So yeah, things went a little differently than planned, but that's ok. At the very last minute I decided to ditch my tiny box/plinth/screen enclosure thing and just go all out with a big ol' flatscreen monitor. I figured that if the animation/footage, was the only thing I was going to show, I may as well have it displayed big enough for people to be able to see it properly. I also splashed out on getting a nice print done of the slime mould when it was at peak growth in fully tentacular mode, seeing as I was also ditching the thermal printer. It's a funny one - I was really enjoying working with the slime mould but I guess I just fell out of love with various aspects of the project and I'd spent so much time tweaking the various programs to work on the pi when I could have been focusing my energy elsewhere, i.e. cut my losses with the pi thing and worked on developing the program a bit more instead. I also just somehow ended up thinking that the thermal printer thing was a bit tacky (not to mention that fact that I just could not get the thing to do a timed print without causing 'segmentation faults', which I assume has something to do with memory). Anyway, this is part of the learning process - it was good to have a crack with the raspberry pi and I know now that there are certain things I just wouldn't try and do with it again. Also it was never my intention to embark on a super ambitious project, but even the parts I assumed would be quite straightforward turned out to be anything but. So another good lesson - especially with unfamiliar technology - never assume! This is how it ended up looking on the wall. Moving away from the project though, the end of year show was really great. It was really good to be a part of the energy leading up to the show, seeing how other people worked and developed their pieces (as well as what did and didn't work for them...). There were some really great pieces made and I was super impressed by the ambition and creativity on display - I felt really proud of the cohort in general. I also got some feedback from the examiners which was a welcome surprise - as I wasn't getting marked it was nice for them to give me their time. There was no mention of this previously in the blog but the small part I played in organising the show consisted of working on some small events to take place over the weekend of the show - in the form of a panel discussion and some thematic guided tours. To cut a long story short, the panal worked out really nicely - we ended up reaching out to FLUX artists collective, specifically Aphra Shemza who headed up the panel introducing the collective and what they do, then four students who'd volunteered/coerced took part in a loose discussion about their work and computational art in general. The idea was to have something which could act as a sort of 'way in' for people (such as students parents who often think this is all some kind of crazy magic) who may be outside of the tech/art world. Similarly with the tours, which ended up being a little haphazard but worked out OK I think. SO this year is over! It's been quite a ride - but I would say the end of last term and the summer were easily my favourite bits in terms of bonding as a year group and working on our own projects. Hopefully I can approach this coming year with a little bit more wisdom, a little bit less anxiety and a bit more fun. And generally keeping focused/inspired/interested. Here's to the new (academic) year!