New subject: Saturday! inviting Onyx Ashanti to show and tell at sudoroom

12 Sep 2014

hey sudoroom,

i met this guy today at noisebridge (i know, i said i don't go there 
anymore) and he is doing some amazing stuff!!!  We all have so much to 
learn from him, and be inspired by him.

here is a recent post from his website, watch the video:

http://onyx-ashanti.com/2014/07/11/the-nomadic-diary-of-onyx-ashanti-episod…

basically he has been making amazing WEARABLE technology for purposes of 
music and other forms of electronic expression, in the most organic way i 
have ever seen technology used.

He is using electronics, embedded systems (wireless arduinos with 
accelerometers, force sensors, buttons, lights etc) and hardware (servo 
motors and haptic feedback vibes) in concert with extremely ergonomic 
(again organic) structures made with 3d printing, to make human interface 
devices for making music (in puredata).  He uses a bunch of different 
filament types (even conductive filament) and a heavily customized very 
portable 3d printer.

my only disappointment is that none of his circuits or 3d models are on 
github, although he says that the stuff he is working on now will be 
released freely as soon as he is satisfied with it.  I hope that is soon.

in the meantime, here's his github, which has a couple of puredata 
repositories (puredata is the FOSS version of MaxMSP)

https://github.com/onyxashanti

even without code or files from his designs, i was very inspired by his 
work and his energy and his attitude.  as for the circuits and the 
robotics code, it's nothing I couldn't make from scratch quickly.  but the 
ideas that he had for this stuff are ideas that i never had, even though 
they seem "obvious" after the fact.  But so few of us are lucky enough to 
look at technology from a purely interactive perspective like he seems to.

he said he would gladly come to sudoroom "any time" and I have his contact 
to let him know.

Is there any reason I shouldn't tell him to come to sudoroom on saturday 
at around 5 or 6 pm?  is anyone interested in seeing the stuff he does 
with music, puredata patches, 3d printing, wearable embedded wireless 
electronics, robotics (the expressive tentacle thing) etc?

-jake