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Hello world.

For those of you who have just tuned in to our broadcast, let me bring you up to date.

I am Laura Thompson, Interactive Media Artist and Photographer. A Nutmegger, Michigander, and now Chicagoan, who will be graduating from Columbia College Chicago with a BA in Interactive Arts and Media in May of this year. I have experience in many different fields of art, ranging from 2D to 3D, singing to drawing, glassblowing to ceramics. I also am a certified sailing instructor, a firedancer, and an American Sign Language enthusiast.
As for what I do, I build things. Interactive objects, to be specific. I have worked on interactive installations, games, robots, books, and live performances. Some examples of my work are as follows.

Cubes 2009 - An interactive sound installation composed of 5 cubes. Each cube contains an Arduino board, an array of tilt sensors, and XBee radio, and LEDs. The sensors tell the cube what side it is on, and therefore, what sound to play and what color to be. This creates a conversation between the music, the space, and the users. The piece was a collaboration between Gary Kupczak (concept, sound), Jason Geistweidt (programming), and myself (hardware).
The Cubes were featured first in Columbia College's Manifest. There they were found by the Columbia College Dance Center and used in 5 separate performances. We then submitted to and were accepted as the Festival Installation for the EMM Music Festival of 2009.

A QR History: Chicago - An interactive QR Code book created for, and 2nd place winner of, the 17th Annual Hokin Honors Exhibition. The book contains pictures and codes. When scanned, the QR Codes will take you to a site detailing a short history of the monument pictured beside it. The codes can be scanned with any smartphone that has a QR Code scanning application.

Human Circuit - An interactive team building game created while in the McCarthy Technologies Bootcamp. The device I built is a modified Drawdio, made by LadyAda. It takes the current naturally given off by humans and converts it into a sonic tone. The device has two handles with conductive tape on them. When held by a circle of people, no matter how many, the tone will sound. But if the circle breaks, the tone will stop.
This project was presented to a panel during the 2010 CAA Conference by Janell Baxter and myself.


These are just some samples of what I have worked on. My website, www.finesense.net, will detail more.

Thanks for tuning in. I've enjoyed having you and hope to see you again. Until then.