Instead of my massive ‘TVU’ piece, I put an F’n light on the wall. What should I say? (well,.. I said that in my artist statement).

The piece came of frustration. After not having the time or space to do what I want, and after having a media ‘installation’ class, with no psychical space to build installations, (even after a 42million$ campus expansion) I’m feeling a little pissed. So this was my final.

It’s a wall socket, with 2 red LED’s (2001 Hal style) with a speaker built into the back. The unit speaks, and introduces itself as the tactile interface to our new (and oh so wonderful *cough*) smart room system. The unit is installed horizontally on the wall, rather than vertical on purpose. As the unit talks in a computerized and unclear voice (OCAD + clarity..?), the red lights flickers in unison.
After awhile, it asks people to interact with it and demo the system, saying “touch me” and “push my buttons” however, just like our smart room system, there are no buttons….

I did this for OCAD, as well as an homage to the wonderful workers who managed to put things in backwards, forget to wire things, crossed cabling, and, yes, forgot install light switches in the rooms.
Let’s be honest, as, I’ve done these things,… it’s just not that fucking hard to install a light switch. It’s like.. Circuitry, but with 2 fucking pieces. Nice job.

It was great to see people wave their hands and attempt to find the buttons or try for touch sensitivity, everyone knows my work is always interactive, and last project Billie Jo made sure to bring this up. So I figured it’d be fun to fuck with everyone.

Actually, people seemed to really like it. Which annoyed me. I don’t like that I put 2 hours into a piece and had it enjoyed. I prefer spending 72+ hours and making something detailed and such.. so I felt dirty.

Technical thoughts:
I experimented a slight bit actually. In order to produce sound a varying voltage is sent to a speaker, thus, if one puts a light onto that cable, the light will produce varying intensity, from zero to full brightness. I’d never really put the two concepts together before, and it’s funny, but neither have a lot of people. I’ve seen a lot of mods for computers with single light logos that bounce in tune with the music and they all use complex chips and circuitry. None of which is needed at all.

An exercise in LEGO inspired artwork. As this cost me way too much, and I went overboard with a tiny project, I needed to find easy ways to reuse the components as much as possible. I also needed cheap wire. Thus, I used RCA sockets and cable. All the pieces interlock easily and can be reused for later works. It also gives the piece a very tidy finished look. Even though it’s still an experimental work in progress. In total, I used 40 feet of wire inside the sensor Pillars and 192 feet of cable outside to wire in the lights. Yes, I am insane, but that’s why you love me.

What does it do?
Inside of a darkened room hang 6 double sided images drawn by Ryan Solski that have small white lights hanging behind them. The cable all collects into a central mass being fed into 2 pillars in the centre of the room that have Photo-resisters installed on them. When the spectator walks into the room, they can either look at the images, or interact with the nervous system of the installation and by moving their hands over the pillars, they can effect the ambiance of the room. Dimming each light individually, or all at once. The user decides and has control over the entire space.

It’s a work in progress as none of the lights are exactly the way I want them to be, however all the circuitry and power systems for the installation are complete. As it was, THIS was $80, too much for a 3 week project and there just wasn’t time to finish correctly.

The idea behind the piece.
Ryan and I saw the work in different ways. The idea in my mind deals with space and how we relate and interact with it. The space is operating fine when the user enters it, but through the interaction of the user, the space is disrupted and the central user thusly effects the experience of all those around them. When they step back however the system returns to equilibrium on it’s own. In a white boxed gallery type setting, it gives the viewer the chance to control and effect that space rather than just being a passive observer within it.

I know, I’ve been neglecting the site. I’ve just been working on personal projects as well as school projects, as well as OTHER PEOPLES school projects. *cough*. Maybe one day I’ll update the portfolio with my new stuff… one day..

Also! Sorry to my friends, I know I’ve been neglecting you all as of late, declining party requests and hang outs, especially joni (sorry) I’m just busy…


(Very_slop py_image of what I envision for thesis. See Oct 13th for text)

//V didn’t come this weekend as planned. I was sad. She thought she’d get more work done without me distracting her. Hah. She was wrong.

Servo programming. I like doing things with ghetto electronics. But servos have their purpose and have more torque than what I’m used to using. Enough to move latex skins. Let’s all breath in a sigh of relief.

Research. Been in research mode and I’ve been researching latex, latex moulding and a lot of other things to do with sculpture and the SFX industry. It’s amazing how much you can find online if you look. Lucky me.

Thus, solved some problems with latex shrinkage and slush casting. Yay for that one! About freakin time.

I’ve been reading a lot of stuff on the FX industry. It just comes as a side effect of looking through THEIR specific moulding practices. I cam across this, which confirmed to me something I’ve been suspecting.

LMC: How is CGI affecting the creature shops?

VH: In the last couple of years CG has really taken a bite out of what FX shops used to do. I think CG will take care of more of the creature stuff now. FX shops won’t be doing as many creatures as they used to (i.e. suits and puppets). I don’t think makeups on actors will be affected for a while, but who knows…? This past year and a half has been the worst ever for makeup effects. There’s very little work out there. Lots of people have been out of work for a long, long time.…

This is mostly why I want to do creepy sculpture for more commercial purposes, such as creepy toys and Halloween gear. Halloween stuff will never go out, and it’s still undominated. What’s out there right now isn’t too impressive as the best of the best are too busy working for Hollywood and wouldn’t drop to that level.

You’ll be hearing more opinions about this later, but talk is cheap, so I can bore you to death, and you can roll your eyes and think to yourself I have crazy ideas, or I can just build my own massive company and smile to myself.

The shoe is definitely my favourite project of this year. I learned a lot form it and it actually turned out EXACTLY the way I wanted it too.

>The only difference is that I originally planned for it to have 4, not three motors, but their physically wasn’t room for the 4th. Also, I have to modify it to use an AC adaptor, as it drains the internal 9v battery in 35 minutes! Didn’t see that one coming…

Everyone loved it, even people in the halls.
Every time someone got closer they’d just say “wow it looks even better – Oh my god is that hair? It has Hair?!”

Or people would just think it was a real shoe. Which is an even better complement (an old shoe.. obviously, but a real one).

>> Learned a lot from the various stages of production.

// Mechanical, electrical, moulding, latex casting, pattern design, hair application.

What it does.
The shoe is stitched together with multiple pieces of Latex rubber cast out of moulds made from my own skin. It occasionally vibrates/pulsates, and twitches on the floor as if it were still alive.

How it works
The shoe uses a circuit to interpret signals sent out from an MP3 Player (Rio PMP 300), and converts them into on/off commands which it sends to the motors. The circuit works the same way the VU analyser on a stereo works (the lights that bounce up and down when a song plays). It uses a hv3915 chip but instead of outputting to lights, the signal is converted from a negative pulse, to a positive one, boosted and then sent to the motors. This gives the appearance of random movement with no need for programming as highs and lows in the song will determine when and how the shoe moves.

> Had a good day. Exhausted, no sleep in 2 days. Insomnia from stress or something. Dunno, don’t care. Feel tired, so all is good. Tired = possible sleep.
Spent my usual too much time in school. 11 hours today. So I’m tired right now. But talked to a lot of people, so feel satisfied. School = social. Home = TV.

> Was happy with the sculpture I’m working on, got my Circuit further built, and got an ego boost.

Steve ( really nice friggen cool guy that does amazing electronical art (he’s currently doing a microscope with Hi8 film running through it and a computer controlled Barbie cat-scan that kicks ass and has an incredible computer interface of a dissected woman, you can’t believe how cool this thing is, very professional)).

Anyways, some second year kid came running in the other day wanting to do a project like this other one he saw last year. This wicked electronic bat that moved it’s head all over and stuff and was controlled by a computer. He thought it was the coolest thing ever and wanted to know how to do the same.

So Steve was like, you’ve got a fan man. Which of course was funny. I’ll have to track him down and show him how I did it. (Wish the pictures did it justice, but you gotta see it moving in person. Not blurry, badly lit still photos.)

> Also, everyone’s been ragging me for my shaggy hair. Calling me ‘shaggy’.
Ahhh no.
We really are creative most of the time. The thing is though; it’s the look that suits my lifestyle. The less I shower, the better my hair looks. Laundry = the same. I can wear $10 jeans and a $5 shirt, not shower and show up 5 minutes after crawling out of bed, and I’m ‘stylish’.
Whatever man. Works for me.

Got some of my Smartmedia cards working again. I used my old MP3 player to reformat them. Yes the good old Rio PMP300. Many people complained about the fact that it reformats the cards into a different format than a standard computer. But not me. It allows the Rio to have direct access to many parts of the memory card no other device can match. Thus, no card reader was able to fix my camera cards, but the Rio fixed 3x 32mb cards in 5 minutes. Hyvää.