Construction Process Part 4: The Top of the Tree

It was my intention to construct the final stage of the tree well before Christmas but obviously there have been some draws backs due to other  and a few bad days that I have been having.
This however has not stopped me in putting in as much time and effort as possible whenever I have a free slot available. This project means everything to me and I have never been more passionate or enthusiastic about carrying and finishing a piece of work.
Usually I become tired and lackluster, detaching myself from a project as time goes on. Not completing it to the best of my abilities even though I know I could have.
It is a whole different story with  this project though as it gives me the freedom to produce something I am passionate about, and work to my strengths. It is this passion to complete this project that has kept me going because I know at the end of it all it will be something outstanding.
I recently completed the construction of the top part of my tree that will later be attached to the main segment of the tree trunk once an exhibition room has been allocated.
Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures to document the process but there will be a video available at some point where you will be able to get a look at how it turned out, and an understanding of how the interactivity of this whole project works.
A few altercations were made to the design of the tree which I will talk over now briefly. I was always told to consider user interaction and how many people would be able to use it at a time. Now with my initial idea I was going to have 4 separate organs that would act as triggers for interactivity, but after much consideration I decided to simplify my idea.
Having more than one trigger would mean that numerous people would be coming into contact with the tree at the same time, which could cause the videos to not play properly. This would mean I would have to restrict the users, making sure that only one person at a time has some form of engagement with the organs. This way the visuals would play without any interference from another user.
If this was the case then there would be no need for multiple triggers. Yes different triggers were assigned to different visuals but it would be very time consuming having one person going through all the triggers at one time whilst other people wait.
Also after viewing other artist's work I came to understand that simplicity isn't a bad thing, and over compensating can sometimes lose the interest of your audience.
For these reasons I decided to only create one trigger that would be the sole source of interaction. The heart/hand cast would be sculpted into one of the branches on the tree and play all the visuals of the narrative.
The other part of my design that I changed was the fact that the tree was now going to reassemble a broken tree, a tree than had snapped in half due to unforeseen circumstances.
After the trouble I had taking the first section of the tree to University and the damage that was caused, I knew that I was unsure of the stability of the tree. Due to this issue I would have to make the top half much lighter than I was intending do, and the only was I could do this was by getting rid of element of the design.
Therefore I cut it down to only having one main branch and the rest of it looking like it had been broken. This way it suits the interactive component of the piece and also takes into account the fragile state of the rest of the tree.
I was unhappy but settled with the idea at first, but over time I came to enjoy the fact that the tree was in this broken state. I think it adds more character not only to the tree itself but also the narrative. Is there a reason the tree is broken? Does the broken state of the tree represent death?  Does is give relevance to how or when the person died? Did they die before they were meant to? Did they die young? Do the memories we see give us any insight to why the tree is broken?
It almost becomes another side to the metaphorical stature of the tree.
The construction process was very similar to how I have made the rest of the tree. It was all shaped out of chicken wire, then covered with cellophane, modroc and plaster. The only difference at this stage of production was the branch.
For the branch to withhold the weight of the cast that was going to be merged with it, there had to be a structure within the branch that was going to act as a support beam. Using pieces of leftover wood that I had used as support structures in the main tree trunk, I shaped a support beam that went through the diameter of the tree and up through the branch. This was all then tightly secured with the use of wire.
The branch itself was made out of chicken wire that at first was wrapped around my arm to get an indication of the length and shape of my arm. Then once I had removed myself it would then bent and morphed to have a crooked like nature, almost like that of a tree.
The organ cast was then slotted into place and wired to the support beams to ensure it doesn't come loose at any point during contact. Also the support beams take most of the weight of the cast so that the branch itself doesn't collapse or break apart.
Only modroc was used on the branch of the arm, again to compensate for the weight.
I gathered branches and twigs to implement into the structure, snapping them and then plastering them onto the surface of the tree so I could create the texture and realness of the tree breaking. Placement of each one had to be thought out carefully before they were placed as I wanted to create the true nature of the tree breaking, so they had to obviously all be directed to a certain point to give the view an understanding of which way the tree broke off.
Using these branches and the combined use of plaster and a chisel I moulded the top of the tree, creating indentations and carvings for texture.
A few branches were also added into the sculptural branch that I had created so that it had more of a resemblances to the realistic nature of a tree.
The next phase was to extend the wiring on my Arduino circuit board by soldering a bunch of wires together so that they ran from inside the of the cast all the way down the branch and into the trunk.
At each point of soldering I had to test that they were still functional by setting up Arduino with Isador and testing the photo resistor and the LED light.
I had to take into account the depth of the this part of the tree and also how far down the shelf sits in the trunk of my tree as this is where the Arduino is going to be placed.
The wires run down the external of the branch and through a little hole in the trunk. It has been done this was as it would be too complicated for them to run inside the branch due to the chicken wire and the support beams.
After soldering was complete I tapped the wires in place along the surface of the branch using electrical tape, ensuring that the LED light and photo resistor were firmly fixed in place within the organ cast. I then proceeded to modroc over the tape so that the wires were invisible to the users.
Once everything was completed I spray painted the entire thing white, coating it at least twice. I intend for all of the tree to be painted white when it comes to it being erected in it's exhibition space, but for now only the top part is white as there is nothing I can do with the trunk whilst it is in the storage room.
My only job then was just make sure that everything was still functional by interacting with the tree the way I intend for users to do so. For once everything went smoothly and the process was a success!
Below is a picture of the organ cast in it's final form, demonstrating the source of light that it will give of during the exhibition. You can also see the photo resistor in the centre of the cast where the user will be able to trigger to visuals to play.