DJELLO

October-December 2023

Made with: Ableton Live, Adobe Illustrator, Arduino, C++, MIDI, Womp 3D

DJELLO is a DJ controller with a bouncy gelatin interface, set in an acrylic housing. These tactile inputs lend themselves to playful experimentation while creating music. Experiment with duration, pressure, and location of your finger on the jello controls to produce squishy, gelatinous sounds

Video Demo

Concept

While brainstorming for a previous project, I learned that jello is conductive due to its water content. I became determined to design a jello user interface for my Introduction to Physical Computing final project. Keeping in theme with the squishiness of jello, I wanted to generate sounds that matched its texture.

This is a 3D render of my initial concept, modeled with Womp 3D. This helped communicate my idea to my classmates and helped me to envision the layout and aesthetic.

Research

By research I mean me, in my kitchen, experimenting with jello recipes through trial and error. Having a solid enough texture to pick up and manipulate is critical. I gathered advice online from 50s housewives, mommy bloggers, and ballistic experts.

The keys were "blooming" the gelatin while mixing + soaking molds in hot water to release the solidified shape.

Recipe

  1. Buy Knox unflavored gelatin
  2. Boil ~1/4 cup water per gelatin packet
  3. Pour 1/4 cup cold water per gelatin packet into bowl
  4. “Bloom” it- sprinkle dry gelatin powder over cold water
  5. Scrape bloomed gelatin into hot water
  6. Stir well
  7. Pour into molds
  8. Leave overnight
  9. Soak molds in hot water to remove jello

Prototypes

I used Adobe Illustrator to design a layered structure for the acrylic base. Each layer has different cutouts to hold jello, sensors, and wires. All of the wires exit through a hole in the bottom layer, to plug into an Arduino attached via velcro to the base's underside.

I laser-cut my first prototype out of cardboard to visualize the sensor layout. The next was laser-cut 1/4" clear acrylic.

Software

The software was the easy part for me. I wrote an Arduino script to read input from the various sensors, and made those sensors trigger MIDI commands, such as "play a middle-C note on channel 5". I set up Ableton Live, music-making software, to read these MIDI commands and turn them into squishy sounds.

I asked some of my classmates with more musical backgrounds for advice on what my controls should do. Most controls play a single note, but some more "advanced" ones play ranges of notes or apply filters.

Finished Product

After learning from my prototypes, I assembled the final version. Some changes from the earlier versions:

  • White acrylic instead of clear, to hide the internal wiring
  • Conductive copper tape instead of normal wires, to fit flat between acrylic layers
  • Updated design for the bendy flex sensor control
  • Tighter fitting legs for the base

Skills Learned

  • This was my first time using a laser cutter. Aside from learning how to design cut templates with Adobe Illustrator, I learned how to use some advanced controls like manually adjusting the height of the bed.
  • What MIDI is and how it works
  • Ableton Live basics, basic music-making skills
  • Iterating on user interface design

Challenges

  • Arranging the wires inside of the acrylic layers. Normal wires are thick enough that they can't sit flat between two hard layers of acrylic, creating a gap
  • Fabricating the base legs. I had to individually laser cut faces on a hollow rectangular tube
  • Finding specific MIDI command codes for Ableton
  • Designing an intuitive control using a flex sensor