WICO@Home - DIY Zoom Effects
Face it, nowadays most tinkering is happening virtually through zoom or other video conferencing platforms. Over the past few months we’ve been leading summer camps and after school programs, sharing projects in webinars and hosting a weekly programming club to learn p5.js basics together. But at the same time, I’ve been wondering how we can play and tinker with the actual sustance of the zoom platform. And although virtual backgrounds are exciting and all, its more fun to hack the system using physical materials.
I was inspired by my friend and colleague Amos Blanton who made a ingenious webcam add-on using simple materials that shows both the face of the zoomer and their hands working on a project. But I was thinking to design something a little less useful and a little more psychedelic in the spirit of Exploratorium exhibits and Tinkering Studio light play workshop.
So for the first effect I repurposed Sarah Chung’s derder kaleidoscope from the plant prism project that we are working on with Lodestar community charter school. I just taped the toilet paper tube with reflective mirrored cardstock triangle on my computer centered on the webcam and enjoyed the shattered face effect.
There was still a lot of the mirrored acrylic left over from the project so I decided to see what happened if I made a mirrored tube and used tape to position it over the webcam. It reminded my of some of my favorite Exploratorium exhibits that use mirrors to created some really fun warping effects.
For the last prototype, I repurposed two of the giant googley eyes that I have around my desk. I attached two of them to a long wire and then used some round nose pliers to create a little bent clip like structure at the end. I attached the wire so that the eyes were positioned a little in front of my face and tilted my head so it looked like I had gone googley during the meeting.
These were all pretty fun experiments with the things that I already had around my desk. It would be really cool to make a zoom effects part two with colored filters, different types of reflective surfaces and other everyday materials used in unexpected ways. What types of scrappy DIY zoom effects can you think up?Please share to help us get through the summer of social distancing and stay safe out there!