Radiophonic's Workshop. So I think I'm just going to go with a quote from Helen taken out of context, "Who knows where your tinkering will take you".