16: teatro delle nozza di cana

Construction of a conical mirror anamorphosis by Fernandino Galli da Bibena. 1731.

The next steps of this project are twofold:
1. To submit a succinct thesis proposal that will guide my next four months of work.
2. To create a theatre for Homunculus.

This thesis is a design led investigation into the process of finding/making enchanted space. Enchantment is proposed as a means of describing an indeterminate and evolving state of interaction, where poetic meaning of the environment, contains the possibility for "complex, layered interpretation, even the kind of interpretation that surprises the person interpreting". It is this thrill and surprise, by which an artefact or environment is experienced, that becomes measure of the engagement with which we explore our surroundings.

My thesis takes point of departure from an analysis of the conceptualization of space and place in the grotesque, and from the work Hylozoic Soil by architect Phillip Beasley, 2007. A field of reference is also provided by Homunculus, a work I created for the Dedale studio “DeMonster Monster” project instructed by Patrick Harrop and installed in Hexagram’s Black box at Concordia University in November 2007.

Homunculus begins a discourse on puppets and other human simulacra. Even as conventional puppet shows retain timeless theatrical charm and unique architectural circumstance, the autonomous puppet moving without master carries a far stronger charge of the "uncanny". Within this world of the occult, pseudo sciences (such as alchemy) merged with developments in natural science to create within the grotto an illusory realm; it is this place that Homunculus calls home. Homunculus is a performer, a marionette suspended by string from a series of servo motors. The motors are controlled by a sync disc that has been created through a copper etching process. Homunculus has parallels in the story of Daedalus, who uses quicksilver to install a voice in his statues; and of Greek god Hephaestus who created the automata, Talos, an artificial man of bronze, for his workshop. The simulacrum has always traveled both a high road and a low road in human culture— "as highest form of worship and as lowest form of entertainment—but it is a peculiarity of Western culture of the last three hundred years that the two roads have joined into one that runs, as it were, underground" (Nelson, 60)

The theatre for Homunculus is a place of inhabitation and interaction, an "illusory realm" rooted in the grotesque. Like the grotto, the theatre recalls enchanted space-- a space that must be active and elastic. The theatre will reflect an architecture that controls our understanding of the performance. Creating this realm will be the focus of my next week of intensive work.

SOME DIRECTIONS:
The Brothers Quay have been highly successful in collapsing the relationship between figure and ground. The Cabinet of Jan Svankmajer and Anamorphosis reflect nightmarish environments that function as both agent and actor . Stylistic and spatial novelty-- achieved through differing scales, perspectives and gravities, evoke complex and meaningful relationships between creature and composition. The use of anamorphic perspective is of particular techtonic interest. Drawing in this way creates nonsensical forms and misleading diversions suggesting an illusory architecture.

15: drawings continued

14: drawings

The next few images are of drawings that begin to discuss the phenomenon of making space through motion and interaction. The movement of Homunculus blends an erie sequence of lurches, with graceful vertical motion. The drawings explore an interior and exterior condition that has become more apparent through analysis of the film footage. This relationship has definite architectural implications. I've been considering the marionettes and how they might transform in a grotesque structure. Something that blends the figures and the mechanism into something stranger. A Wunderkammer of sorts. John Hejduk got into the idea of developing architectural theatre through his masque projects. Architectural theatre, as seen in the works of the Brothers Quay, is interesting because of the uncanny, grotesque quality of the stage. And the intimate relationship of the "figures" to the "surround". The theatre is stage and environment, proposing multiple scales, gravities and perspectives for the inhabitants. Using theatre strategies, such as framing, staging and illusion, the mundane can morph into the monstrous.

13: exhibit performance

Images courtesy of Morgan Sutherland.

laurie simmons

Hylozoic Soil

Annette Messager

Marine Antony, a dancer and Fine Arts student at Concordia University, stopped by the Black Box to share some thoughts on my project. A few of the dancers were really interested in the idea of locating sensors on themselves and then translating their motion to the marionettes. Marine also brought some fascinating images by French artist Annette Messager. I saw Messager's work when I was at the Centre Pompidou in Paris over last summer. Her pieces are fascinating, grotesque, stuffed, moving, dramatic...I could go on. Messager was awarded the Lion d'Or at the Venice Biennale in 2005.

The 2007 Venice Biennale showcased some of Messager's work as well as a few other very interesting installations working with robotics and inflatable devices.

12: performance

Installing our work in the black box was really gratifying. The shuffling, spinning, dripping, typing, whirling, jerking and scraping of our grotesque monsters was magnified by the light, sound and video effect wizardry of the TML team. To paraphrase the words of Gregory Beck Rubin, " the projects we brought to Montreal are not the ones we see here tonight". The atmosphere of the black box changed the way we saw our own work and re-established in my mind the importance of light and sound in any environment. The monsters really began to take on a life of their own. The layers of complexity: light, sound, movement, and time created an enchanting space where exhibit-goer's could manipulate and interact with our strange creatures.

Of course, the highlight of Montreal experience for me was watching Homunculus perform. The dance of these puppet creatures confirmed proof of concept for my own work with sync discs. Fundamentally, the circuit worked, the motors ran, the propellers whirled (all except one) and the strings jostled the exo-skeletons around in space almost gracefully. The story was told. The creature's subtle, smaller movements, were just as mesmerizing-- and perhaps even more uncanny than the larger continuous gestures. The system worked. Reflecting on the performance has suggested a few compelling directions in which to begin questioning the tectonic substance and architectural ramifications of my work.

RHYTHM ANALYSIS & DIFFERENCE IN REPETITION:

Because the sync disc I used to control the motors was small in diameter (one revolution every 20 seconds) the dance of Homunculus was a simple continuous repetition over the course of the two hour exhibit. Essentially, over time the dance began to fold back in on itself, and as the motor batteries died, the pattern became less noticeable and the sporadic movements of the strings less determinate thus, unintentionally, ambiguity emerged in the performance. Hume wrote, "Repetition changes nothing in the object repeated but does change something in the mind which contemplates it." Gilles Deleuze proposed the notion that difference is introduced to a system through repetition. A discussion of his seminal work, Repetition and Difference will soon follow. Classical Greek and Roman architecture draws heavily on order and repetition. On repetition, architect, Bernard Tschumi hypothesizes that there is no architecture without repetition: "with its rows of windows, columns, bricks, steps etc. architecture inevitability is the art of repetition". More than any other art, architecture depends on the nearly endless accumulation of similar elements. "A need for commerce has created the repetition of stackable floors (skyskraper), a need for power resulting in the repetition of courtyards (Forbidden city, Beijing), a need for mass housing: repetition of units (Levittown) and the need for economic development creating the repetition of nearly identical cities world wide."

ENCHANTMENT AND THE STRUGGLE AGAINST GRAVITY:

Performance has always held an aura of enchantment. The audience, through the proscenium, witnesses the creative drama of the players and is suspended in an expression of delight. Similarly, technology-- automatons and the ghost in the machine, holds mystique. It is this thrill and surprise, by which an artefact or environment is experienced, that measures our engagement with a space and place. The technologically enabled dance of Homunculus, the light, sound and play of shadow created for and during the performance was offered as the object of enchantment, attracting exhibit-goer's to an inherently transformative performance which shifted in significance and understanding over the course of the exhibit. McCarthy, Wright, Wallace and Dearden explore the concept of enchantment as a means of creating criteria for interactive experience in Human-Computer Interaction. They postulate that, "enchantment engages with paradox and ambiguity, putting being into play in an open world. This contributes to creating depth in a system or object that allows it to contain within it the possibility for complex, layered interpretation even the kind of interpretation that surprises the person interpreting." 1 Enchantment becomes a means of describing an indeterminate and evolving state of interaction, where the meaning of the interactive object or environment remains exploratory and unpredictable. 2

Homunculus draws reference from the grotesque and approaches the conceptualizaton of space and place primarily through the motions of the marionette. Heinrich von Kliest's essay "On the Marionette Theatre" argues the relationship between dance and the movement of the puppets. His fictional character Herr C. argues of the puppet that "each movement... will have a center of gravity; it would suffice to direct this crucial point to the inside of the figure. The limbs that function as nothing more than a pendulum, swinging freely, will follow the movement in their own fashion without anyone's aid. He further stated that this movement was really quite simple; that each time the center of gravity was moved in a direct line, the limbs would start to describe a curve; and that often when simply shaken in an arbitrary manner, the whole figure assumed a kind of rhythmic movement that was identical to dance." The dance of the puppets and the loss of the proscenium is an instance of interaction which communicates the boundaries and depth of an interactive space--or an event space* to the audience.3

*The concept of event space is borrowed from the work of architect Mette Ramsgard Thomsen and choreographer Carol Brown, as defined in Sites of Flux: imagining space in the dance-architectures of The Changing Room and Sea Unsea. 2006 .

hexagram//tml//montreal 2007

02: Monday. Arrive at Concordia

At Concordia we were introduced to Sha Xin Wei and his crew of talented techies at the TML (Topological Media Lab).  The TML is a research arm of Hexagram " a media arts and technologies research/creation institute".  At their disposal the TML has the "black box" an approximately 25' high space with permanent lighting grid, control booth, a raised concrete floor, black damper panel clad walls and a giant projection screen wall.  The space is a dynamic environment for total media and sound work.  The TML crew brought new iMacs, high end digital video cameras, streaming spot cameras, microphones-- condenser mics, contact mics (which record vibrations), wireless mics, projectors, sound mixers and synthesizers, a lighting board, and all the software and hardware needed to make the black box into one large grotesque perturbation.  It was a pleasure getting to work with Harry, JS, Marie Josee, Morgan, Elliot, Flower and the rest of the crew over the week.

Image courtesy of Daniel MacGibbon.

03: Tuesday. Hexagram Tour

Floors 10 and 11 in the Engineering and Visual Arts building are devoted to Hexagram and the approximately 80 researchers (including graduate students) that are supported by the facilities.  Hexagram operates coordinately between the Université du Montréal, L'Université du Québec a Montréal (UQAM) and Concordia University.  Hexagram boasts state of the art sound, animation and film editing technology-- including suites for Avid, Final Cut, and Maya.  There are also rooms devoted to rapid prototyping equipment such as 3D printers and scanners.  The 3D printer uses a sugar-type solution to build objects-- the printer deposits the ink much like an ink jet printer.  The user has to have some familiarity with the proccess as the fragility of the objects varies with size. When completing especially small pieces the application of "ink" has to b controlled by physically re-orienting the piece as it is being printed to allow for the best results.  There were also large format fabric plotters, which allowed for printing on everything from silk to vinyl, high resolution large format paper plotters, and an amazing collection of looms and other weaving equipment including an automated Jacquard loom.  Hexagram also offers a metal machining shop, wood shop and studio space for installations and research.

The Jacquard loom, 3D printer, 3D scanner and  prototypes/molds produced by the 3D printing process.

Image(s) courtesy of Nick Bell.  Sound studio and editing suite complete with speakers and cube shaped mathematically designed acoustic tiles which decrease reverberation.  The corners also have fitted panels to reduce the base reverberation.

Mark Sussman, an assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre and a founder and co-artistic creator of Great Small Works, a theatre collective in NYC, stopped by the black box to discuss his work.  I was especially interested in Mark's lecture because his background is in puppetry, performance and the toy theatre.  Mark spoke about the importance of staging work, about notions of impression, spectacle and the unpredictable.  His talk re-asserted for me the importance of connection through narrative in my own work, and he highlighted for me that the thrill and surprise by which an artifact or environment is experienced becomes a measure of the engagement by which we explore our own surroundings. 

Mark also sent me Heinrich von Kleist's essay, " On the Marionnette Theatre" of which I have included a passage below:

In addition, he went on, these puppets possess the virtue of being immune to gravity's force. They know nothing of the inertia of matter, that quality which above all is diametrically opposed to the dance, because the force that lifts them into the air is greater than the one that binds them to the earth. What wouldn't our good G. give to be sixty pounds lighter, or to use a force of this weight to assist her with her entrechats and pirouettes? Like elves, the puppets need only to touch upon the ground, and the soaring of their limbs is newly animated through this momentary hesitation; we dancers need the ground to rest upon and recover from the exertion of the dance; a moment that is certainly no kind of dance in itself and with which nothing further can be done except to at least make it seem to not exist.

Soon I will post further thoughts on Mark's work and on its connections to enchantment, event space (an idea proposed by Mette Ramsgard Thomsen) , and my own theoretical postulations. For more information on Mark click here.

The crew with the TML gave a short show-and-tell about some of the software, namely, Max/Msp and Jitter which can be used to generate video effects in real time via a life camera feed.

04: Wednesday. Textiles and Interactive Fabrics

Today included a discussion and presentation by Barbara Layne who directs the Studio subTela team.  Their research at the Hexagram Institute involves the "development of hand-woven fabrics with embed microcomputers and sensors to create surfaces that are receptive and responsive to external stimuli.  Light emitting diodes are used to create a flexible message board.  Wireless transmission can change the patterns and texts from a distance.  Layne's demonstrated a series of electronically embedded garments including a dress with photosensors that reacts to light and a jacket embedded with an LED grid which allows for scrolling text and interactivity between wearers.

idea sketch

hoffmann: the turk tales

Excerpt from The Puppet Tractates:
Victoria Nelson. Secret Lives of Puppets. 2001.p 65

... Enthusiast of puppets and automatons (like Goethe, he had puppets, and even as an adult he would often bring them out for guests), composer, and supreme innovator, E.T.A. Hoffmann was also the bearer of what is, on the surface, a more immediately familiar notion of the human simulacrum-- that of the "soulless" automaton that falls far short of its human model. By virtue of his very fascination with puppets and mechanical androids that pass for human, however, Hoffmann kept alive the debate over the presence of souls in matter in the new intellectual environment of the nineteenth century. The entire worldview of Hoffmann's stories, for that matter-- with their alchemical manipulations, metal queens, and talking vegetables that marry humans--remains that of the old living cosmos, the nostalgic worldview of Romanticism that coexists in a certain tension with his views on the sinister imitation of the human by the puppet-machine and is reinforced by the fact that the automaton usually brings about the destruction of the human's hopes and sometimes the human himself...

11: trial BATCH 4 etching

Despite the poor quality of the transfers, I decided to run the 4"copper plates from trial: BATCH 4 through the etching bath to see the results because I need a better understanding of the overall process of crafting the discs from start to finish. Before etching, the paper remains were removed from the discs. This was completed in the warm soapy water bath with some fine steel wool and a little elbow grease. The ink was quite robust with good adhesion and the paper eventually pealed away.


trial: BATCH 2. You can see decent adhesion of the trace underneath the paper cover. The flip sides of these discs have inaccurate traces. Adhesion on both sides is a must in order for the sync disc to work properly.

After removing the residual paper, I took a sharpie marker (which acts as etch resist) and filled in the areas of the trace that didn't transfer properly. Once the transfer process is perfected the markup/infill will be minimal.


Prepping discs for etching. The different colors are interesting. The tree disc on the left had a white coloring while the star disc on the right was very much blue in nature. The same toner from the same copier was used on both.
I suspended the discs in the Ferric Chloride solution and monitored the process. I did not heat up the etchant but I did plug in the air pump which kept the liquid agitated.


Filling the tank.


Submersing the discs.

The discs were monitored and checked at key intervals throughout the process. From prior research on etching it figured that the overall etching time would probably be approximately 30 mins. This etch went from start to completion in 32 mins.


12 minutes submerged.


12 minutes submerged.


25 minutes submerged.


25 minutes submerged.

At 32 minutes the discs appeared to be finished and were pulled from the etch bath and placed in soapy warm water to be cleaned up.


The copper not covered in the etch resist is dissolved and reveals a yellowish colored epoxy substrate board and the trace patterns on both sides of the disc. The next steps will be to use alcohol and acetone to remove the transfer ink to reveal the copper traces.

10: new media. new headaches

I have been working all morning on the sync discs. Ironing the transfer paper to the copper boards and cutting, sanding the substrate. The entire transfer process (trial:BATCH 3) had oirr adhesion. The ink didn't transfer although I was using high temperature and tonnes of pressure--following the same recipe I used to complete trial:BATCH 2 successfully. During BATCH 2 I transfered side one to the disc using the same staples copy paper but using images that had just been printed approx.15 minutes before the transfer process. During BATCH 3 I did the printing days ahead of time and waited to transfer the traces later in the week. I think that was a mistake because I'm working with a Canon laser copier on glossy settings and it must be that over time the ink bond to the paper strengthens. Lesson learned.

UPDATE: Apparently, the biggest issue with the transfer application was not time but was, in fact, soap. During the soaking process the copper discs were submerged in hot soapy water to loosen the paper bond to the ink. Oily soapy residues prohibited the transfer process. I discovered this after re-doing the entire batch with fresh trace prints (trial: BATCH 4) only to have the transfer process fail for the second time.


trial: Batch 3 poor quality traces

TIP: Thanks to Darcy for suggesting that copper should be cleaned with soya sauce?! I'll try that next.

graphite sequencer

I can definitely see some similarities between my sync disc collection and this Graphite Sequencer by Caleb Copock:

From Make Make Magazine

"Graphite conducts electricity. Two wires brush against the surface of a paper disk as it spins. The wires are connected to a simple electronic tone generator. When a line of graphite is drawn across the disk, connecting two wires, a tone is heard. The quality of the line affects the sound. For example, if the line is thick, allowing more current to pass over it, the pitch changes to a lower tone."

the newest script

I just wanted to quickly post the newest image from the processing script Josh was working on. It's amazing. You can start to see its resemblance to the doodle I posted earlier in the blog. The goal was to use the scripts on my circuit boards but with deadlines approaching I'll have to wait and make do with what I've got. I'll be exploring the processing environment soon enough. Thanks again, Josh!

I also wanted to mention that last Friday I had a crit with visual and sound artist Ken Gregory. His work is really intense and his insight definitely helpful. I explained about the sync discs I'm working on and also showed him Roman Kirschner installation Roots. This led to a really interesting discussion on micro-welding and electrolysis and the possibility of making 3D circuit boards. Ken also suggested a few ways for me to get my toy motors under control and suggested friction fitting some interesting parts to the motor shafts.



Click on image for source

take 5 and focus

I’ve been busy creating the PCB sync discs and finally have 5 floating in a warm water bath to dissolve the staples copy paper so that they will be ready for etching this afternoon. It’s a bit like removing wine labels from glass bottles. I’ve peaked at the discs briefly and the traces are not adhering correctly. Right now I’m working on the mechanisms that will hold the disc and also the key that will rotate to complete the circuit and fire off the motor bank. I’m still debating how to control the DC toy motors but my studio peer Nick had a spare gearbox from a remote control car that should work nicely (image to follow). Now the key will spin slowly and the pattern of action of the motors will be more apparent. So… great, I have turning motors but the BIG question becomes; what will the motors actuate? I have two current ideas that I’m working on.

Puppet 1: I’d like to get the pony’s eyes to work again without the body. The head will be attached to a sync disc that will cause it to turn and blink intermittently. This puppet is a prime candidate for some microcontroller attention—i.e. I could use the Arduino board. I would love to attach temperature or IR sensors to the mechanism so that as people approach the puppet her head swivels towards the individual and the eyes blink.

Puppet 2: I’ve also laser cut lightweight paper marionettes that will be suspended from a motor bank. The marionettes will be controlled by a bank of servo motors which will be turned on and off randomly by the sync disc. These should be suspended at eye level in the gallery space.

The whole purpose of my investigation is to create areas of play that will engage an audience on some level. This preliminary research has been key to developing my thesis on interactive architectures and how we might be able to play with buildings rather than in them. I’m eager to see how these puppets take up space, how they move and react to each other and how an audience/participant responds to them. I’m attracted to the notion that these puppets will possess a life of their own, and in some highly rudimentary way exhibit “intelligence” with or without human interaction --almost as if they are going about their business and we walked in. Inevitably, these characters will inhabit their new homes while in Montreal in ways that I have yet to imagine.

09: designing switches

New Designs: Create with Adobe Illustrator

The above images are the newer sync disc designs. Since I'm not sure exactly how many motors I'll be running off these discs, I've made my traces "expandable". I had hoped to learn to write scripts to be able to generate traces for the switches. That will happen at a later date. Better to move one step at a time. I have been using Adobe Illustrator to draw the traces for my discs. I've been creating brushes and using the spiral tool which has produced some really interesting "organic" results. Much more organic than I originally had hoped. I've also been running a few "borrowed" scriptographer scripts and changing the brush patterns for those with decent results. However, I still need to go in and custom cut paths in order to keep the traces separate. I am bound and determined to be etching by tomorrow morning. The Montreal trip is looming largely in the distance...1 wk to go.

08: processing

After my preliminary idea sketch, Josh sent me this great bit of processing code which starts to execute some of the basic geometries I was looking for. I have to spend some time playing around with the script so that I can understand its parameters, but for now it seems pretty straight forward. The confusing bit is a big chunk of variables part way through the code which I think is truly the "meat" of the spiral form-- (unfortunately, my images aren't better). I also have another script which I'm planning on playing with and posting shortly.

07: scripting

Immediately after playing with scriptographer you can get a feel for how scripting can work to create dynamic evolving images. An analysis of Ernst Haeckel's work suggests that branching patterns and nesting patterns should work well for the traces. In the case of my sync discs I'm looking for geometric patterns with a "biological feel" that fit some stringent rules. In order for the traces to work on the boards they can't touch one another. I also need to be able to access each trace with a wire so that I can actually solder the switch to the system. I'm soliciting help from java pros to help me script, what I hope will be a fairly simple tool. A big shout out to Josh Cotten who I've already harassed to give me some advice. The curly cue below is a rough sketch example of how the script might appear graphically. The basic outline is such that:

1. I'd like to make spirals with tapering widths.
2. I'd like to draw one "parent" spiral and then have random spirals generated from that single one in tiny curly cues--sort of like branches in a tree script. Where no curly cues touch each other but they do taper.
3. When I execute the script I'd like to make sure that no "parent" script touches another "parent" script but that they almost nest really close together.

06: motion

Over the last few days I’ve been getting a few different aspects of this project up and running simultaneously. I’ve made minor progress towards the puppet “brain” and I’ve begun sketching out a few possibilities for the puppet “body”.


Demonstration of the sync disc that partially controls the motors. One node of the motor is connect to the switch and the other node is connected to a (+) power supply -- in this case I'm just using the power pack that came with the toy Pony. As the key revolves over the disc it completes the circuit and the motor fires. The motor stops when the key revolves past the patch and disconnects the circuit.


Simple circuit. A speaker has been added to the mix to amplify the sound of the motor. The speaker stops and starts in sync with the firing of the motor.

The Brain:
In order to give this puppet a story and create the uncanny illusion of “living unpredictability” I’ve started to fabricate my own sync discs. Each disc acts much like a sequencer turning motors connected to the “body” on and off. By etching my own circuit boards I can control how the electrical current moves throughout the board and therefore how the motors will react individually and to each other. The overall idea for the discs is that they begin to form a visual collection of behavior-- or drawings, which embodies behavior. The process for etching the discs requires that a trace pattern be applied to the double copper plated substrate. The copper plates are then placed in a Ferric Chloride copper etchant solution. The trace pattern must be drawn with a material that will resist the ferric chloride and preserve the copper underneath. This resist material can be something as simple as sharpie marker. However, I’m attempting to transfer the plastic micro-particles found in photocopy toner to the copper board. This is done through significant heat (an iron) and pressure. The transfer paper also makes a difference. In my first attempt I used regular copy paper and found the transfer to be awful. My next attempt will use Staples brand copy paper*. The trace patterns themselves are still in an experimental stage. I’m currently exploring the beautiful biological drawings of German biologist Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) as one avenue of inspiration. I’m also interested in the idea of using scripting as a means of generating related patterns. One approach is to explore scriptographer—a scripting plug-in for Adobe Illustrator. A drawing produced with a script that has been executed 10 times shares a similar geometry but looks entirely different that a script that has been executed 100 times. In this way, the discs would have a systematic relationship to each other but might function in very different ways.



Etching Tank: acrylic panels, silicone seams, suspended clips, air pump and airline tubing, wood base and metal supports.

The Body:
Using the existing mechanics of the Pony as a point of departure, I’ve begun to examine how I might begin to use gears and cam techniques to amplify or transform the rotary movements of the existing DC toy motors. The Pony’s eyes are particularly interesting. When she was intact she could blink her eyes and twist her head from side to side. I’ve taken a closer look at this mechanism and discovered it’s both ingenious and simple. Plastic components are perfect because they are lightweight, strong and completely customizable. So far my major challenge has been in controlling the motors (which revolve so quickly that they require a series of gears to transform the size and speed of rotation. Supporting the gears is tricky and has had required me to re-purpose much of the pony’s “chassis’. Also, I would love to be able to manufacture a few more eyeballs and sockets through a vacuum forming technique, but that will require the assistance of professionals. I’m hoping the crew at Winnipeg Patterns and Model Works will help me out. To date, I've simply cloaked the motors with a flexible skin to see what might happen as they stop and start.






Flexible skin covering the motors. The skin bulges and pulses as the spring attached to the motor makes contact.

hektor: spray can output device

This is an amazing project called Hektor. Hektor is a portable Spray-paint Output Device created by Uli Franke and Jürg Lehni in 2002. The device is contolled via a laptop computer running Adobe Illustrator and a programming language called Scriptographer.