Tuesday, August 24, 2010

on my bench

Whoa... I was sick this weekend past but in a feverish blast of creativity and hacking I built a custom feedback sound machine for use in the Shadow Machine performances in Vancouver. Inspired by a bench top lathe, the hand wound electromagnetic coils I've been working with, one string scrapyard guitars and the ideas behind the performance project, I was able to create something fun and new. The tool box acts as a frame and a resonator. The depth of the feedback is controlled by a potentiometer on the front and the harmonics are controlled by a worm gear driven coil transducer above the guitar string. Another coil is an audio pickup and there is a small amplifier circuit to help induce the feedback.



The aftermath.


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Monday, August 23, 2010

August 2010 news



wind coil sound flow at 01SJ Biennial September 4 - 19 2010.

I will be presenting my kinetic sound sculpture wind coil sound flow at the San Jose City Hall Rotunda as part of ZERO1's themed Build You Own World festival and exhibition September 16 - 19 at San Jose California. In addition I will be participating in the Out of the Garage Into the World program (a part of the festival)September 4 -15 with building the installation components at the South Hall, a large convention space open to the public as part of the exhibition.

Curator Steve Dietz describes the festival here---> podcast .



Shadow Machine performance in Vancouver. September 23- October 31

After rocking the festival in San Jose, I'll be zipping back to Vancouver B.C to participate in 5 weeks of workshopping, rehearsals and performances with Peter Courtemanche, Carol Sawyer and Alvin Erasga Tolentino.

for more info -----> co.erasga.dance.

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Tuesday, August 17, 2010

electronics for lunch

My favorite electronics project boxes are second hand Tupperware/Ziploc/whatever soft plastic food storage containers.



The prototpye is mostly done. We'll rebuild the whole thing in Vancouver and add some fun details. Now it's disassembled and ready for crating.



Nothing leaves the studio without extensive testing. Chris takes the prototype for a ride.

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Thursday, August 12, 2010

this just in........

To read the tiny fuzzy small print click on the picture to enlarge it.

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Monday, August 09, 2010

colors other than green

Even though there is a ton of artwork to do, the backyard is pretty high in our minds here with daily discoveries, maintenance, amazement, harvesting and observations. There's lots of flowers blooming, food to eat, some drama and lots of hanging out. The addition of the gazebo which is sort of our front room now was a stroke of genius by Sandee. It fits perfectly on the deck. We can sit outside rain, shine or mosquito mobbed which we do often.
Some things happen and disappear pretty fast. Like the appearance of a morning glory flower that we both almost missed and we didn't think to photograph. I don't even know if a photograph would do it justice. It was a wondrous thing to gaze upon if only for a few moments.

Random wildflowers.
We got these packets of multiple species of plant seeds from Giant Tiger in the Spring and now we don't know what we have growing or not. Those splashes of yellow in the background are several of the many marigolds that we have all over. Part of our natural pesticide program.



One sunflower is now 10 feet tall!



Purple basil...yum!


Lovely geraniums.



Tomitillos, a very beautiful plant to observe. We got these from our friends Kate and Andris who last year infected me with this gardening bug. Their garden is a great inspiration and they amongst others have been very generous.



Our living room.



One of the many poppies we have all over too. The local children keep stealing them from where they poke out of the fence in the front yard.

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Tuesday, August 03, 2010

in the studio

In addition to all the work with the garden, I've been spending a lot of time in the studio getting things ready for upcoming shows in San Jose and Vancouver. There's lots to do. With the final drop off of crate contents to be prepared for shipping to San Jose, I shifted from work on wind coil sound flow to the preparation of devices for the Shadow Machine in Vancouver.





I finally wired up this hacked mobility scooter so it can be controlled by remote control. This forms the base of a 'wandering' workbench which will be used during the performance. So far it works well but now it's time to sort out all the wiring and mechanics for the final version.



It's easy for me to be distracted by an interesting challenge. We learned how to crack the combination for the safe that was left here by the previous tenants. With Tim Hunkin's lecture about the fine art of safe cracking in the back of my mind, we carefully worked out the 6 numbers to the combinations and the opening procedures for the two exterior door locks. What made it relatively easy was the fact that the door was already open and we could look inside the tumbler enclosure to see what was happening with the mechanism. I found a 3D animation of how tumbler based combination locks work too.





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