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!