Human Conductivity

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Blog entry by Ambrea Kuhn, The Leonardo's Intern

Lately we have seen a lot of artistic endeavors involving interactions between humans and electronic circuitry. My favorite example involves using bodies to complete the circuits. Bare Conductive is a conductive paint that turns your skin into a conductive surface, allowing electricity to safely travel across your body. "Music Box" is a musical dance piece where the dancer interacts with walls to create sound as she dances.

In another instance, musical artist Calvin Harris created a human synthesizer using Bare Conductive paint. The synthesizer creates a programmed sound each time Calvin slaps the hands of the models.

The bright folks at the MIT Media Lab have created a multitude of interfaces for low-level human conductivity, and Leah Buechley created one of our favorites, "The Living Wall Project". The user controls lights and music by just touching certain sectors in the wall.

(Jump to 4:55 to see the "The Living Wall Project")

Another research group at the Media Lab has also experimented with Drawdio, which omits a tone that varies in frequency dependent on what is completing the circuit and how far the electricity is traveling.

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Labels: DIY, science, technology

Shrinking a quarter

Thursday, August 20, 2009

It needs to be said: this entry is most certainly, certifiably in the "do not try this at home" category. Please don't.

But please do drool over electromagnetic forming with me. There are folks out there with the gear, the time and the wherewithal to shrink coins. As for motive, what's better than "because I can"?

Hackerbot Labs in south Seattle (sample mottos: "Like prom night, for your warranty" and "Trespassers will be used for scientific experimentation") and Intellectual Venture Labs posted a couple of video gems on the coin shrinking process.

Coin Shrinking from Jeremy Ruhland on Vimeo.

A massive electrical current creates a magnetic current in the coil, which creates an opposing magnetic field in the coin. The two fields cause the coin's material to contract and compact -- no volume or weight is lost, but the coin is smaller in diameter and thicker.

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Labels: DIY, science, technology

Bonneville Speed Week

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Bonneville Speed Week -- a collection of the craziest, fastest, most surreal races in the state -- starts this weekend. You've seen the Salt Flats in movies and photo shoots, but this lunar world takes on an entirely different milieu when covered with hundreds of DIY dragsters, a bevy of multi-colored umbrellas and the friendly faces of Speed Week's followers.

The Salt Flats are home to several land speed records, made possible by Utah's high desert altitude, and the extremely flat surface that is inhospitable to plant life and other barriers to a racer's ultimate goal. The Salt Flats are no secret (memorialized by an article in The New York Times here, a star turn in "The World's Fastest Indian," and regular features and photos in regional news media), but that makes them no less fascinating.

One of the best things about Speed Week is the DIY culture among racers. The majority of enthusiasts work solo or in small groups to perfect their home-grown cars, dragsters, motorcycles and other vehicles. Trial and error, a dauntless enthusiasm for the Flats, and near-obsessive tendencies combine for one amazing weekend of race after race.

This video from the 2007 races gets really good around the 2:00 mark (it's not ours, so please pardon anything strange -- like, say, the intro song lyrics). It gives a true sense of the DIY culture and life-long ambitions of racers to participate in Speed Week.

But this is the one that held me captivated at my desk -- a handlebars-eye-view of a motorcycle hitting 229 mph on a five-mile course. Once it gets going, you can watch the miles fly by and see the spectators distantly to the left of the course. And be sure to listen to the accompanying audio for the whine of the gears as the drive accelerates through the course.

So if you head out this weekend, be sure to strike up a conversation or five with the racers -- it's been my experience that they'll gladly geek out with you about their projects. You might even pick up a few tricks for the drive back to civilization. Just don't forget your sunblock.

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Labels: DIY, locals, technology, video

Chalkbot

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Adding to the list of gadgets that you never knew you needed in life is this Chalkbot, a machine that "prints" road chalk messages for the Livestrong Foundation and Nike.

It's making the rounds of France during the year's biggest bike race -- check out the photo gallery. The content of the uniformly heart-warming messages show a deep concern for cancer victims and survivors. Beyond that, though, the mechanics of this thing are pretty cool.

Aside from the canisters of chalk and the hydraulic release system, it looks like there's a pretty beefy internal tech system. It would be interesting to see whether the text messages are translated directly to the road chalk or if they go through a human screener first.

The Leonardo experimented with SMS art during BODY WORLDS when Brooklyn-based artist Paul Notzold created "The Only Certainty: Death and TXTs," a flash skeleton projection that changed positions and thought bubbles based on text messages from visitors.

The Only Certainty, Death and TXT's from paul notzold on Vimeo.

Creating art with a technology that visitors use every day made participatory art possible, interesting and inventive in the museum's main lobby during the months that BODY WORLDS was in town. It's great to see how SMS art is branching out to new applications...and I'd love to try a version of the Chalkbot in Salt Lake someday.

Labels: DIY, technology, video

AIGA at the Utah Arts Festival

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

We had a great time at the Utah Arts Festival this past weekend. It was great to see old friends of The Leo and meet new ones. If you happened to catch a performance from one of our partners, if you made a star box, or if you just perused the origami wall -- thanks for stopping by!

Visitor after visitor came into our space toting messenger bags with just the right hint of DIY flavor. On forays into the festival at large for food, fresh air and entertainment, I made it a point to track down the source of the bags -- the AIGA "Re:Design" booth on Washington Square.

Check out those bags! That shiny material is vinyl from local, reclaimed billboards. Refashioning the vinyl into messenger bags keeps the vinyl out of a landfill, uses up local "trash," provides a great chance to make something useable and hip, and gives visitors a wearable piece of art.