The Faux Shaux

I decided to ditch the magnet-fluid.  Chris Cerrito and a couple other second years explained their pitfalls with ferrofluid last year.  He said that most of the videos online were deceptively scaled, and that many of the results were results in millimeters.  I’m sure blasting an EM with high voltage would surely make the fluid stand a decent height.

After much research, I realize that the ferrofluid has been done time and time again, and fabrication would take up most, if not all, of the time alotted, but the assignment is for interactivity, not for simple controls.

I had a similar idea to have a square container of water, that I could spout black ink that is magnetically responsive.  When ink flows through water, it makes a beautiful smoke-like effect.  Ideally, the user would take a stylus with a strongly magnetized tip, and the user could affect the ink paths with the stylus, and essentially draw in the 3D.  It’s a combination of uncontrollable variables that is appealing.  The artist typically wants to control as many factors as he or she can, but in this instance, the entropic nature will elicit a natural aesthetic to the user’s unnatural movements.