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 :)

Jacob's Ladder

I came across this - 'Jacob's Ladder' while doing some research and think it's amazing!!! If you google the term check out the images, some are fantastic!

Borrowed from - Visual Entertainment - http://www.answers.com/topic/spark-gap?cat=technology

A Jacob's Ladder with electrical arc

A Jacob's ladder (more formally, a high voltage traveling arc) is a device for producing a continuous train of large sparks which rise upwards. The spark gap is formed by two wires, approximately vertical but gradually diverging away from each other towards the top.

When high voltage is applied to the gap, a spark forms across the bottom of the wires where they are nearest each other, rapidly changing to an electric arc. Air breaks down at about 1MV/m (24kV/in), depending on humidity, temperature, etc. Apart from the anode and cathode voltage drops, the arc behaves almost as a short circuit, drawing as much current as the electrical power supply can deliver, and the heavy load dramatically reduces the voltage across the gap.

The heated, ionized air rises, carrying the current path with it. As the trail of ionization gets longer, it becomes more unstable, finally breaking. The voltage across the electrodes then rises and the spark re-forms at the bottom of the device.

This cycle leads to an exotic-looking display of electric white, yellow, blue or purple arcs which is often seen in movies about mad scientists. The device was a staple in schools and science fairs of the 1950s and 1960s, typically constructed out of a Model T spark coil, or any other source of high voltage in the 10,000 volt - 30,000 volt range, like a neon sign transformer or circuit (10-30 kV) or a television picture tube circuit (flyback transformer) (10-28 kV), and two coat hangers or rods built into a "V" shape. The sparks can burn through thin paper and plastic and start fires; contact with the exposed high voltage can be lethal.

Chicken Monster

There are still some bugs to work out but this is the first prototype for the what I'm calling for now 'Chicken Monster'...based on the same process as the Teletubby Monster I have extended the legs which has in turn created new erratic movements. Currently I am having some issues involving balance as his legs have more joints than the Teletubby as well as a rotating hip joint instead of a stationary one. What I find intriguing about him at this point is that he moves very fast and his movement is completed in two stages - the first a brisk walk and the second a significantly faster run - with a pause in between for about 4 seconds. His arms also have their own up and down action movement independent of the leg movement which should be interesting to work with.

Plan B - Foot

Due to the failure of 'Plan A' I then created 'Plan B', which as I mentioned in a previous post involved an idea from earlier in my process that I decided to revisit. Basically a cutout of wood, sized larger than the existing foot shape, was designed to be sandwiched between the two pieces of plastic. This new shape became the base for securing the metal rods which act as legs to the monster. The shape started as simply a larger version of the original shape but after some trial and error I was able to modify the design so that less material could be used, therefore cutting down on the weight of the foot, which was an earlier issue I was aware of this time around. By modifying the shape I was also able to cut down on the possibility of the two feet hitting each other in the middle.

I first traced the plastic foot and made a cutout from mill board as a prototype as I knew the design might change once I secured the piece.

The shape was then able to be modified to preserve material and cut down on weight of the component.

I then took a tracing of the mill board foot with a few dimensions and imported it into AutoCad so that I could create a more polished template that I could reproduce easier and also mirror to create the opposite foot.

From here I used a wood composite board to create a new foot from the template I produced and then incorporated it into the monster with a connection piece I also created to secure the metal rod legs. The connection of leg to foot consists of a nut secured to the rod with high strength metal glue so that the leg would not slip out of the foot holes drilled into the wood board. The nut was then secured to a piece of nylon coated galvanized strapping used for copper piping so that a screw could be placed on each side of the rod connection, therefore prohibiting the rod from rotating, also an earlier issue I faced. Finally a nut was then placed on each of the screws sandwiching the connection around the wood board foot.

The end result of 'Plan A'

As promised here is a photo from 'Plan A' failure...or rather 'learning experience'. Despite the fact that I spent the weekend using this method for making the feet of the Teletubby monster that didn't even work in the end, I did however learn a ton about mold making.

Plan A failed but Plan B is a success!

So unfortunately, or not depending on how I look at it I guess, my mold making failed, kinda miserably. Each individual step seemed to go well, and I honestly had a really positive and hopeful outcome for the process as a whole as well as a potentially really cool final product, but in the end it just didn't work out.

Basically to summarize things the rubber mold worked great to a certain extent but it took way to long and probably would have greatly benefited from about twice as many coats. The rubber mold had issues sticking to the plaster backing, which I probably should have seen coming, and then because of the fragile state of the rubber portion of the mold, unfortunately the resin seeped in between the two layers and acted more like a glue between the two - I totally didn't see this coming. Anyways once I managed to finally get the resin piece out of the two part mold it honestly wasn't going to work exactly how I planned. The fit was just not precise enough and the holes for the steel leg rods just weren't going to work.

So after days of hard work, frustration set in and with some brainstorming a new plan got set into place yesterday! I call it - Plan B!

Plan B reverts back to what I had originally discussed during an earlier guest crit - sandwiching a material in between the two foot pieces and securing the rods somehow - the "somehow" is the part that has been a rediculous battle! Sketches will get posted along with photos tomorrow but basically my 'monster' is now walking again, yay, and the system that I have used allows me to completely disassemble him and pack him up for Montreal (always a plus).

A have achieved a little tiny piece of success and will now continue to move forward!

Walking Monster - pre-deconstruction

Sorry about the sideways video...I wanted to get this up on my site but I can't get it flipped around for whatever reason, when I have a new one with the new foot construction I will post it :) For now, just tilt your heads to the right...

Motion

Frustration sets in

Currently I am overwhelmed! I am absolutely in love with the possibilities of my walking Teletubby in terms of interaction as well as entertainment, but at the same time this excitement has also been discouraging me. Although the other objects that I have hold tons of potential, their capabilities just don't seem to be fitting the ideas that I'm having in terms of movement, especially in terms of movement as a group.

Ideas have been flying through my head like crazy and my concept has been changing slightly more everyday. Despite the changes that I may be making to my ideas my underlying theme stays the same which is research based - movement, puppetry, interaction -

So out of frustration today I went on the hunt for more items that spoke to me in the same way that the Teletubby does. I managed to find a few things that I'm really happy with in terms of possibility. The first is a tiny walking duck and the second is a bouncing Tigger. The duck excites me so much in that it will be amazing once I extend its legs in the same way that I'm doing currently with the Teletubby, but it walks much faster and has a more complicated arm movement opening up a few more possibilities that way. The Tigger has a crazy amount of leg power and I'm hoping to give him a few more legs than the other two character which should create a really interesting movement!

So hopefully this means I'm on track to something good, not that I wasn't before but it feels like I'm still lacking focus....tomorrow will hopefully be clearer! It's not that I'm not moving forward it's just that I'm not totally sure where I'm headed....although that may not be a negative thing...

Imitation of Movement

Looking at the general paths of motion of each of my objects I then related this to the actions of certain animals so that I could attempt to mirror the movements and behaviours that each are associated with. So far only a few seemed obvious and I hope to look at others this week more carefully so that I can pair them appropriately.

From here mimicking the animals through puppetry is my next plan of action. Once each action is assigned an animal I can then extend the movements and attach a cutout to the exaggeration. The iconic images can then be projected onto the wall with a light source, therefore turning the machine into the manipulator, taking the human out of the process which is an idea I keep coming back to which is taken from The Chess Player written by Mark Sussman previously mentioned in earlier posts.

Another possibility is that the animal figures can have their own light source so that when the lights are dimmed the visuality of the machines is no longer the focus but instead the focus is the animal images which seem to be alive.

Simple Beauty of Puppetry

While searching for some inspiration this afternoon after a day of experimentation with mechanisms and mold making I came across a website dedicated to Puppeteers that is extremely interesting!

My main goal at this point is to link together the three elements that are most important to the context of what I'm hoping to create -

exaggeration - beauty of the simple mechanical movement - puppetry

- through these things working together I hope to achieve a sense of poetic chaos

At this point some of the images that are making my imagination run wild with possibility are -

Component Construction - the beginning! (feet)

Today I went and got all the necessary supplies to begin the construction of new feet for my monster that will incorporate the new legs into their design. After talking to a bunch of people, visiting a few art stores and searching the internet like a maniac I have decided to attempt some mold making which will give me a final product made out of resin.
The first step in the process was figuring out the new design for the feet and then modeling them out of clay. This is where I currently am in the process. The rest of the step will begin in the morning as they will take several hours and must be completed all at once. Next will be coating my clay models with several coats of liquid rubber which is designed for mold making. Each layer must be painted on waiting 30 min in between each coat. After this is complete I will then make a base for the mold out of plaster of paris. Next I will fill the rubber mold (female piece) with a thin layer of clay the thickness that I wish the final object to be to create space between the female and male parts of the two part "squish mold". Once this is in place I will coat the inside with several coats of rubber once again and then complete the mold making process by filling the male portion with plaster to give it rigidity. Once both sides of the mold are dry and ready to go I will mix the resin mixture and pour it into the female side of the mold filling it about half way and then I will place the male side of the mold into the female side forcing the resin to fill the void between the two pieces. I will then wait for the resin to dry and pull the two pieces of the mold apart...and hopefully I will be left with a resin component in the form of the foot I have designed...we shall see!!!

Traces of Light

I decided to track some of the movement of the monster (formerly the Teletubby) today by recording its sporadic walking while having the lights dimmed so that I could concentrate on the actions of the upper limbs in particular. Attached to the ends of each arm is a small light bulb (not an LED) extracted from the sparkle tummy panel of the original toy. I was fascinated to see that the movement was very different each time I activated him adding to the general sense of chaos. The flailing arms created gorgeous curves of light each unique and equally intriguing. Hopefully I will be able to set up a similar experiment involving the legs once the foot attachment is completed to see if I achieve similar results even though the movement doesn't seem as extreme.

The Monstrosity that is Elmo

YMCA Elmo is seen here in his current monstrosity! Activated by the wires remaining from the push sensor location, which is currently being reworked, the small lights (not LEDs) located on the ends of both arm extensions light up at which point Elmo is activated to begin "walking". The movement currently has a strong resemblance to Bambi the deer walking for the first time but I see it a poetic chaos which is right now absolutely fascinating to me.

Legs & Feet

As explained in the review the current craft of YMCA Elmo needs some improvement...with that aside and acknowledged, here is an explanation of where I'm currently at. When I first attached the wire legs to Elmo when I activated him he fell over, mainly because the legs had nothing stopping them from swinging back and forth. I had placed a ring of wire around and between the two foot pieces and then attached the leg wires to this. By doing this I had nothing to secure the legs in place, therefore it needed to be re-thought. I then decided that to stay properly in place the legs needed to be properly braced to avoid lateral unwanted movement. I bent the wire so that the top of the leg contoured the foot piece and connected up to the original leg. I then secured the three legs on each foot accordingly and this worked wonderfully. Elmo was now able to walk freely and balance on his own, SUCCESS!

The only issue I was now having was that the leg pieces were sliding away from the gear box body which was inhibiting them from moving, which at some points when Elmo was activated caused him to only sway back and forth instead of walking. This was temporarily fixed by placing a piece of tape over the two pieces to secure them, this obviously needs to be rethought...and so the process goes continues!

Review #1

So this past Thursday was official Review #1, everything went fairly well. I started things off by speaking about the research that I've been doing concerning automata and where that has been leading me in terms of magic & Robert Houdin. From there I moved into more of what I've been working on lately mainly with the Teletubby and also with YMCA Elmo. Overall I got some great feedback from Patrick and the rest of the group and hopefully this week I will begin to move forward!

Because of my research concerning Houdin lately I have been more inclined to look at the more mechanical aspects of my objects rather than the electronic necessarily. Temporarily putting aside for a few days how the objects will interact with each other I have focused my concentration on the Teletubby and perfecting his craft and overall functionality. As he functioned great how I had him constructed there is some tweaking that needs to be done, mainly craft, to get him prepared for Montreal.

Some feedback that I received from Patrick about where I am currently headed is that my project holds potential because I am working with so many objects. With this said I need to re-construct some of my objects with which I have taken the vivisection process too far so that they can begin to interact with each other more effectively. The experiments that I began to look at with a few of the vivisected parts suspended have since been put on hold seeing as they were proving less successful than what I have been doing with Elmo and Teletubby, this is probably for the best though.

As of right now I am focusing on craft, extension of parts through projection in length, creation of components to suit the needs of actions & finally an interaction between two or more of my objects - it's going to be a busy week!!!

Performing the Intelligent Machine & random tangents...

This article is proving to be a valuable resource in terms of my studio progressing. The article speaks of an automaton chess player built by Wolfgang de Kempelen in 1769 that was essentially a mechanical puppet. The concept of machine as human and human as machine is discussed throughout which intrigues me because where is the line drawn between the two or at one point does a machine become human and visa versa. The chess player is a coming together of theatre and machine which I find relates to the objects that I used for my vivisections at the end of September which were essentially toy machines meant for the entertainment of children, which basically sounds the same as a theatre experience - for the pleasure of the viewer.

Mark Sussman speaks of the Chess Player as provoking mystery and secrecy which I can relate to the readings that I have been doing regarding magic because the performance of a magician provokes these exact emotions in their audience. I really like the idea of the machine being able to be a form of entertainment as well as a sort of riddle or imitation of something other than what it is.

The objects that I am using are inanimate yet they seem to have a life of their own, is this lifelike quality provided by the fact that they are machines or is it because they need to be interacted with, one without the other doesn't take place at the moment, their movements are dependant on weather or not I press their sensors. I keep coming back to the idea of my mechanical toys becoming performers of theatre. Together I have been able to cause one to activate the other through circuitry, has this caused the one toy to become more machine or human than the other because I am taken out of the equation? Mark Sussman states in the article that the relationship of authority between people and objects is constantly questioned yet is always set back into a rational state because of their natural hierarchy, but what happens when there isn't a hierarchy, or the distinction between man and machine is blurred?

In puppet theatre humans are the ones hidden behind a curtain using mechanical and manual sources for entertainment, but what happens when the human is taken out of the equation and machines are placed behind the curtain to control objects that imitate human life - is this still entertainment and can we as humans relate to it as we have been taken out of the position of control?

Random thoughts...

I am now in the position that I want to begin the transformation of my objects beyond inanimate objects of play and towards being performers of theatre. I'm maybe not completely sure how I'm going to do this yet but there always seems to be an unknown and right now I'm ok with that!

Research this week

My research over the past few days has been focused on automatons as well as magic, primarily Robert Houdin. Finding resources on Houdin is proving to be difficult as I mentioned before but the information that I am getting my hands on is fairly good. Articles that I have read this week are along with several non-academic web sites that I won't list at the moment are -

- Creativity of the Magician - Jehangir Bhownagary
- (excerpt) A Conjurer's Confessions - M. Robert-Houdin
- Words in Modern Magic - A.S. Fleischman

Success! YMCA Elmo is functioning again!

After hours of frustration and days of trial and error YMCA Elmo is again functioning as normal - word of advice - be extremely careful when you complete a vivisection especially when working with sensors of any sort that can become mixed up - enough said.

I decided to execute a series of trial and error situations which I documented along the way to attempt to figure out what each sensor's purpose was but also more importantly where the sensor should be and how it needed to be activated. I knew that the sensor's were paired together giving me 3 sets of 2 - purple, green - orange, red - purple, gray. Each set of sensors could be reversed so for example the purple could be to the left of the green or visa versa or gray could be above the purple - this was depending on their configuration within the poured plastic torso shell. I then mapped out the 3 locations for the sensor pairs and began switching out one set at a time and recording the changes as I went -

Trial 1 -
This combination allowed Elmo to function but he seemed to not be performing the correct corresponding actions to E-L-M-O, each letter had an incorrect response.






Trial 2 -
This combination allowed Elmo to function although his actions still seemed to be mixed up. His state of confusion with this combination seemed worse than before. He is now only completing actions according to two of the letters listed - L & E.





Trial 3 -
Within this combination Elmo does not do the M action and doesn't complete the dance in full, he stops somewhere mid 2nd verse. Elmo also gets caught in a seizure like state before he is able to start signing the song where his arms seem to be getting jammed on one of the gears within.




Trial 4 -
This combination of sensors allows Elmo to complete the first part of the song and dance correctly without a repetitive action at the beginning but causes the song to stop suddenly mid E-L-M-O verse. There seems to be a problem with the neck action in that it is activated correctly but doesn't return to its original positioning.




Trial 5 -
Within this combination of sensors everything seems to be functioning correctly in terms of sensor placement but it is seeming as though the arm gears have an effect on the sensors according to their positioning during and beginning the set of actions, there may be a problem with the way the gears are interlocking with one another.



Trial 6 -
This combination of sensors seems to be a step backwards - Elmo is no longer performing the O action, he is skipping it altogether and is becoming extremely difficult to activate - at some points he will not begin the sequence at all, yet I can hear the motor making a faint buzzing noise, something may be jammed?




Trial 7 -
This combination is proving to be the most successful to this point. Elmo is completing all of his E-L-M-O actions and has again began to end his song and dance with an end statement, he still however has issues with moving his arms into the "up" position.



After the sensors appeared that they were positioned in the correct locations I began to adjust other elements that were possible to adjust in hopes that I had the sensors in the correct locations but maybe it was something else causing the sequence of events to not function properly.

I knew from detaching the front red and orange sensors that one of them activated the song and dance and this was done by the inner gear behind them touching up against their side pressing the small red button in. I activated Elmo twice and each time either pressed the red or orange sensor to try and draw a conclusion regarding what their correct positioning was. From this I discovered that it was the red sensor that needed to be in the lower slot so that Elmo danced and sang when his hand sensor was pushed

Once the front sensors were positioned correctly I was then able to tweak the gear positioning which in turn decided the started position of the arms. I looked back to original photos and realized that Elmo's arms were always straightened when the sequence began so I then attempted several times to place the arms correctly with the gears properly interlocked.

Finally I was able to achieve correct sensor placement and arm placement which allowed the gears to properly rotate which activated the neck action which reset the sequence allowing Elmo to finish his song and dance as well as perform his final saying at the end! In short Elmo is now fully functioning correctly again with no gear jamming or misplaced actions according to the song. Below is a final diagram and conclusions I was able to draw about the positioning of the 6 sensors -

small step towards creating a monster - the interaction

Carl Drohomereski was in studio today guest critiquing and giving us some tutorials and general information about circuit boards. The attempt today was for me to get two or more of my machines interacting with each other, in any way possible at this point. I basically went through my resources and tried to look at the parts of which could be useful and found that sensors were a good starting point.

I chose to use my two vivisection victims at this point and branch out later once I have a better understanding of how everything works together. Both toys have hand sensors, motors and moving limbs so I decided to create an interaction between the two of them making use of these functions. My goal after a few hours of assessing the situation was to activate the Teletubby's walking function through the use of Elmo, however possible. Originally I hoped to activate Elmo through a sensor transmitted from Po (this is the Teletubby) that I had taken from the Wuvluv but this was proving too difficult at this stage of the game. After speaking to Carl I discovered that to start simple I would attempt to activate Po's walking through triggering the actions of Elmo, causing a chain reaction. This also offers me the opportunity to link more than one toy together to create a larger chain reaction at a later date with more extensive reactions taking place.

The best way to do this was through a circuit created on the solderless breadboard. I decided to take all of Po's senses away so that he was forced to react to Elmo. From here a series of tests were preformed to see how this could be done, which is when I discovered that one of the motors running Elmo was the same amount of volts which were required to bring Po to life. From here I separated the sensor wires (green) on Po and I connected them to the one side of the circuit that I had created on the breadboard. I then attached two additional wires to the motor on Elmo's back and connected these to the opposite side of the circuit on the breadboard. In between the two sets of wires coming from Po and Elmo on the breadboard was a switch (5V, DPDT). Once connected to the power source the circuit containing the switch acted as a bridge between the two machines allowing their interaction which I was hoping to achieve. The action that was obtained was that when Elmo's hand sensor was pushed and he began to move it sent a signal over to Po which caused him to walk in unison!

I realize that this is probably a small step to figuring out or achieving a true monster but at this point I feel like I have already learned so much and am excited to work towards further interaction with my creatures.

Circuit Board - YMCA Elmo

The YMCA Elmo functions from a single circuit board located on the front torso plastic panel. To be able to access underneath this panel each wire needed to be extended so that the board could be removed therefore giving me access to the gears within the body. I expected the circuit board to be much more complex considering the range of actions the toy is capable of. Since I am unfamiliar with circuit board construction/configuration there is a lot that I do no know about this tiny brain of my machine.

So far what I think I may know is that the vertical board placed perpendicular to the main board is able to sense weather or not Elmo has fallen onto his side, prompting a request from him by voice to please help him up. I have cataloged each individual wire attached to the board on my vivisection drawings creating a code to where each wire is attached on each end according to an alphabetical code linking smaller drawings together to combat the confusion from wire extension. Through doing this I was able to get a clearer understanding on the functions of some of the sensors but mostly I am overwhelmed by the technology, hopefully with a little more research I can learn some more about the components of the circuit board which will enable me to make more effective use of the circuitry for the creation of my monster.

YMCA Elmo - A video documentary of Dissection

This video shows the original state of YMCA Elmo prior to the dissection. Elmo has extensive arm movement and is able to rotate his head from side to side as well as balance on one foot - all of this intrigued me to see what was inside!


This video was taken after day 1 of the dissection. Basically at this point I had removed all of Elmo's red fur and stuffing and was able to see the functioning skeleton underneath all the cuteness! I was amazed at the capabilities of the arms still at this point as I could now see the multiple joints of which they were constructed of. At this stage Elmo still functioned exactly how he did before - no evident changes other than an increase in volume due to the lack of sound buffering from thick fur.


This video was taken after the dissection was complete. I was able to remove the front casing of Elmo's body so that I could see how the gears were interacting with one another which gave me insight as to how he was able to function so extensively. To get to this stage every wire needed to be extended because they were so short that they made it near impossible for the torso casing to be removed - this took forever! When completed I removed the casing which unfortunately took some parts with it which caused sensors to fall out of place - thus causing my biggest headache so far! After about 4 hours of hearing YMCA over and over and over I have gotten him back into general working order however there seems to still be some glitches. I must have some of the sensors reversed because I am getting different results than initially. I have despite this finished the vivisection, yay, and have been playing around with the switches and motors within Elmo thinking of possibilities for the next stage....the monster!

General direction...so far...

As mentioned a few days ago my research thus far has lead me towards Robert-Houdin, a clock maker turned magician turned illusionist that had an interest in automata which lead him to preform his famous illusions through the use of his hand crafted automatons.

I'm going to try and explain my logic here for a second (mostly because I need to write it down somewhere other than my sketchbook for a change...I apologize if this doesn't make complete sense in the end...it will by Friday!).

Basically while looking at the world of automatons I stumbled across Houdini's name, among many others, as a builder of automata. Something seemed strange however because when I searched for his name to gather further information another name kept popping up...it turns out that Houdini wasn't always his real name *gasp*! Basically the famous magician that we all know and love actually changed his name to Houdini after being inspired (obsessed?) with his predecessor Robert-Houdin. From this I was lead on another tangent.

Robert-Houdin ---INCREDIBLE! A man of many talents, what I find most fascinating about him is his ability to combine automata, illusion, magic and simply pleasure & enjoyment - from this I am hoping to gather my precedence. Maybe a little vague right now but hopefully the more information I gather the clearer it will become. Unfortunately all of his writings are out of print which is making my life difficult but I have managed to find quite a bit of online info so my search will continue.

So the monster...hmmm...this is the tough part...as of right now the plan is to create something that satisfies human pleasure through enjoyment, fulfills the inner child through play (related to magic), appears as something which it isn't - therefore an illusion(mimicking real life as a machine), and is an automaton - which was the beginning of my research process - this will hopefully bring me full circle!

...so that's where I am at! Hopefully not too confusing :)

YMCA Elmo - Dissection Day 1

These are the photos from day one of the dissection of YMCA Elmo. Basically this day consisted of removing the fuzzy fabric and documenting along the way. By the end of the day I was left with a fully functioning skeleton.

where have I been!?!?!

So I realize that I haven't made a post in the last few days but I've been slightly all over the place! After meeting with Patrick on Thursday for my crit & doing research literally all day I officially have some direction.

Currently I'm running with my research in the direction of Robert-Houdin - which I realize might seem like a bit of a tangent but my logic will become clearer. I'm having no trouble finding online information for my research but books are proving troublesome as each book I have attempted to find so far is out of print...grrr...but I did manage to find one online so that made me happy!

I have been in studio for the weekend completing my second vivisection, YMCA Elmo (ELMO!). So far it seems to be going good and after a few more hours of soldering tomorrow things will probably begin to be a bit clearer. Photos will be posted in the morning of my process so far.