INDN 212: The Heat Indicator/Board

 So, I have 90 seconds to present, eh? Elevator pitch? I can do that. I hope.

This is a person like me. I burn myself inadvertently on hot pots and pans all the time. It's gotten to the point where I will actually hurt myself and it's no longer funny little incidents. You'd think I'd have learnt by now. But no.

The initial element of my idea is to create a strip for a pot that essentially displays whether or not the pot is currently hot. This visual cue could also be very easy for parents to teach their children to observe. Keeps the cue very high, but the intrusion on form minimal.

 I wanted to expand this into something more, something that would actually work as a standalone product. I devised an idea for a heat-measuring food presentation board. It would serve as a board for a hot pot, as well as a display for the heat of the pot in an appealing, aesthetic way. I also wanted to combine it with multiple other functionalities that would allow the board to do more than the heat strip would.

While the pot-based heat strip would be super simple, this board would tell the user how hot the pot is, which could be used to both optimise serving temperature, as well as a further warning for individuals contemplating touching the pot. The board could be a self-contained unit, turning on when the pot was placed down, as well as turning off once the pot was no longer hot. The board would also be used to hold other condiments/additives for the meal.

To make this project come to life, I'm going to need: people with skills in Arduino programming, people with a good sense of form and aesthetic (Which I know all of you are, otherwise you wouldn't be here!), and people with a great knowledge of materials and construction/production techniques.

CCDN 231: Proposal, Project 3

So, this next project is the real clincher. I want to continue with austerity, but alter it to the form of austerity that came out at the end of the last project. The austerity that came out from the last project was at the positive end of the austerity spectrum. This end of the austerity spectrum is defined by the intentional separation from things (material objects, aspects of ones life) with the intention of enhancing an experience (getting closer to God, enhancing a sensory experience).

At the end of the final experiment in the last project; where Henrietta chopped up the onion with her bare hands, she closed her eyes and, despite making things more difficult for herself, registered that she was actually really enjoy the experience from a sensory perspective. I experimented with the same procedure myself, and discovered that by removing sensory inputs, one was actually having a more vibrant experience of the onion.

I wouldn't necessarily consider myself a particularly spiritual person, but the removal of material connections as well as the physical connections to the world is considered by many theists and creeds to bring one closer to enlightenment. This imposing of austerity on one's life allows one to experience a part of life that usually gets drowned out in the noise of the rest of our existences.

So, to further enhance the experience of the onion, I want to create an extreme end of the experience that I had. I want to create a nigh-meditative experience, where the subject will have a chance to really experience the tactile, aural, and olfactory aspects of something from a world that we define primarily with our eyes. I want to create a calm, peaceful environment where the subject can sit without distraction and really focus on the sensory experience that the onion gives them.

By removing the thought aspect usually involved in chopping onions, one returns the ability to discover a novel experience to the user. So as to encourage the user, I will create a safe environment in the middle of a spacious and empty room, and then once they are comfortable, remove all light sources and guide the beginning of their experience with my voice. Then, once I have told them what they should focus on, I will remove the light completely and let them experience the whole thing in darkness, nullifying one of their senses completely.

This places them in a position of vulnerability, but at the same time it also exposes them to a large amount of sensory information. I want to creat a situation that borders on the spiritual where they realise the onion and all its previously unseen facets.

To achieve this, I really want to make the act work. I want my tutors to feel like they are going to have a revelation of their existentialism. I will completely overplay the position and the experience, and then leave them in the dark, literally.

INDN 212: Developing A Presentation 3D Model

So, now that I've got my idea sussed, I decided to develop a 3D model and a render that I will be able to show my class. I'm really liking the food presentation board, as I feel like this still has a lot of potential to be a very beautiful, self-contained piece of awesome. In order to divine an aesthetic, I had a look at common forms and colours associated with heat. I want to use a clean and minimal aesthetic, using red as a significant highlight colour, but then have the red actually recede to non-existent when there is no heat at all.

So, with that in mind, I developed the first form of the Heat Indicator/Board.

This first form must have been developed when I was completely and utterly smashed, as for some strange reason, I have three completely independent components indicating the heat. Fortunately I noticed it yesterday and started working on a new and improved version, with more functionality and a simpler design. The most important element of this design is the red ring, which would activate as soon as a hot pot or pan was placed on the central plate. This panel would be of course heatproof (metal) and have a temperature gauge built into the middle, allowing that data to transmit to an arduino, which would engage the other two temperature gauges.

I still want to make a pot have its own heat indicator, as I feel like that is an intrinsic part of my vision as a whole. Plus, it gives the pot an indicator outside of the board as well, which is the direction I originally wanted to take.

So, this is how I began the design for my board. I wanted all the lighting and etcetera to be recessed and flush with the board itself, so I had to start that section first and prep the sections to receive all the parts that would make up the different materials in my render.

These are the different sections of my board laid out. The dark grey section is the heat sensing and proof plate, the black sections represent the different "interfaces that would light up and display data in the presence of heat. As for the board, I really like the nice, simple beveled shape I've used, and that just emulates the simple, minimal form I'm going for.

This is just a little overview of all the components on the board. Obviously the board's electronics would be far more complicated than that, and that's not shown here, but this is really just as an idea so that my classmates (my audience for my presentation) can get a good idea of what the project would look like.

And here's the render I devised of the first form. The materials I've used are pretty much the materials I would hope to use for the actual product, so people can get a feel for what it would look like. The pot form is based off some pots we have at home, and I just did a really simple form, to give a sense of scale.

So, after my embarrassing design oversight with the first one, I went back to the drawing board, and made some significant alterations to the form as a whole, so that the entire idea was simplified, the electronics were simplified, and the function was abstracted a bit further. The heat sensor would now transmit information as a whole across to the light ring shape, which would represent whether or not the pot was hot. How hot the pot is would be displayed in the red bars. The red bars would act as an extension of the ring, allowing the user to see how hot the pot was, based off how many of the bars were lit. When the pot started to cool down, the bars would slowly turn off, and ultimately, the ring would turn off to.

The new elements I built into this form were the recessed circular sections. These now reinforces the design as something that serves as a presentation board, as these slots would serve a function as pockets for condiments and other additives for the meal. This allows the board to become a product, rather than just a safety solution.

Another aspect I really wanted to bring into this project was switchless operation. When the pot rests on the platform, the weight of it would trigger a switch, turning the system on. This would limit the need for an ugly external switch, and ensure that the design would be as clean as possible.

MDDN 242: Finding Likeness & Extrapolating

So, I think I've got my plan for where to progress with the next project. I want to take it in the direction of connective tissue or data visualisation. I really want to have the skill to be able to make this project actually visualise some form of data, but I think I'm going to have to end up leaving that part out of it all.

Image acquired from: http://www.digicult.it

I really like this form of visualization, as it ends up looking like a mind map on steroids. I think that the most interesting part isn't necessarily the way that the data is visualized, but the patterns and forms and textures that evolve out of the myriad of connections made. This is what I want too expand on. I think that making connections like these ends up looking like constellations, but that I can sculpt this mess into something else as well.

The form that I decided I would make started with an idea from my precedents. I wanted to make extreme natural formations that would challenge people's eyes and create something familiar while displaying it in a foreign way. I think this has a lot of potential to be a very interesting visual stimulus.

As you can see here, the web-like structures layer up and create focal points, where the layering gives us a sense of depth and shading. I think I will try and redo this sketch with the web being a different shade. Perhaps as the web layered up, the form could shift in colour?

INDN 212: Developing A Feasible Project

So, the two ideas that I've decided to pursue further are the idea involving the pot with the indicative heat strip, as well as the idea involving the ladder rest. Both ideas address problems close to me that have struck a chord. The first one addresses an endemic issue with ladder safety, so it just makes sense to get some work involving a common issue.

So, the way I envision this product involves making a large steel plate that can be laid out on the grass, providing a large surface area for the ladder to be safely placed on. This device could be something quite small actually, perhaps it could also fold up and be attached to the ladder as a detachable accessory. To get the device to stay on the grass or earth, it could have small spikes that fold out of the base that the user could then use to embed the base into the earth.

There could be small handles on the sides of the device, making it easier to handle and control, and if I had a really ambitious team, we could even make the device have small jacks in it, so that you could raise up either side to make an angled platform for when the ground is sloped. Another idea was to have the platform have little pop-up recesses so that the legs of the ladder could sit on the platform without sliding.

All in all, I really like this idea, but I think if I were to go with it, I'd need to do a lot of refining and sort out a workable form.

This is a completely different idea involving household kitchen safety, centering around the handling of pots and pans. This project could have a few different outlets, and I've decided to talk about my two favourites. The primary focus for this project is very specific. I want the user to receive visual clues as to when a pot is hot. Now, the way that I want the user to receive the information and how they can interact with that function is where I've divided the project into two slightly different areas.

The first idea is a pot that provides a visual cue as to when it is hot, so as to prevent the user getting burnt when they pick up a hot pot. The primary target group that usually suffer due to this hazard are young children and careless or distracted individuals. Providing a visual cue allows the users to receive extra information not always received when just looking at a hot pot. This indicator could take the form of a strip that adheres to the pot, or it could be a built in part of the pot, or it could even be a small scarf-like device that sits around the pot, and changes colour when the pot is too hot to touch.

The second idea that I have revolves around the potential of making a fully self contained system that acts as more than just a heat indicator for the pot. I think it could be a serving board for the pot, an interim point between cooking the food and serving it, or maybe something that combines a chopping board with a temperature gauge so that the user can find the optimum temperature to serve their food. This method of protecting the user could allow the object to be something large and self-contained, and could potentially incorporate a lot of functions.

So, the idea that I'm going to explore in more depth is the heat indicator. Stay tuned!

INDN 212: Thoughts On Safety

So, our next project is all about safety. We have to analyze a range of situations and products and think about what we could do to make them safer. Alternatively, we can develop a new product, that serves as a preventative measure for danger, or one that serves as a warning system for danger, or if we really want to push it, we can develop an innovative radical new suggestions.

I'm inclined to look at the last option, as I'm having big difficulties with coming up with some ideas. That's the main reason for me doing this blog post, so that I get get some of my thoughts out onto the page and possibly come up with some ideas. That would be nice.

So, the first port of call is to choose some situations that I can see a new product based around safety or solving a dangerous situation. Initial thoughts and feelings were difficult to come up with. But I started looking at some of the suggested resources and thinking of ways in which I would feel safer doing specific tasks and the like. Safety in this project isn't just safety, it can also be interpreted as "improving quality of life" or making a product easier to use.

To get some in-home research done, I talked to both my family, as well as a few different family friends who have families, some of them with young children. Some of the most consistently brought up themes for safety were:
Kitchen Safety (Knives, Machines, Heat)
Electrical Safety (Sockets, Exposed Wiring)
Household Safety (Ladders, Ergonomic [Furniture])
Sports Safety (High-Speed Safety, Impact Safeguarding)

The ideas that have stuck with me through all the others appearing are:

Dynamic Knife Sheath
Knives are a source of a lot of kitchen-based injuries. One of the ideas that I've had so far involves kitchen knives having a sort of dynamic sheath to protect adults and children against unnecessary injury. Perhaps the sheath would be one that just sits on the blade and is taken off prior to use, or maybe it could be a dynamic, shifting sheath that encases the blade, and if the blade is used for cutting, the sheath shifts back with the movement of the knife, and once the cut is completed, the sheath pulls back down over the blade, protecting the user primarily against small accidental cuts.

Indicative Heat Strip
One of the things that's always struck me is that stoves have a heat indicator more than often (except gas heaters), but yet the pots never seem to have a heat indicator. I've burnt myself on the body of a pot more than once, and twice it's been because I didn't know it was hot. The idea that I have in mind is of a heat-sensitive strip that that can tell the user when the pot itself is hot enough to be dangerous. It wouldn't even have to be a progressive scale. The strip could just indicate if it is hot or not.

Socket Covers
Apparently these do actually exist, but they aren't always very good at what they do. Medicine jars are sealed against children opening them, perhaps socket covers could function in a similar way. With a twist-lock system in place, it would make it that much more difficult for a child to gain access to an electrical socket.

Ergonomic Encouragements
One of the things that came up often as well was a suggestion to improve one's posture, improving the quality of life as well as improving the health of the individual. The potential in this could be in a form of back support that is strapped around the chest, or potentially actually connected to the chair, allowing the user to feel the correct form with their spine and take up a good position.

Dynamic Impact Protection

One of the things that keep coming up are Non-Newtonian Fluids. And increasingly, I'm getting the vibe that they'd be perfect for a body armour of sorts. However, I think that that idea is definitely already out there, and I'm just setting myself up for some very difficult situations by trying to compete with global brands to come up with something that might beat their projects.

Ladder Base

One of the problems that I face when I'm using a ladder around the house at home is that around our house, we have a lot of grass and soft earth. This makes it very difficult to actually get a stable ladder and can pose a large number of risks. One of the ideas that I have involves making a portable support for such situations, a support that could be placed on the ground, and, being large and flat, spreads the weight around over a larger surface, ensuring the ladder is stable. I think there is potential in this idea, because the device could even be something that can be mounted to a ladder for transport and fold up, as well as potentially having ladder leg supports, to ensure safe ladder usage.

I think what I'll do next is sketch up my favourite two or three ideas, and themselves we where I can't wake it from there.

MDDN 242: Hitting That Liftoff Button...

Some of the best inspiration I found follows. I think all of it is stunning, and this'll definitely help me suss my stuff out. So, what I think I've decided is that rather than painting, I want the whole thing to be much more of a case of "generative art", where the whole thing kind of runs itself after the very first input. I want it to have a very careful use of colour, and ultimately make something layered and beautiful. Perhaps the interaction could be quite minimal and let the user have a small element of control.

Image acquired from: http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/

I love this one. The colours and the shapes definitely draw from a space photo, but I think something like this is definitely achievable. The use of colour in these sorts of this is of utmost importance. Any use of a random colour palette is artistic suicide, and it just ends up looking like someone vomited all over the scree and made it do something cool. And the vomit cancels out the coolness, trust me. I'm going to experiment with something like this one and see what sort of results I can get.

Image acquired from: http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/

This one is another stunner. Again, stupendously good colour selection, along with brilliant area-differentiation so that the colours given to the form being made make the whole thing feel much more 3-dimensional, rather than just a flood of light and dark colours, making the whole piece feel flat. No, the way the brush(?) flows around the image in this one is done so well. The whole piece is made of edgy sections, while at the same time it's definitely made of some harsher edges.

Image acquired from: http://x.anf.nu/

This one is dark, but you should definitely check it out in full size. Do it. You won't regret it. The detail of the two main different hues interacting is total eye candy. This one is extremely abstract and just feels like a cloth simulation, but the shift from light to dark at the bottom makes all the difference. I still think it's lovely and wish I could get lines to move like that. 

Sadly, all the pieces above I discovered as static images, so I actually have no idea if they move or not. But, if they did, I think they'd be beautiful. I definitely want mine to move and generate progressively as time moves on.

Image acquired from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/65805468@N08/7528369082/

This one isn't generative, it's just a photo, but I think it could serve as good inspiration for making something. I love the idea of using Nature as inspiration for something so unnatural. That concept just really gels with me nicely. Perhaps what I could do is have a landscape generated through basic shapes, or maybe just lines, or perhaps even just squares. I reckon that is perhaps a good strategy to roll with. I think maybe if I go with that, I could get a lot of interesting results, and then alter it and play around with it once I've got the spaceship lifting off.

MDDN 242: Inspiration Transformed

So, after looking at some precedents for this project, I decided the best way to figure out what I could do for the project would be to start sketching out my potential forms. Taking heavily from the inspiration that I looked at in the last post, I want to create something that is fun to play with, something that creates something beautiful, and something that really engages the user, giving them an aspect of interaction rather than control.

The idea on the left draws from the Natzke Ribbons, but removing the static nature of the interaction. The idea there is that the form would be defined by you, but none of the ribbons would actually fully follow the path that you created, in stead each of them would kind of follow the path, but still definitely illustrate a unique and slightly erratic path.

The idea on the right looks more at creating connections between randomness. The idea is that the user would click across the screen, and each time the user clicked a point was created, and this point would then drift in a random direction, creating a connection with other points that it got close to. This would then result in an ever-changing web that grew as the user added more points.

This idea is a little more straightforward, as the user would paint and have a line appear, resulting in a simple aesthetic inspired by some of the more textural generative pieces I looked at previously. The result would be something that ideal has both texture and direction that the user could layer up. Perhaps the colour of the tangents and the lines could slowly shift, allowing the user to layer up the various colours too, creating a dynamic scape.

This is the idea that I like the most so far. It's a spin on the previous web idea, where the user would paint across the screen and the points would form and start moving in the direction the mouse was traveling when the point was created. The points would then create connections between each other when the mouse was released, and drift across the screen, making more and more connections as the thing progressed.

After talking to my tutors, some of whom loved the last idea, I then talked to the last tutor. She looked at it and then told me she "knew I was capable of so much more" and that I should take a step back and find some inspiration in Nature and perhaps plan a little less and let the writing of the code and discovery of what else it could do take me places. So, step back time.

CCDN 231: Potential Concepts: Looking Ahead

So, now we're on to our final project, a project where we're expected to create an experience. I don't want to change my defining word, so that means I have to create an experience that generates the sense of austerity. Given that I've already done my past two experiments, then this should be a little bit easier. I really don't want to make extra work for myself, so I'm not going to change my path now, although there is a certain temptation to do Rebellion, as I have the perfect plan for Rebellion...

After the end of the last experience, I realised there was a lot more to the onions than I previously anticipated. I started off with the concept of Austerity being along the lines of the wartime Austerity  as in having less and having to make do with much less than normal. However, Austerity is a bit more deep than that. It has two sides, one positive one, and a more negative side. The positivie side actually ends up looking more at intentionally removing material possessions from life, and living a life of minimalism. This is seen a lot in religious circles, as well as increasingly often in the lives of those more well off. This is due to the fact that it is becoming more fashionable to live a life "without clutter".

One of the things that I realised when I conducted my experiment was that breaking the onion open with with her hands actually resulted in a much more visceral experience for Henrietta. She zoned out, and the simplicity of the task resulted in her not having to think about the task, and just do the task. Therefore, she was able to really experience the onion as a multi-sensory experience. This meant that the austerity I had designed actually led from a negative austerity through to a positive austerity, an effect that I had not designed, but turned out to be exactly right.

So, looking towards the next project, I need to figure out an experience that could be exhibited and experienced by multiple people. One of the experiences that I came up with first was suited to Rebellion, which, while not ideal, is still an experience that I think I ought to entertain and look at.

The nonsensical and against-the-grain way of chopping the onions would provide a totally different experience to the experience that everyone is used to. Maybe I could also stuff the onions with firecrackers, so that they actually do explode. That would be awesome. But no, maybe another time.

I think the thing that I realised was the most interesting part about the last experiment would be the ideal experiment for the next section. So, what I think I want to do is basically take away senses from the user to enhance the ultimate experience. However, I don't want to take them away from the user, as this would be the wrong end of austerity, more in line with oppression. So, I'm going to step back and in stead give the user the choice to remove the tools for cutting onions and the senses from the experiment. But, I'm going to nicely encourage the user to give the tool-less, sense-minimal experience a try, telling them that the experience is far deeper and far more interesting if they try it that way.

That way, by giving them a choice, they retain control over their austerity(since I'm looking at a self-imposed variant of austerity) and they can decide how far they want to take the experience. I'd merely tell them that if they went all the way, they could have the most interesting and visceral experience.

What I can design in the experience is making sure that all of the components are as minimal as possible, and fulfill their task. I could shape the area around them, remove distractions, and basically ensure the experience they have is the most pure possible.

MDDN 242: Looking Into The Future

So, last night  I got my grade back for the previous project of this course, and I was really disappointed, so I've decided to get back on my epic mount and punch through the course and get something really stellar for the next project. The next project seems like it's going to be a lot of fun, and I have a lot to learn for and from it. I have a tendency to get riled up after a poor grade, so hopefully by working on my failures, I can use the energy in a positive way! That, and I also got a really good sleep last night and did yoga on Monday, so I'm full of good energy at the moment. And I love it.

So. One of the first things I need to establish is the kind of project that I think this is. It's all about interaction, and interacting through a mouse input or any other input really. I can have as little control or as much as I like. The project is all about a drawing machine, so I'll let your minds think about what that involves. For me, it involves a reasonably controllable interaction, resulting in something that the user can experience in a fun way and then have something pretty to look at when they're finished with it.

Image captured from: http://abandonedart.org/?p=402

So, I decided to have a bit of a look around at some inspiration that I think would benefit my project. This first one is called Ink Trails, and I really love the way it looks and moves. The ink trails start at points behind the red bar and then trail out in a really interesting way. The edges of the ink trails just feel really realistic and move in a quite natural way. Perhaps I can splice some of the motion from this piece. Definitely go check it out to look at the motion.

 Image captured from: http://abandonedart.org/?p=470

This piece is called Node Texture and has such a brilliant aesthetic. I love the way the dots connect and the lines build up this crazy texture that stacks and stacks. This nodal connection style has been used in a few films as a small feature element, and I really love the way it draws connections between the different disconnected elements. The Art Of Flight used this aesthetic in a really subtle way that really made the intro for me. I really want to create a sense of connection between what the user does and what the drawing machine actually makes, visually.

 Image captured from: http://abandonedart.org/?p=504

This one has a very slow and gradual motion to it. It builds out of a central square, and feels like a slowed down version of something moving at an extremely rapid pace. The particles/lines radiate away in a very pleasing, tangential sort of way. Perhaps the way that is moves is driven on a radial element running around the edge of the square. Either way, definitely go check out the sketch. The motion is really nice and ambient.

 Image captured from: http://abandonedart.org/?p=144

I'm just going to go out and say I love this piece. The rapid motion of the ribbons is absolutely stunning. I don't know quite how they did it, but I know it must have something to do with beziers and creating a whole bunch of control points. The particle system that it has looks a bit complicated, so hopefully I can actually get something on par with it. It's absolutely beautiful, definitely check it out.

Image captured from: http://www.openprocessing.org/sketch/18093

This cellular automata animation is really visually exciting. The colours used to illustrate the life and death cycles of the cells make for a really stunning moving visual display. One of the ideas that I took from this generative piece was the way that the forms grew out of the mouse-click-and-hold path. Perhaps I could make something that felt a little more natural and grew out of the shapes of your motion?

INDN 212: Final Thoughts & Photos

Well, it's finished now. I still don't know if it's going to work in the presentation. I don't know if I broke something last night, or maybe my wiring was just dodgy from the beginning. The thing is, all the individual components worked on their own. The lights worked, the muscle wire worked, the motion sensor worked. All of it was functioning. But then when I brought it together, something must have gone wrong. Or maybe the power supply really just wasn't supplying the amount of power I needed. Because I know for a fact that I needed at least 10 Watts. Which smaller power supplies would have a problem supplying at 12VDC.

I just really hope the tutors see my blog and see my progress and can say "Yup, he didn't just skimp on the work and hand in something that doesn't work." I did have working componentry and a whole heap of bad luck. Ah well. I just hope it works tomorrow. I wish I'd had an extra day to try and sort out the problem. The worst part is that I've been working on this for the past 3 weeks, and it's decided to stop working now...

Anyways, I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Good luck, me!

INDN 212: Getting Some Sweet Shots!

So, late tonight, when I was about to start taking photos, disaster struck. For some reason, my light system didn't work any more. I have a suspicion that the power supply I was using simply wasn't supplying enough juice, or possibly it broke. I really hope it's just that, as I have another power supply laying around somewhere that can provide more power. But at present, I can't take any photos of it lit or working, as that's not possible.

Fortunately, the materialities of the light are still very beautiful, even when the light isn't working. The pendants of the lamp make for some really nice photo opportunities, so I'm glad of that much. I just wish it would work.

I'm pleased with the congruency of all the shades. The two smaller ones feel like refined iterations of the large one, which is exactly what I wanted them to feel like. The metal on top then feels at one with the shades, as the pieces of aluminium are all the same, and yet they add to the two different sorts of shades in completely unique ways.

This shot feels like a sort of disco shot. I just had to put it in the preliminary bunch of shots.

I'd love to have shown these lights lit. I'll let you do the imagining. They were really, really bright. And made the wood shine really nicely and warmly.

I'm really pleased with the way the three main looks come together. The aluminium, the waxed beech, the cotton cabling, it all worked out in the end, and the three look fantastic together, so ultimately even if the whole thing doesn't work, I still have something beautiful. And my idea is in the project. I had a really good concept, so hopefully that will carry a lot of weight.

I can't quite believe how beautiful the beech looks in this light with my favourite wax on. It's such a wonderful product and it just enhances the wood in such a nice way. *love*

Less of a disco shot, and more of one that actually shows what they look like with real lighting.

The ceiling mount turned out pretty alright! It's definitely not my favourite part of the construct, but it could be a lot worse. The white spray paint came out really nicely, but next time I'd definitely give it a bit more time to dry, as when I carried it from home, the warmth from my hands softened the not-quite-dry paint a bit and my cloth that I used to carry it left a bit of an imprint.

Here's to hoping that it works tomorrow.