Making the heart beat

This was the most difficult part of the process, because what i had anticipated wasn’t what happened in the final stages. I wanted to use a combination of pulleys and a motor operated by a motor and a pressure pad. I didn’t want to use a servo motor as i had only seen the motor attached to a sonic sensor and it seemed to be unpredictable in its movements. So i opted for a more analog approach. However the rubber was so thick for the battery powered motor to cope it stopped working when i couldn’t pull the strings that attached the heart to the motor. I did get this to work slightly but it wasn’t the movement i anticipated, so at the last minute i changed my plans and opted to use the Ardunio board, i downloaded a simple program to move the servo motor back and forth. I stuck the motor to the plinth and threaded the fishing wire through the heart and it worked perfectly.

Rubber heart

After the first failed attempt to make a latex heart, my house mate Tracey gave me a small block of volconized rubber. She had it left over from an old University project, i tried looking online to find some more of the rubber as there was only enough to make one side and ideally i wanted to make two sides of the heart to make it whole. However it proved somewhat difficult as the rubber is used in industry and can not just be bought in an art shop. So i could only make one side of the heart.

Creating the latex heart

Now i had the mold of the pigs heart, i then had to create the latex heart from this. I first used some pouring latex i had bought from an art shop. I added red paint to the latex so that when it had dried it would be red. I built up the layers and painted on one layer at first, waited for it to dry then painted on anther layer. Again i waited for this to dry and painted on another layer. I put it to dry in the fridge when i was happy with the amount of layers i had built up. After it had dried I peeled it away from the mold, but the material wasn’t strong enough to hold it shape and didn’t really resemble the heart which i wanted it to look like. So i had to find another material to make the heart from.

Making the heart pt.2

As the first attempt to create a mold of a pigs heart failed i had to think of an alternative way. I thought back to my childhood when i had made some clay-like jewelery from plaster of paris, and thought this may be a better direction to take. So i prepared the heart by inserting cling film into the ventricles of the heart, so the plaster would get stuck and damage the heart as i tried to take it out. The i prepared the mixture which consisted of adding water to the powder until i go what resembled a yogurty texture. I waited until the mixture was harding then i placed the heart into the mix and left to dry. This way proved to be much or successful.

Making the heart

To make the heart look as realistic as possible i wanted to take a mold from a real heart. The closes thing to a human heart is a pigs one. So i bought a pigs heart from the butchers and bought a molding kit from an art shop. I needed the heart to be soft and pliable to be able to beat when the electronic side of things were worked out. But i needed it to be stiff enough to retain the shape and not just flop around everywhere. I read the instructions for the molding kit, and it told me to mix the paste to resemble a porridge texture. I did this but it was very lumpy and as i tried to beat the lumps out the paste was beginning to set. So i quickly took the pigs heart from the freezer where i had been keeping it to keep it hard, I placed it in a container and tried to pore the mixture over but it was setting so quickly that it had leff gaps and didn’t fill all the way around the heart. When the mixture had fully set i looked at the impression it had made in the mold and it wasn’t good enough to take my cast from, so i had to choose a different approach.

Beating Art

I found this interesting art piece on you-tube, it states the work is by Salvador Dali. However the information i have found in the art is very limited and i have never seen this piece before. I am still going to try and research on how it was made as it is completely relevant to what i hope to achieve.

Toy Store

I first went to Maplins electronic store to find something ready made that i could pull apart and experiment with, however i was very disappointed with the store. So i went to Hamley’s toy store and found a motorized cog and pulley system which i am currently experimenting with. It doesn’t look as raw as when i experiment with the Ardunio as the set also includes a wooden box to hide all of the wires and things. Even if the mechanics doesn’t fit in with what i am trying to achieve i still have a nice wooden box at the end of it. As i will need to make sure my piece is of a high quality and standard visually.

Recreating A Beating Heart

As i explained my idea to Richard he suggested to use a combination of motors and a binary to inflate a balloon type object inside my synthetic heart the recreate the movements. Initially i thought that the idea would be a good starting point, however on reviewing the videos of the real beating heart i realized that the movements wouldn’t be as realistic as i would like to achieve. This could be solved by having two balloon inflating and deflating in the top area and the bottom area. However the heart doesn’t just breath in and out, it changes shaped also. I beleive that this can be achieved by pulleys inside attached to specific parts of the heart, moving the shape in  a beating motion. At this stage i am unsure if the Arduino board is the correct path to take. I feel i would probably favor battery operated, physical machinery inside the heart at this stage. That is where my prototyping research will begin.

Human Heart Beating

My ultimate goal is to recreate the functions and form of a real beating heart. I found a clip on you tube that shows this is all of its glory……

Cells send signals to the heart to cause contraction. The first contraction happens in the upper chambers of the heart then the second contraction happens at the bottom of the heart. In the video the second contraction is more visible. However if the organ was upright both contractions would be clear. Below is a basis animation of how the heart works, this will help me to break down the most important elements of how the heart moves. I will then be able to start to recreate the unique movements that the heart makes. The heart that i build will be split up into different sections, which will have seperate motions.

Stelarc

Looking into Art that features bodies or body parts i came across a piece by Stelarc. He grew a 1/4 ear on his arm, this represents a recognizable human body part. He explains that it is dealing with ethical and perceptual issues regarding societies realization that tissue can survive detached from the human body. Some links have been added to explain in more detail. http://www.tca.uwa.edu.au/