December Randomness

Barracks expedition







Tried to help Shawn fix his Roland 505. Sadly it was to damaged to revive.


3 Amigas!

on an unrelated note....

Ive had this song in my head for the past week. Its by Boris Gardner, off of the Trojan Souful Reggae Box Set, and has the most oddly familiar melody and chord progression.

Yesterday I finally figured out why it sounded so familiar!!

How do people do mash ups/bootlegs?? I want to combine the two songs so badly!

December - Finishing the TV Robot

December started unnoticed as Tomislav and I were busy finishing Bud Spotch the TV Robot.

With 4 TVs installed (!!!!) we were actually allowing ourselves to think that we might be able to possibly just maybe pull this ridiculous project off.


A view from the back


More plexi/circuit glam shots



This is the control panel that Tomislav and I made. The TVs were manufactured with the normal type of controls, on/off, volume, input select, etc, but these controls were attached to a cumbersome PCB that took up way to much space and was impossible to work with. To solve this problem we decided we would have to wire up our own control panel for all the TVs. This is the bottom control panel for the lower 3 TVs before it got mounted.


While anything with a bunch of knobs and switches instantly catches my attention, I think these are pretty sweet looking control panels.


5 TVs done!!!!!


In the late hours of the night Evan and Joe stop by and hang out in the fury of our productivity. You can tell Evans laptop is so jealous of Bud Spotch


Joe and 5/6ths of Bud Spotch's face make introductions


6 TV's!!!!!! (and 6 more for emphasis after working for 2 days straight on this-->!!!!!!)


Here is a side view of the bottom to give you an idea of the insane rats nest of wires and circuits we dealt with


The other side with mounted control panel.



Oh holy WOW we did it!!!!!!!@#$!%!!!&!*!!(!)!



To summarize
We installed 6, 3.5 inch, B&W, TVs, we got for free from Hasan Elahi, vertically, in space where only 4 should fit, in a completely hand made metal and plexi case, with entirely rewired controls, inputs, and power chords, that is attached to a metal stand on which a body of a mannequin rests, on which we will put a suit and call it Bud Spotch.

In case you need a recap:



The next big steps were wiring up custom video input and power chords. We didnt make custom wires just because we had some time between 4am and 11am but because these TVs use an 1/8th inch jack (like on your headphones) to receive modulated video signal. So we used a fat stack of VCRs to modulate signals and some very professional looking alligator clips to get these wires together as fast as we could.


The power chords were made by cutting up a 100ft extension chord, electrical outlet pieces from Home Depot, and a bunch of duct tape.


Next was the big moment: turning it on. With several cameras and extinguishers ready for any electrical fires Tom bravely switched on the TVs.

AND IT WORKED!


Some Indiana Jones testing


After a round of high fives and cautious placing aside of fire extinguishers we turned it off, took it apart, and installed it in Mason Gross for Tomislav's class the next day.

Of course 1 minute after I took this photo the top middle TV flamed up and burnt out. Luckily no other TVs were hurt. Sadly, we didnt catch this on video and still have to repair it.


Despite that minor fire, it looks pretty great


Speakers were attached to the frame with power of magnetism


Ive come to realize with 'new media art' a lot, if not ALL, focus goes into making 'the system' for the delivery of mediated content and content is dealt with last. This project was no exception given incredible amount of work required to build the beast and quick deadline hanging over our heads. Luckily Evan Damerow saved the day and set up and shot the videos with Tom. The horse head images stem from these photos that Tom made that deal with the greater mythology surrounding Bud Spotch and the British Anti-Mafia.


The power strips lining the wall worked really well for us as we needed 12 outlets.


It feels a little strange summarizing in two posts something that took over 3 months, but so it goes. More December endeavors after I sleep.