Idea Dump Ideas are cheap. Making things is hard.

In no particular order, a list of ideas floating around my head:

Photo/video/art

Tintype lab Would it be possible to use an HD projector to make tin type copies of digital photographs? Would require preprocessing the images to boost the contrast at he very least I suspect.

Tri color Create photoshop actions to recreate the triple exposure prints of Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii ( LOC Archive, wikipedia, Boston Globe ). Would use three consecutive images taken a few seconds apart which uses the movement between images to create interesting visual artifacts between the channels. Might be particularly interesting with dance photos. Would also be a pretty cool phone app based on Live photos or similar.

Fuck Cancer Non-profit which partners with various artists to make lovely “Fuck Cancer” prints ala 20x200 and similar. All proceeds go to a patient or family fighting or recovering from cancer.

Backdrop Dance Video Modern dance video with a very simple setup. Would start with very close video of face, hands, feet. Dancer would appear to be in front of a simple black backdrop. But the camera would very slowly start panning back. Eventually, the viewer would see the dancer in front of a smallish backdrop, but in the context of various interesting environments. Video would be interesting on two levels: first the dancers themselves. But then various locales would add conferrable interest: theaters, creepy basements, boring corporate environments, Guthrie “Bridge to Nowhere” with panning on a drone over the river, some claustrophobic spaces, other wide open spaces.

2200 ink Hack my old Epson for overprinting metallic and alternative insets.

42 Vanity photo book of my favorite photos I’m made over the years. Try to sell enough prints to pay for a nice photo printer.

Awkward Brochures Nicely produced trifold brochures for awkward conversations: “you need to shower more”, “let’s talk about bad breath”, “I’m leaving you”, etc.

photo decay start with a photo and slowly deteriorate it. Add CV so faces fade out last. Include glitches as well.

Web sites

1968-1973 List of all the incredible music which happened in these six years.

Record Collection Similar to above, a little one page app of all my favorite records. Also include printed versions of the info which I should slip into the sleeve and reference when I’m flipping through the collection.

MN Atlas Create an atlas of MN and the nearby region based on all the various open data bits available on the web. Less about making them really explorable with pan/zoom maps, and more about using D3 to have solid infographics. Bonus points for scripts which can updated the data as needed.

roaddiet.mn advocacy site with background and case studies about road diets.

mpls arch simple photo site of good/bad/ugly/notable buildings in Minneapolis/St Paul. From Christ Church Lutheran, to the big West Bank towers, Guthrie, skyways, etc. Long term hobby project that would let me have a reason to go out and shoot for the day.

Web Apps

Ranked lists of events. Users use their karma to spread a certain number of votes over upcoming music and dance events. Meant to be a light, curated list that makes it obvious what is coming up and get more signal out of the noise.

Twitter Reviews Use convention for mini reviews of movies that are could then be scraped from the twitter API.

Artist Portfolio Dead simple single page dancer/music/band websites ala linneamohn.com

Random Beacon API Wrap an simple API around the NIST randomness beacon, for better usability and preserve the history.

Number station Use Random beacon to create a spoof on shortwave number stations, either with audio or list a austere, creepy list of random numbers.

Pick a number playful single page app where friends can do “pick a number between 1 and 100” type questions to settle arguments and make decisions. /dev/urandom would work fine, too, I guess, but using the beacon would be more fun and have a history.

Record Labels enter a discogs master or release ID, get a nicely formatted letter sized LP label which would wrap around the spine.

Tides Why are all tides websites terrible? Build a better one with nice UI.

Watch face SVG animation of watch faces

History clock power of 10-esque clock with different order of magnitude scales from minutes to days to years to centuries, etc.

Blog Posts

Gas prices History of Minneapolis gas prices, my usage per degree day, etc. Contact Centerpoint to get historic rates. Compare to price of oil, electricity.

X-T2 Usage Notes Braindump of notes from using the X-T2

Mobile Apps

Home list To-do list which automatically screen shots and makes it the background of the lock screen. Or maybe a share-sheet based app to do this already exists.

House stuff

Record console Buy an old record console from Craigslist and update to it modern components. Bonus points for a place to stash booze.

Glockenspiel doorbell Use a Teensy, used glockenspiel, and solenoids to play MIDI files. Use as clock and doorbell and general noise maker. Bonus points for huge bass metal tube hanging floor to ceiling.

Neighborhood stuff

Residential parklets Expand the commercial parklet program to allow Minneapolis residents to create a little park/greenspace in the parking spot in front of their house.

No parking buffers Use big potted plants or other greenery to demarcate no parking zones in front of stop signs and fire hydrants. Would create visual buffers to narrow the traffic a bit and slow down traffic.

Bike

Wheel lights Install right and white LED strips on the inside of the Pugsley rims. Bonus points for accelerometer for fancier effects.

Miscellaneous

Front light put a basic timer on the front yard light so it turns on before sundown and stays on (but slowly fades) until midnight. Bonus points for a range detector which could detect people on the sidewalk and increase the brightness.

Finish Things installation with EL wire. Or maybe it is better as a cross-stitch.

Socket Transformer a AC to DC transformer which plugs into a light socket with 5 volt and 3.3 volt output.