Info
ptotaro@mit.edu
MIT Mechanical Engineering, PhD1
Expertise
★★★ Fabrication & Craft
★★★★ Design
★★ Electronics
★★★★ Programming
★★ Chemistry
What’s your favorite thing you’ve made?
When I am listening to a song or a sound I always try to give it a visual (usually abstract) representation in my mind. One of the favorite thing I have made is a patch (a script for MaxMSP) which employs this concept. This patch uses sound to manipulate (in various ways) a video or a picture in order to visually communicate the volume, the low, high and mid frequencies, the rhythm and other characteristics of the song I am listening to. I really like experimenting with it, in fact, I am currently working to bring this idea outside the computer screen and put it in everyday objects; you could call it “sound reacting objects”.
What’s the most frustrating object you’ve used?
In general I really don’t like objects that function in a way that is unnatural and non-intuitive for the user. An example is the 3Dconnexion Space Mouse. It is a joystick that is supposed to help you navigating (panning, zooming, rotating) a 3D object in a CAD program. The problem is that the movements you have to make with the joystick are completely incoherent with the natural way humans moves around objects in the space, and this makes it counter-intuitive to use.
What do you personally hope to get out of this class?
The reason why I would like to take this class is because I am truly fascinated by the vision of the tangible media group. I myself would like to live in a world in which objects are natural and seamless extension of our body, function intuitively and communicate us information in the way we are built to receive information: through our hands, eyes, and ears.
I would like to work as a designer one day and I think that this class gives me the opportunity to explore, experiment and look forward to new way to enhance the experience humans have with the surrounding world, which is really important for this job.
I don’t care about credits or grades, I would just really love to spend as much time as I can in making my small (hopefully not) contribution to this vision, and share my experience and passion for it.
How can you contribute to the class?
I have a long experience in mechanical engineering and I like to combine it with pure design, functional and esthetical.
I love woking in team, share ideas and exchange knowledges. It makes the design process more fun and fruitful.