stuff i've been doing

Here's some objects I've created recently.

KatamariI made this Katamari for Chad for Christmas late last year, his girlfriend Mary posted some good pictures of it here. Hear that? It's lovely.

Light Wars Circuit Bend
Here's my first circuit bending project. It started with a toy called Light Wars, a game where little lights whip around these tracks and you try to deflect them. The bottom two buttons were rewired to my bends. I tried to rig all my connections this way, but it turns out the built-in buttons induce some resistance even when the connection is closed, which messed with two of my other bends, so I ripped two of the buttons out and put in two of my own. Most importantly, I put in a volume control knob, shown at the top. This thing is fucking loud.

Basically this thing plays itself, since I've rendered the basic game unplayable, while the bends alter the rythmic sounds. Then there's a couple buttons that make it totally flip out if you press them when the game ends, which is fun. Not really enough smarts to make it a wholly satisfying project, but it was good practice for...

Talking Computron Circuit Bend

This was my second circuit bend project, with some much more satisfying changes to it. Each of the four main red buttons I added does something different under different conditions, and I'm still finding interesting combinations. Once I got it to randomly play sound bites from its memory, one after the next, including answers from its spelling and pronounciation lessons, so it just went "Four. Flower. Nine. Your score is. Heaven. Elephant. Three. Times. Please Choose an Activity" and so on, forever. I'm still trying to figure out how to get that loop on cue. There's also all manner of incredibly noisy, sub-word freakout loops to send it off into.

The knob on the top enacts a slowdown/speedup that really screws with things, though I had to also attach a switch to it, since it also sometimes completely locks the thing up. My best guess is that I'm somehow changing the period of the clock signal?

But dilemas like this are half the fun, there is something alchemical, black magical, about it all, where you're just nudging a system beyond your control and seeing what it does. Also, the light display wigs out while all this is happening, resulting in non-standard configurations like this:

Though, man, this project in particular was really time consuming. It was hours finding the bends, then hours of soldering, and hours of drilling holes, mounting buttons and reconstructing the whole thing. Fun, but I don't think I'll do another one for a little while. Some day I''ll have to post a video to prove I didn't shiteaster this whole thing.

Pig Mask

Some random impulse compelled me to make this thing. I had this vague memory from a trip to Home Depot of this aisle of metal brackets that seemed like they might make an interesting mask. Contrary to the circuit bending, this was easier than I expected. I managed to find a satisfying configuration while just using bolts through the holes that were already in the parts, and that restriction was interesting to work within. Then I primed it and sprayed it down with this stone-texture stuff, with flecks of pink and black in it, giving it a pretty organic look, at least surface-wise. Here's a front view.

Its really a horrid object. I sort of like it, but I don't really want to display it anywhere in my house.

Homunculus Pumpkin
I also found a picture of the pumpkin I made last year, in its final days.

Speaking of which, fin for now.