The Dance

After receiving some critiques during the final presentation concerning the relationship of my machine and myself being somewhat representational of a dance I decided that I would take some photos of it and myself doing just that - dancing. It actually makes a lot of sense now that I think about it...the relationship between the machine and myself has been an unusual one, something that I never expected. It's weird to have feelings for a machine that go beyond it being an inanimate object...although this brings some of my original research concerning the blurring of machine and man into light again for me to investigate further. All I know for now is that I have been dependent on my machine for the past four months and now it relies on me for assistance to balance. Oddly enough while taking these photos tonight whenever I let the machine go, no matter where I was standing it came towards me....

The Accident...2am - 2 days before deadline

So after attaching most of the antennae I decided to take the walking machine on a bit of a test run, I have been doing after adding each component so that I could identify any potential problems gradually so as to not end up with many issues at the end. Everything was going great as it had been until the it lost its balance and slipped on the tile in the hallway crashing against the wall and falling to the floor....everything survived except for the front piece to the new foot component on the machine's right leg...dammit...

A re-make of the piece is currently being laser cut as I write this post as well as two entirely new feet which contain more material and less void space which I think was most of the problem for the breakage as can be seen in the photos. The piece that snapped was only 1/8" in thickness in a space that may be stressed quite a bit...I'm not totally sure...it could have simply been the force of the fall in general...either way, back to the drawing board!

base & disc system re-design - components

Other components that also received a re-design for increased functionality and general cohesiveness of the system as a whole were the base holding the motor/gear box in place between the two legs which was originally the yellow plastic pieces adapted with wire so that the legs would not slide out to the sides. Secondly the disc system needed to be rethought so that an exact amount of wire rods could be accommodated as well as all the wiring that needed to take place to run charges to the new LED system. Also space needed to be provided for the circuitry and battery packs to be mounted now that the feet have been re-designed.

The Foot Returns - Part Deux

As seen in a previous post I also decided to readdress the design of the foot so as to create a more functional piece directly suited to the needs of the component and the system as a whole. After the pieces were cut using the laser cutter I then assembled them to create the foot piece which attaches to the bottom of the original leg component, creating a sort of sleeve effect. The rods will receive some sort of an attachment, which is still to come, as well as a red rubber capping to finish the end which is not touching the ground surface.

Antennae - Part 1

The antennae on the top of the walking monster were the first component that needed re-designing as there were a few issues that needed to be resolved. The antennae design consisted of very thin steel rods with a lot of flexibility on which the positive arm of an standard red LED was soldered to the top end. The rods were then covered in a single length of clear shrink tubing to insulate the rod's positive electrical charge that would be applied from below. The negative post of the LED was then soldered to another very thin piece of wire and insulated to separate it from the positive charge. The thin wire was then twisted around the outside of the rod with the shrink tubing, therefore bringing the negative charge also to the bottom of the rod, yet keeping it separate from the positive charge. I was then able to weave the rod and the wire through the system of disks I had created containing many tiny holes the same size as the steel rod so that reconfiguration could occur or more rods could be added in the future. In total I decided to produce 8 antennae, each of which contained a positive charge and a negative charge which powered the LED on the end, therefore making it possible to draw with light.

Several issues needed to be addressed including the weight of the antennae as the plastic tubing and the large LED's caused each individual rod to flop over to the side. As a temporary fix I secured the bunch with a wire strapping which caused the rods to curve outwards creating a kind of flowering effect. Each of these issues will be resolved in the re-design....to come!

Cut Diagram

The first step in my re-building process was designing new components to be cut on the laser cutter in place of some original pieces as well as some previous elements that needed tweaking. I will explain each element individually but here is the diagram that was used for cutting as they all needed to be completed on the same day. The cutting diagram includes new pieces for the feet as well as the top piece of the body to secure all of the antennae in place....

The Foot Returns

Image of Time

A different depiction of the drawings I completed last week with the overlaying images, this image simply shows the areas in which the LED's spent the most time (red) to the least time (turquoise). The image not only tracks the lights in terms of location but it also captures an element of time within a still frame.

Translator II: Grower - Neat!

Something I thought was really interesting that I came across while doing some research the other night on grass and the idea of artificial grass. ---->

Translator II: Grower, by Chicago-based artist Sabrina Raaf, is a rover robot which navigates hugging a room's walls and responding to the carbon dioxide levels in the air by drawing varying heights of "grass" on the walls in green ink.

Grower senses the CO2 level in the air via a digital sensor. The more people in an exhibit space breathing in oxygen and exhaling CO2, the higher the grass line.

By the end of an exhibition, the bases of all the walls in the space will be covered with fine green lines which together resemble a cross-section drawing of a field of grass. This simulated grass is just like the grass found in nature: it needs CO2 to grow.

Watching the artistic output of a machine sensitive to its environment makes the people in the space more sensitive to their environment too. Besides, the piece demonstrates how much art institutions depend on visitors to make thriving spaces for new art evolve and flourish.

Fireworks Beside the Sea

(A Shore Point in New Hampshire)

Pigeons shot from the pavilion eaves
At the first explosion, fanning out over
The festive crowd avid for any violence
If only to see some rockets launched
Against the sea's wide darkness and silence.
A final rocket on the dark,
A constellation hovering near,
A momentary chandelier,
Lightened the summer shore of faces,
The land, the sea, the heavenly places,
And then winked out. Like burning leaves,
The slow debris rained down the air.
The birds that roved, affrighted, everywhere
Rained into the pavilion eaves.

Ernest Kroll

Overture: The Narrow Path Toward the Whole

(Page 1 of 4)

supplies obtained!

Three and a half hours later I have successfully picked up all the materials on my list! Aside from the miscellaneous stuff that I needed including a new soldering iron...mine saw better days before Montreal...I got the necessary supplies to make the adjustments on my monster beginning tomorrow.


Coming up with a new solution for attaching the metal 1/8" rod legs has always been something that I have been playing around with. I now have the kit I need to start tapping so that I can give the rod a threaded section, which can then be attached to a foot with a threaded hole.

I was also successful in finding some sort of a paint that has electricity insulating properties. After doing some research I found that paint with silicon dioxide or teflon worked as good insulators but after researching further I found a product for insulating connections between two wires, which should work well for what I'm doing in terms of coating the thin rods for the antennae.

I was also able to get 42 more thin steel rods for the antennae so I will be able to complete my original vision of having quite a large amount of grassy movement on the top of the monster. Also I got the very tiny super bright LED's that I determined I needed so that the antennae could be reduced in weight from what they are currently.

I will be streamlining as much as possible in terms of weight on the monster which will hopefully allow it to not be attached to a point or a line and be self contained with all of its components.

Here's the deal...

After my crit at the end of last week I had a lot to think about. Here I am with this wonderful machine that has the ability to construct spaces out of light within darkness, to be honest the whole idea of that freaks me out a little even though it's really something wonderful that I didn't expect to be so complex. The plan as of Friday was to begin the thought process to translate the movement and essence of what I have created with my walking monster into possibly something else. I spent the next few days doing research looking for some precedence and also trying to come up with a design of a new machine to build. After becoming completely frustrated and overwhelmed I realized that maybe it wasn't about creating something new but instead with perfecting something that already is so rich.

No matter what ideas I was coming up with this past weekend nothing seemed to be as dynamic as the walking monster at this point in time. Maybe the thought process for that needs to become a little more developed but I think it's a sign to me that I need to concentrate and not be so quick to run away from a good thing. Therefore I am sticking with my walking monster.

The next little while will be spent perfecting technical details that were either made as quick fixes or simply because I did not have the knowledge or resources to do them differently at the time. I will meticulously go through my machine and record different elements of function to see if there are improvements that can be made (I'm sure there always are) or a way I can maybe achieve something differently. I'm happy with this decision because I'm making the decision to stick with something and work rigorously on it.

The second half of my journey for the next week and half (my current plan!) is to work on how my monster is going to be contained. Firstly I just want to say that I'm not ok with the idea of 'containing' my monster per say...I'm going to be thinking of it more in terms of creating a smaller version of the environment which my machine holds potential to function how I am intending in. Ideally I would have the room to myself and have all the lights off...but we all know that that's not possible...so I will be constructing a sort of curtain system so that an area can be blocked off with simulated darkness, to create a suggestion of a dark environment.

Hopefully all goes as planned, it should be a busy week!

Light Canopy

Carbon Walking Machine Drawings - Take 1

Walking Drawing Machine

This weekend I took over Center Space, literally. Finding a way to track the walking movement of my walking machine proved a little more difficult than tracking its antenna. I thought about potentially attaching a drawing instrument to each of the legs but again I did not want to inhibit the natural movement of the legs, so this idea moved to the back shelf. Instead I decided to use carbon paper, from the suggestion of Patrick in a crit last week. Since my walking machine covers a large area I knew I needed a large space with a hard surface flooring (much like Montreal - Black Box), a ceiling that I could hang the 'insides' from, and somewhere that I could turn the lights out for the antenna LED photography. Center Space was perfect!

I bought a package of typewriter carbon paper because it can be used many times and still achieve the same transfer result, and also it is black. I decided to use approximately 100 sheets and laid them out on the floor within the boundaries of which the walking monster could travel, face down on top of 3 large sheets of strathmore paper. On top of this I then laid out 3 strips of tracing paper and taped the seams together to eliminate tripping of the walking monster which would in turn effect the drawing. From here it was simply up to the walking monster to travel around his confined space and draw for me!

I sat with the walking monster for 2 hours of his trip late Saturday night, and then again for 2 more hours on Sunday morning while he finished things off, which for whatever reason proved to be more finicky than Saturday night, requiring the repair of a broken leg attachment (all is better now!). The final result was magnificent, and although more subtle than I originally envisioned the result is still amazing and is a wonderful illustration of the walking motion of my monster.

Light Drawings - Take 1

This weekend the focus was on capturing the actions, movements, tendencies, quirks and personality of my large walking machine, which will be my main focus until the end of term as it is the most developed of the two. The two main actions of the walking machine are its ability to shuffle and stumble in a walking motion across the floor as well as its dynamic antenna which as discussed in an earlier posting have the appearance of flowing grass blowing in the wind.

I decided from earlier experimentation with long exposure light photography that this would be the most rewarding technique to use when trying to capture the movement of the antenna. This method also proved effective to make use of as I did not want to inhibit their natural movement or falsify their natural reactions to the walking motion. By attaching an LED to each of them I am able to track their movement by simply turning off the light, which provides no interference to their motion.

I was quite pleased with my findings, as I knew their would obviously be a tracking of their movements, I did not however realize that even though their paths of travel seemed quite random their was in many cases a pattern to their movements. This repetitive act of movement creates geometric patterns that appear almost as shapes, a kind of helix?

This is only a small sampling of the hours of photos taken this afternoon, more are to come. I am also going to be using the photos overlaid with one another to identify further patterning and continue with my course of tracking movement through drawing!

Drawing...begins tomorrow!

Taking a few days to let Monday's studio sink in a little and digest tomorrow will mark the beginning of some intense days of drawing. I will go further in depth day by day as I progress but the plan right now is to track the movement of the legs of my monsters through a carbon paper transfer technique and to track the grassy limbs on top by using light mapping. It should be exciting!

Pondering & Portfolio

Nothing necessarily groundbreaking or earth shattering to report from the last few days other than portfolio work seems to be moving along quite nicely. I realize it's maybe a tad early to be concentrating this heavily on portfolio already but it seems as though at the end of the semester I'm so rushed that I never get to do as thorough of a job on it as I would like - hence this semester I'm being pro-active and starting early - this is kinda a big deal for me!

While working away on the portfolio I'm pondering the list of stuff that needs to get done this week for studio, or rather simply thought about...not entirely sure...but it's plaguing my thoughts! The following questions need to be addressed -

- What does your monster/thing do?
- What is it about?
- What is its purpose?
- What is its site? (not specific at this point, characteristic)

Also some other items that need to be thought about are -

- Gathering all portfolio material (currently have an ok handle on this...I think)
- Suggest where the 'thing' should go (also addressed above in questions)
- Evolution
- Purpose
- Interpretations and tectonics
- Percenium
- Autopoetic system
- What are its disturbances?
- GOOD drawings
- Light & sound considerations

All of this is in the works, I'll update appropriately!

Research & Prairie Grass

Getting back on track with some quality textual research that will hopefully become inspiration or at least clarity to advance with studio, here are my newest additions...

- Soft Architecture
- Architecture and...
- Modular Growth in Seed Plants
- The Driftwood Aesthetic
- The Kindergarten

Also I'm diving right into information surrounding prairie grasses and what their purpose, function & form communicates which is what the form of my walking machines seem to be leading me towards at this point in time.

To digress, I realize that while in Montreal I felt confused about what the next step I needed to take was and how I needed to interpret the form that had essentially evolved through my process - long extended structures that for whatever reason keep leading my thoughts to grass blowing in the wind (of course along with a supportive sub structure of stick like legs). If it makes any sense all of a sudden everything seems very organic and imitative of nature through not only form but action as well. What I can appreciate about what I have created is that it too is also random, not unlike grass blowing in the wind - unpredictable & confined only to the certain restraints of space or condition, whichever is present. To make the million thoughts that are running frantically through my mind at 11pm on a Thursday night simple - I'm thinking about grass blowing in the wind. Period.

A quick re-cap of the week @ Concordia...in depth details to come!

A quick re-cap of the Black Box week @ Concordia University...each day involved visitors, critiques, individual work, set up & informal lectures or discussions...but here is a brief description of each day, kind of...

Monday ---> Basically a day of set up and checking out the space with organization for the week ahead...see previous post titled 'Inhabiting the Black Box' for a better idea of the
space. Monsters were assembled with my new fabricated pieces, which work and look great.

Tuesday ---> During the morning we had some tours of the Hexagram facility, AMAZING! The rest of the day consisted on more set up but individually rather than group organization. Chris and I rigged up our 'telephone pole' hanging horizontal wire system (which can also be seen in the 'Inhabiting the Black Box' post) for our monsters to be suspended from, which proved effective.

Wednesday ---> I started experimentation with fiber optics after my discussion with Flower to attach to the flowing 'antenna' of my monsters (see fiber optics - light extensions for photos)...as well as progressing with circuitry and getting my monsters to interact with each other.

Thursday ---> Basically a work day again, a lot more progression with circuity...this will have to be explained more in depth with a separate post to clarify in depth...stay tuned! At this point in the week I thought it would be interesting to take my prototypical circuits and make them permanent... perhaps I didn't have enough time for this at this point in the week...ha ha but I did get it done, so I guess that's all that counts!

Friday ---> An overall crazzzzzy day trying to get prepared for 5-7pm exhibition 'Grotesque Perturbations'. At this point I had finished making my boards but they were not yet working perfectly with the monsters, therefore the day was spent in extreme frustration trying to get everything working with the help of Nick and Patrick as some new elements needed to be added to what I had created. The show went GREAT!!!

Back from the Box! (and Toronto)

I survived the Black Box and am officially back in Winnipeg after a quick few day jaunt through Toronto...trust me I needed it after Montreal!

Being at Concordia all week was extremely intense, but in the end well worth it from the amount that I was able to achieve in progressing with the process of my monsters. I had no idea that everything would come together by Friday to produce such a fantastic show, well done everyone! The following posts will be a brief catch up from the week as blogging on top of everyday work was proving to be a challenge, yet I still want to make sure that everything is documented on here as well...better late than never!

Erro Ambulo

Inhabiting the Black Box

The Black Box is a large theatre space within Corcordia University in Montreal of which Hexagram is affiliated with. We basically picked up our studio from Winnipeg and moved it here for the week to work on 'Grotesque Pertubations' - soft architecture / Dedale studio workshop, working along with the Topological Media Lab.

To give an idea of a space - extremely high ceiling with a grid system used for lighting and suspension, a concrete grid floor which is conductive and also have removable panels, black fabric panel walls and one huge white wall for projection purposes.

When we arrived we began to lay out the space for placement purposes and also equipment locations. There are also 3 suspended ceiling truss rigs used for lighting, sound & projection - all of which is integrated into the exhibition using various techniques. Since Monday we have all been working on our individual 'monsters' and introducing a form of interaction to our ideas.

My walking monsters are suspended along a cable system which is attached to two posts secured to the floor. Clamps on each side of the post allow the cable system to be shared by Chris' hanging monsters to futher emphasize the element of interaction. The electronic bodies of my monsters are suspended from the cable system using pullys so that they can walk along the floor. The hollowness of the floor system amplifies the action of the walking motion into a scraping noise, which should work wonderfully with the wireless microphone of which I hope to make use of before tomorrow.

Day 3 @ Hexagram

Fiber Optics - Light Extensions

Components in Context

Components

Diagrams for Black Box Theatre

The following are diagrams for what my machine's are currently capable of, performance wise, after today there will be some additional interactivity between the two sets, but nothing that would change my set up. Basically the two walking monsters and the YMCA elmo move along the ground and require a suspended cable system (horizontal) which can be seen in the sketch below. As far as location in the room a more open portion of the space would work well as there is potential for interaction with the works of others.

New touch puppets

While doing some research tonight to hopefully find some inspiration for some more of my objects within the world of puppetry I came across an old fashioned toy commonly known as either the 'climbing man' or 'climbing monkey'. Basically the toy consists of a figure suspended between two strings with the ability to slide up and down according to which string is pulled due to friction creation in the manner of which the strings are attached. When the toy moves up the strings it appears as though it is climbing - I find this absolutely fascinating! So I picked a member of my army and gave it a try!

I decided to use YMCA Elmo because he has similar arm actions to that of a human, if that was whom were to be controlling the toy. This worked great! Originally I made the figure out of paper and then decided to switch to a metal plate because I could create the same effect that I had with my walking monsters touching each other. Here is the outcome so far...

Touch supportive components

Figuring out, with the circuitry that I created at the end of the weekend, what I wanted to do with my monsters has lead me into creating components to allow this to function more effectively. Basically, before I had simply placed a steel rod on the two monster's hands...but after critiques last week I have decided to move further away from the monster's animal identities and more towards viewing them instead as more like systems or simply components working together to create an action or set of occurrences. To do this I have chosen to remove the arm elements for the original toys and begin to work upwards in creating taller creatures that have a more structural identity. This involved the designing of some components because I am now creating something new instead of working with what is available to me.
The 2 new components that I am working on serve the purpose of supporting the very thin rods attached to each monster that will activate a set of independent events or occurrences. I am adding new elements to existing structural components to create extensions of pieces that work well.

Creating light through interaction & touch

With my new found electronics knowledge gained this afternoon (funny yes) I was able to start thinking a lot more in depth about where I wanted my walking creatures to progress. Patrick and I had talked more again on Friday about my monsters being able to interact with each other more so than they are currently (with relating to each other only through walking). Either way I knew I needed to work more on the projection aspect of the studio...so here goes!

While learning circuits today I was happy to discover that the steel rods I had got to extend the monster's limbs was able to conduct a current (yay!) and so could a thin sheet of metal that I also got a hold of (even better!!!). This opens up a whole bunch of possibilities for where I can go from here. So I tested this condition, or what I figured might be possible....

Honestly I was so excited when this worked, even though I realize that it's a simple thing (keep in mind that I have no previous electronics background). So I took this idea and translated through the actions of my monsters. I attached a thin steel rod to the top of each them that would sway back and forth. On the Chicken I created the positive portion of the circuit from the battery pack and ran a wire to the new limb. Another wire ran from the Chicken to the positive end of an LED taped to the wall on the other side of the room. On the Teletubby I linked a wire to its new limb and ran the other end of this across the room and attached it to the negative leg of the LED.

To complete the circuit and turn on the LED all that had to happen was that the two monster's new limbs would come into contact with each other throughout their sporadic walking around the room attached to their new cable suspension system (wire with pulleys running along them which each monster has to support their 'insides' and give them boundaries). This may not happen often but when it does the LED across the room becomes lit up!!! (the video is very dim, so watch closely)

By doing this I now have a million new ideas running through my mind! Basically I now want to combine the contact of the two monsters with each other along with the solo contact of each individual monster with other unique elements. My first idea is having the two, when touching each other still powering a system of lighting but to add something else to the mix I will hang other metal panels throughout their shared space which will be wired to either more lighting circuits or sound activating circuits - either should be exciting and will create a series of independent and unique outcomes. Stay tuned!

LED...oooo...ahhhh

So I figured it's about time that I started to actually work with electronics - this is a huge step for me! I'm not exactly sure why I haven't created any circuits yet, I think it's mainly because my focus had been more on mechanical elements....either way, here goes!

My first step was to go over some of the basics. I went back and read a lot of the "intro" stuff that Patrick posted way back at the beginning of September, it was a huge help, also so was Randy that showed me the basics of the breadboard (there's your shout out!). Anyways I started extremely easy with creating an LED circuit and then from there I started experimenting with resistors and light sensors - overall it was a very productive & exciting day for me!

My first LED lit up!

Once I figured out one LED it wasn't long before I had a few set up, but I was pretty happy that I started using resistors which allowed me to dim some of the lights - the photo above shows 3 of the same green LED but all at different brightnesses.

I had some light sensors so I decided to see if I could make one work, success! I was pretty proud of this one :)